Book Review: Before I Wake
November 10, 2006 by Laura | Trackback URI
Author: Dee Henderson
Publisher: Tyndale House Fiction
Title: Before I Wake
Genre: Fiction
Before I Wake is another good weekend read by Dee Henderson. The characters are people you’d like to meet, the story is engrossing, and while it doesn’t overtly preach the gospel, and while their faith largely goes unexamined, the Christian characters in the book are mature and admirable Christians. However, this book is not really on a par with the O’Malley series. It’s not as smooth in either the dialog or the storyline.
I’m not sure what the overall theme of the book might be - perhaps friendship, because the love triangle is subordinate to the friendship of the three characters involved in it. That’s aggravating in one sense because it is left unresolved, but also refreshing because life seldom includes such pat endings.
I rate this book a 2.5 out of 5. It’s a good weekend read. The mystery is well-paced, the characters are likeable, but at the end of the book you will not be satisfied with the ending because the romantic part of the plot is left unresolved. This may be the first of a series, where it is resolved in future books, but if so it would have been better to have an excerpt of the next book at the end. I hope Henderson revisits Justice in a future book, because I liked the characters so much that I’d like to give them another chance.
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Laura Curtis is a web developer and avid reader from New Orleans.
I love Dee Henderson’s work but found myself immensely disappointed in the ending of this book as it did not fully solve the crime. We knew who one of the three perpetrators were, a name of the other one but the third and most important one we never discovered who it was. Did I miss something? I was guessing all the way through the book who it might be and felt very disappointed at the end that it was not even resolved. Did anyone else see it this way?
I’ll have to re-read the book, I don’t remember! I’m currently re-reading her O’Malley series which I think is probably her best work. Some of it’s hastily written and there are some plot holes like the one you mention, but I love the characters so much it’s not a deal-breaker for me.