A Thin Film of Lies Book Description:
The story tells of a homicide detective, Fran Anders, whose next case throws her into the lives of Mike and Alisa Jepson, a couple whose marriage is disintegrating fast. When leads coming into the precinct point at Mike Jepson as guilty of murder, Fran watches the damage wrought on this couple, yet is unable to ignore the incriminating evidence. When Mike ends up arrested and in jail, Alisa takes comfort in a friend—Dee Dee—who moves in with her but soon becomes her worst nightmare. Mike hires a PI who uncovers clues to who is setting Mike up, but Alisa is caught in a trap before Mike can protect her. Although Fran reaches out to Alisa during her crisis of faith, she is unable to stop events from barreling toward a crash. Yet, despite the tragedies to follow, Fran sees how God has used the Jepsons’ trials and pain to bring Alisa back into His arms, with hope that Mike might follow suit.
Fran is a dedicated, no-frills cop who takes her job seriously but with a wry sense of humor. She suffers from the unbearable heat, from unrelenting allergies, but does not suffer fools. As much as she wants to please her superiors, she knows her true boss is—God—and she answers first and foremost to his leading, which sometimes takes her beyond the call of duty, often to the ire of those around her. A middle-aged, divorced, single parent with two teens, Fran hopes someday to find a great man and remarry, but she’s not holding her breath. Right now, she just wants to be a good cop and mother, and use her faith to help those she encounters in her line of work learn there’s someone “up there” who truly cares for them.
About the Author:
C. S. Lakin is a novelist and professional copyeditor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first four books in her seven-book fantasy series, The Gates of Heaven, have been released (AMG/Living Ink Publishers) and she is also the author of 5 novels of pyschological suspense and YA sci-fi. Read more…
You can connect with C. S. Lakin on her website and/or on twitter.
Book Details:
- Kindle Book File Size: 511 KB
- Print Length: 317 pages
- Publisher: Helping Hands Press (July 14, 2012)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B008LOR6AO
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- X-Ray: Not Enabled
- Lending: Enabled
- Retail Price: $4.99
My Thoughts:
Susanne does not shy away from gritty characters or intense topics in this suspense, crime novel. Instead, she dives right into the minds and actions of all of the characters in the book. For this reason, some readers are not going to care for the book. It deals with difficult topics such as adultery, lust, murder, deceit, lies all while staying with the theme that faith in God can get you through even the most difficult of situations. The book twists and turns to the point that you really don’t know what is going to happen until right before the end. Readers will have glimpses here and there that all may not be exactly as it seems, and clues about what may have happened are woven into the story line.
The story is well developed, but it is not pretty. The characters (even the Christian characters such as detective Fran Anders) do not have easy lives. Fran’s faith in God is repeatedly tested. Mike and Alisa Jepson’s marriage is seriously tested. Mike struggles with infidelity and unfaithful thoughts/feelings. Alisa wrestles with past church experiences that left her with a strong dislike of the church and religion. When Mike is accused of murder, things get even more sticky for the individuals involved. The twisted minds of the other characters in the story unfolds before the readers eyes as the story progresses. It is not your typical cut and dried murder mystery, nor is it a typical “feel-good” Christian suspense novel. No, this book is meant to make readers really think about the devious consequences of sin in ourselves and the world around us.
To be fair, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy the book when I first started reading as it felt a little disjointed, but I soon found there was a reason behind the way the book was written. Once I understood what was taking place, I was able to really get into the style of the book. (Readers go back and forth between the photographer’s thoughts and the story itself.) The one issue that I ran into that made reading the book a bit difficult was the formatting was off on my Kindle edition. Some pages contained several different fonts and styles which I’m sure was not the author’s intent.
Even with the formatting issues on my edition, I enjoyed the book. It is definitely not something that I would give to my daughter to read due to the adult subject matter in the book. It’s a “real world” type of book that addresses some serious relational topics, so readers will want to keep this in mind when deciding if they want to read this book.
