Wrong Alibi

Wrong Alibi by Christina Dodd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to the publisher, HQN Books, for providing me with an ARC of Wrong Alibi in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist

It was news to me that between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day there are only 6 days. That meant I almost missed my deadline of writing the review of Wrong Alibi.

In all seriousness, I have always struggled with the days between Christmas and New Years, thinking there are weeks, not days, between those two holidays.

Needless to say, my organization got a little chaotic and I ended up reading most of Wrong Alibi in one day.

No complaint on my part, since I really enjoyed the story.

The Details

Although I read most of the story in one day, I started it days earlier and my first impression told that this was going to be a good one.

What I noticed right away was the author’s primary focus on the characters and less so on the setting. Yet, the location of the story speaks volumes for itself.

There wasn’t much time spent on describing the vast wilderness, or poetic descriptions of the Alaska landscape. There was just enough to get the point across on where the characters are supposed to be.

The characters, main or secondary, are as vivid as one can only hope them to be. They became live-like as I got more and more invested in the story. When I took a short break from reading, I felt I had to go back to see how they were doing. That’s how attached I had gotten.

The protagonist is far from perfect. And a few times I found myself cringing as I witnessed her decisions become actions. But this made her all the more real. She became relatable and I sympathized with her.

She makes mistakes, but her intentions are honest.

The plot is straight forward with a few good twists that kept me hooked until the very end. And still leaves me wondering what happened to the characters I got to know so well over the last day.

The writing made this story what it is. It is a quick, entertaining, engaging and even heartfelt story that is difficult to put down.

I appreciated the author’s skill of keeping the story on track. And not getting lost in meaningless red herrings, descriptions of the sky or unnecessary and ridiculous female empowerment anecdotes.

The Verdict

Overall, I would not have been able to read the majority of this book in one day, if it had been anything less than as engaging as it was.

I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a mystery/thriller/suspense story.

About the Author

Christina Dodd New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd writes “edge-of-the-seat suspense” (Iris Johansen) with “brilliantly etched characters, polished writing, and unexpected flashes of sharp humor that are pure Dodd” (ALA Booklist). Her fifty-eight books have been called “scary, sexy, and smartly written” by Booklist and, much to her mother’s delight, Dodd was once a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle.