Book Review: Never Smile at Strangers

Never Smile at Strangers by Jennifer Minar-Jaynes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It pulled me in right from the very beginning, and I read it start to finish in just three sittings. I didn't want to put it down.

I liked how the author only used the pronoun when describing the killer and yet was able to fully develop the character throughout the story. I found him to be very creepy and felt sorry for him as I learned more and more about his childhood as I moved throughout the story.

Taking place during the summer in a small Louisiana town, I could feel the heat seeping from these pages. It wasn't at all difficult to picture this little town and the difficulties the main character, Haley, was encountering. I enjoyed watching her progression and how she choose to deal with everything going on.

There was definitely some predictability in this story, but I still enjoyed taking the journey the author was describing. There was quite a bit of misdirection, and it was fun getting to the end to see which way the author was going to go.

I might have ended the book a little differently - had I been the author. I'm not sure I really like who ended up being the killer. There were still some questions left at the end of the book, but I think that's a good thing. I feel it was nicely tied up at the end, with just enough left unanswered.

There does tend to be a bit of bad language from some of the characters and there is a little sexual activity, so if that bothers you, you may not want to add this to your shelf. If that doesn't bother you, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick suspense/thriller to read. It flowed well, the characters were well developed, and there weren't very many typos.
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