abgayle

If you want to get a synopsis of what happens in a book, don't read my reviews. Synopsis writing has to be one of my least favorite occupations.I will tell you what I liked and didn't like about them though.First up. A.M.Riley's books all are non-predictable. In other words, whether writing a whodunnit or a contemporary romance you can't predict the ending after just a few pages.Her characters have flaws and sometimes those flaws are still there at the end of the book.Roger will always be meticulous and fussy and Sean will probably always swear too much and chew his fingernails.She doesn't have "and now they ride off in the sunset together" endings, However you do learn enough about her characters and see there are ways they can accommodate their differences, which is really what life is all about.The hot sex is there but not the be all and end all. The characters' motivations and conflicts in personality and actions are what drives the story.This book had one of the best openings I've read for a while:"There is a place for everything, Detective Roger Corso believed. And even though, in the chaotic and often grotesquely messy world of Los Angeles homicide, things could be misplaced or badly placed, still there were certain places where certain things most certainly never, and without exception, ever belonged.A mummified corpse did not belong stretched across his living room couch.", [AM Riley, The Elegant Corpse:]You do have to think with most of her books. Everything is not cut up and served to you on the plate. You may also be reaching for the dictionary a couple of times when you read. She does not "write down" to her readers, you are lifted to her level which is a high one.I thoroughly recommend reading her stories.