See Jane Die by Jane Spindler

 

I've been reading SEE JANE DIE on the DL for several weeks. I usually like to read my books really quickly but sometimes I like to keep one or two on hand to read in pieces (usually before bed). SEE JANE DIE was in a box of random books I got from someone and even though Erica Spindler was an author I'd heard of before, I'd never actually read any of her work until I got that box. She's actually a really cool author. She writes mostly mysteries these days, but back in the day, she wrote romance novels and big, potboiler epics like Jackie Collins. I've read the potboilers and they're really fun. I have one of her romances on hand and plan to read that very soon, too.

This is my first mystery from Spindler and I thought it was good. It's about the Killian sisters, Jane and Stacy. When Jane was a teen, she was horribly disfigured in a hit and run boating accident. Stacy dared her to swim that day that she got injured in the water, so she blamed herself. So did her parents, who cut her out of the will. Now Jane is a rich heiress and a famous artist who does gritty, avant-garde sculptures and videos that are basically a scathing criticism of the beauty industry. And Stacy is a hard-boiled cop, determined to soothe that burning guilt.

When women start dying, it seems like another random instance of the world being messed-up. But then Jane starts receiving sinister notes and it surfaces that most of the women being killed were clients of her plastic surgeon husband, Ian. Jane starts wondering if her husband only married her for her money. If maybe he was the man who hit her with the boat when she was young and ruined her normal adolescent life. Stacy struggles with her feelings of guilt, envy, and inadequacy as she struggles to resolve the case without letting any of her old feelings bubble up, because not only is Ian the suspect, she also dated him briefly before he met Jane. There's just SO MUCH DRAMA.

I liked this book a lot but I skimmed about 100 pages of it because it was really too long. This mystery is almost 500 pages and it really didn't need to be. There were too many scenes of the characters running around and some of those could have been cut. On the other hand, points for actually surprising me regarding who the bad guy was. There was also a pretty good sex scene in here, and I liked the dynamic between the two sisters. This definitely falls into the niche known as "airplane books" or "brain candy" but there's nothing wrong with that. If you're looking for something intense and fun, this ticks all the boxes. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars