Author Sandra Brown

Author Sandra Brown

I’m on the fence about her books. Most of the stories I’ve read from her come under the thriller genre. I’ve read some that I didn’t care for, even found the writing sloppy, and some that I enjoyed. Mean Streak did well in sales. About a woman attacked on a running trail and unsure whether to trust the man who finds her or her husband when it becomes clear someone wants her dead, I thought the first so-called twist was an insult to the intelligence and the second very clichéd.

The Silken Web, an earlier work, was a romance with the typical plot—boy meets girl, conflicts threaten the relationship, happy ending—but well written despite silly conflicts and choices the characters faced to create the conflicts. Best Kept Secrets is an older work, perhaps one of the first and before she honed her craft. The characters were caricatures, the plot disappointing.

Breath of Scandal kept my attention throughout and had engaging characters. The main villain was somewhat stereotypical, but his henchmen were interesting. The only peeve I had was that the female protagonist returned as a successful businesswoman to the town where she grew up and was raped by several high-school boys. The idea that she could come back unnoticed to set up her revenge was silly. Too many people knew about the incident for it to be a mere breath of scandal. The misfortunes that fate handed out to the rapists were too many to be believable. The first death was a complete surprise to me but made the second a foregone conclusion, though the method of that death surprised me. All in all, one of the better books of hers I’ve read.

Hello, Darkness gives an interesting glimpse into the running of a radio station. Full of suspense, someone stalks the nighttime radio personality, a woman emotionally hiding from her past. A lot of red herrings—some manipulated, I thought, by having characters go against the type portrayed in a way the reader couldn’t possibly guess. In the thriller genre, there should be hints of possible conflicts in a character that allow the reader to speculate on his or her involvement as the antagonist.

A prolific writer, I want to read a few more of Sandra Brown’s most recent novels to see the growth of her skills. If anyone has read any they want to recommend, I’d appreciate the titles.