Series: Murder in Alaska, Book 1
Publisher: HQN
Genre: Suspense
EBook Source: Publisher
Audiobook Source: Purchased by Reviewer
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Christina Dodd Reading Order
WRONG JOB
Eighteen-year-old Evelyn Jones lands a job in small-town Alaska, working for a man in his isolated mountain home. But her bright hopes for the future are shattered when Donald White disappears, leaving her to face charges of theft, embezzlement—and a brutal double murder. Her protestations of innocence count for nothing. Convicted, she faces life in prison…until fate sends her on the run.
WRONG NAME
Evie's escape leaves her scarred and in hiding, isolated from her family, working under an alias at a wilderness camp. Bent on justice, intent on recovering her life, she searches for the killer who slaughters without remorse.
WRONG ALIBI
At last, the day comes. Donald White has returned. Evie emerges from hiding; the fugitive becomes the hunter. But in her mind, she hears the whisper of other forces at work. Now Evelyn must untangle the threads of evidence before she’s once again found with blood on her hands: the blood of her own family…
As a teenager, Evelyn Jones ran into trouble that landed her in juvie. At eighteen, she’s out and has a chance at making a future for herself. She has a job in Rockin, Alaska with a mysterious man who ends up disappearing and framing her for murder and embezzlement. Convicted for a horrible crime she didn’t commit, an accident frees Evie and sends her on the run. It’s been a decade and Evie’s isolation is about to end. Donald White, the murderer who set her up, has surfaced again and this time Evie is determined to be the hunter, not the hunted. Except someone else is on her tail, someone with vengeance on their mind.
Wrong Alibi is a twisty suspense with a heroine who is easy to root for. Evie has made bad mistakes in the past, yes, but the hand life deals her over and over again sucks and you want to see something good finally come her way. Author Christina Dodd makes her work for it. I have mixed feelings about this story. There are parts that drew me in, but it took a while to get there. I’m a longtime Dodd fan but this story lacked the pull her books usually have for me. It took me about a third of the way in for me to stop putting the book down for months at a time and it wasn’t until halfway through that the story picked up.
Evie is a survivor. She has strength and determination that is easy to admire. She’s haunted by the deaths of the mother and child Donald White killed. She also misses her mother and sister desperately but knows she cannot come out of the small fishing camp where she’s been hiding out for a decade. Until Donald resurfaces and threatens what she holds dear. Evie is determined to see Donald brought to justice, but it isn’t easy.
Zone Jameson is haunted by the death of his wife and son. He’s been isolated for the past decade but now he’s aware that the woman who murdered them – Evelyn Jones – is alive. He’s determined to get his revenge and is on Evie’s tail. What happens next I’ll leave readers to discover but it’s not very surprising.
The quest to bring Donald White to justice and clear Evie’s name is at the center of Wrong Alibi and it works fairly well. It takes a while for things to get going, which was a pity. Once it does, I was engaged. But there are other plot threads that appear at the end of the book and the number of points of view gets a bit crowded. At least one of the minor plots could have been eliminated because it strains credulity even for fiction. I don’t want to spoil the story by going into more detail. Suffice it to say that Wrong Alibi wasn’t quite my cup of tea. It’s slow in beginning, then speeds through character and relationship development in the end. There are a lot of things skipped that could have been built on to make the characters, overall story, and burgeoning romance feel stronger.
FTC Disclosure: I purchased the audiobook and received the EBook for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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