Saint's Gate - Carla Neggers

Saint's Gate  - Carla Neggers

While I do enjoy a good mystery, I tend to gravitate towards ones with private investigator protagonists, ones who had been either a former cop or other law enforcement who may or may not have left law enforcement under suspicious circumstances, or towards those who have another profession, notably nosy priests who probably should have gone for the badge over the collar, so picking up Saint's Gate, was due more to the blurb I read that gave its setting as coastal Maine.  Emma Sharpe, one of the main protagonists was also a former nun (well, almost a nun, she had not yet taken her final vows) turned FBI agent, sort of the reverse of my usual preference.

 

The book was not a disappointment.  I will say that it lagged in some spots and my critical editor's eye was begging for the author to do more 'showing' over 'telling', particularly having do in how a few of the characters were introduced and set up, but I was able to wade through it and discover the gem that was nearly hidden at some points.  The antagonist was well played. I suspected a few of the characters before the end, but I never suspected the character who turned out to be the murdering thief, yet as all the clues were uncovered through the book, it made sense and as someone who can usually spot the bad guy right off, regardless of the author's intent, I was more than pleasantly pleased I could not.

 

I even enjoyed the romance element that was brought into the book.  Saint's Gate was the first novel in Negger's Sharpe and Donovan series and I will admit to already adding the next one, Heron's Cove to my currently reading list.