A simple domestic abuse case turns deadly when the alleged abuser is killed, and Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae's client disappears. When a friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes, the Maryland attorney is drawn into a complex case of murder and identity theft that has her running from the Mob, breaking into a strip club and forming a shaky alliance with an offbeat private investigator to discover the truth about Melanie and her ex-boyfriend.

The storyline was somewhat complicated but this was still a quick and easy read. I liked Sam and her feistiness. Although not that suspenseful, I enjoyed the book and would read another from this author. ( )

Fast Paced Action Suspense Murder Mystery

Really liked this one. Read it over two evenings and found it difficult to put down.

The fast pace kept it interesting and with a likeable lead character it was a joy to read.

My only quibble is the ludicrous names of some of the other characters which broke the ‘suspension of disbelief’ at times, at least for a Brit - maybe they are common names in the US

This is a bang on 4 stars - not a 3.5 rounded up and those stars are fully earned ( )

This was well written with a decent plot. The characters were promising but a little underdeveloped. The pace was good. Altogether an enjoyable light read. ( )

Although these posts aren't blogs as such, new FTC regulations suggest that I ought to disclose the [a:Debbi Mack|304849|Debbi Mack|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] graciously sent me a review copy of her recently re-published book. I was happy to get it because my "A Mystery for Every State" challenge to myself was inching up on Maryland, and I'd just about read all of Laura Lippman's Baltimore-based series and Barbara Michaels' books, many of which are set in rural Maryland.
[b:Identity Crisis|26085|Identity Crisis|Brad Meltzer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167783075s/26085.jpg|530148] is set primarily in Prince George's County. Since one of my news sources is a daily email of headlines from the Washington Post, I knew that Prince George's is a middle-class suburb of Washington, DC with a large African-American population. The impression I got from [b:Identity Crisis|26085|Identity Crisis|Brad Meltzer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167783075s/26085.jpg|530148] is that it's not a place I'd be interested in living in or even visiting. It's a place where people spend a lot of time in cars, part of the miles upon miles of suburbia punctuated by cities which is the "Bos-Wash Corridor." A lot of the places I've gone in this exercise in armchair travelling have been ones I'd like to visit in person; but the reality is that a lot of our population lives in places like that described by Ms. Mack, and that's useful to read about too. (And I'm sure there are compensations, nice people, etc.) Still, I wish Sam McRae (Mack's protagonist) would set up a practice in one of those towns Barbara Michaels writes about!
The title [b:Identity Crisis|26085|Identity Crisis|Brad Meltzer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167783075s/26085.jpg|530148] is a good one for this book. There's the crime of identity theft, which is part of the reason Sam is pulled into the case; the question of people assuming false identities; the discovery of relationships among some of the characters; and Sam's own struggles with her love affair, which affect her sense of her own identity. There doesn't seem to be a character in the book who is part of a close or even functioning family, and I'd call that an identity crisis too.
The plot, while at times confusing to me, was quite satisfactory. Without giving too much away, I can only say that the obvious bad guys are not the only ones in the story.
Although Sam McRae is an attorney, she functions more as a private investigator in this book, and takes on many of the characteristics of the classic private eye -- the loner personality, the incredibly rapid recovery from injury, and the tendency to keep information to herself; not to mention the poor nutrition! [Book: Identity Crisis] is a good first book, and I hope [a:Debbi Mack|304849|Debbi Mack|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] gets a chance to continue the series and grow the character of Sam McRae.
( )

I know this is fiction, but the story still needs to make sense. And, for me, this one stretched plausibility to the breaking point.

I don't like to give spoilers, so I'll keep my complaints in general terms. The main character is supposed to be an educated attorney, yet her behavior is irrational at best and outright ridiculous at worst. She finds clues that involve her own safety, yet doesn't report them. She is right in the middle of a dangerous situation, yet when badly hurt, not one person questions her as to what happened. And, of course, she doesn't report the assault. I found the entire plot, as well as the characters, impossible to believe.

The other problem for me is the lack of character development. The story is written in first person but I barely knew anything about the main character telling the story, much less any of the other characters. I felt absolutely no connection to any of them. This lack of connection amplified the implausibility of their behavior.

The only reason I'm giving this 2 stars, rather than 1, is because the writing itself flows well. ( )