*** 1/2 - I loved the original spin on the thriller. I've never seen one that dealt with identity theft and kids engaged in criminal hacking of the more mundane variety. What kept it from being stellar for me was the annoyance I felt for some of the characters.
Erica Spindler's Break Neck is the second story involving police officers and partners M.C. Riggio and Kitt Lundgren. Apparently in the first novel (Copy Cat), Kitt got too emotionally involved in the case, and it was up to M.C. to keep her out of trouble. In this one, the roles are reversed. A series of murders involving young adults uncovers a ring of computer geeks involved in identity theft and criminal hacking - and a professional killer known as Break Neck who is out to silence them all. As the trail leads closer and closer to M.C.'s own family, she becomes ever more personally involved in the case. Soon the question isn't so much whether M.C. will be able to track down the killer, but rather which of her relationships will be destroyed in the process.
There's a lot to like in this thriller - there's a great deal of tension; the suspense is really ratcheted up, but without the gore factor that so many police thrillers use to keep the audience spell-bound. That was definitely a point in its favor. I also really enjoyed the fact that it used identity theft and computer crime as its basis rather than the typical serial killer plot. Added to that was a real sense of inter-relationships and characters with histories and baggage. These women don't exist in a vacuum, and they don't just live for the job. Their careers affect their lovers, their families, their partnership in ways that are complex and difficult.
What diminished my enjoyment of the book was that I was just irritated with a few of the characters throughout the book. M.C.'s utter disregard for police procedure and evidence rules drove me batty. The rules are there for a reason - to actually let you put the guy away! You ignore the rules, you increase the chances that these guys stay on the streets. Plus her unilateral actions really jeopardized both her and her partner's career - considering that she was on the other side of this in just the last book, I would have expected her to be a little more sensible.
Most annoying, though, were the 'kids'. Though they were young adults, they didn't seem to be able to grasp anything beyond their own selfish wants - not even the fact that they were being stalked by a killer. Seriously, even when they were told there was a killer on the loose - and looking for them - they couldn't be bothered to stop being obstructionist, wasting time and going clubbing? It was extremely irritating, and made more so because it seemed like such a caricature of 'young people'. And being young myself, I was a bit insulted.
Despite my issues with some of the characters, I thought Spindler's pairing of Riggio and Lundgren was strong - they are different women with different drives and issues, and I really enjoyed the depth of the relationships shown in this story. I'm also seriously considering picking up Copy Cat, the first in this series although this one wasn't my cup of tea.
Recommended? If you're looking for a different sort of novel than the typical murder police-procedural, or if you like a crime novel with a little more depth to the relationships. But not if you're easily annoyed by characters.
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