Flawless (New York Confidential, #1)

by Heather Graham

[kimbacaffeinate]

FLAWLESS by Heather Graham is the first in the New York Confidential series. This is a contemporary romance set in Manhatten in the Irish community. The tale narrated by Saskia Maarleveld offered suspense, a loud Irish family, and a copy-cat crime.

FLAWLESS was an interesting listen. We spend a significant amount of time at Finnegan's an Irish-American pub owned by the Finnegan family. Kieran Finnegan works at the family pub when she isn't working as a criminal psychologist. Declan the oldest runs the bar, Kevin works there but is also an acting career and Danny is a local tour guide. Julie is a family friend and also works at the bar. When Kieran's sibling Danny, decides to steal a flawless gemstone as a prank, Kieran finds herself in the position of un-stealing it. Unfortunately, she ends up in the middle of an actual heist. FBI agent Craig Fraiser is brought in to investigate. There are plenty of secondary characters like Bobby, a recovering alcoholic who spends time at the bar and is loved by all and Fraiser's partner Mike. I loved all of their interaction and felt they made the story memorable.

The mystery and suspense were interesting. We have a string of jewelry robberies by three people in hoodies and a series of identical robberies that also involve murder. Craig Fraiser believes these are copycats, but when the first group is captured, the city feels they have their killers. Graham did an excellent job with the mystery and added suspense when Kieran finds herself in danger.

We have a light romance develop between Kieran and Craig, but Craig feels Kieran is hiding something. Kieran made me a tad crazy. She withholds things to protect her family, which I understand, but then she keeps things that anyone with a brain would know Craig would discover for himself. I get annoyed when an educated woman acts this way. I have a tough time believing as a psychologist she wouldn't have had more sense..but perhaps she was overthinking it and panicked. I will let you draw your own conclusions. I really enjoyed FBI agent Craig Fraiser and forgave him for getting involved with a witness. He is honorable, an old school detective and his treatment and interactions with everyone made me respect him.

Now, Saskia Maarleveld narrates, and she does an excellent job, but FLAWLESS was a tad awkward as an audio listen. When I attended an Audio tea at BEA in Chicago, John Scalzi talked about how audiobooks made him change the way he writes. I totally get it now! Graham has a lot of dialogue between the characters, and I have always read her books.  The dialogue has a lot of "he said" "she said" to indicate who has spoken. When I read my mind must simply skim this repetitiveness because it never bothered me, but on audio...there were times where it drove me mad.

While not perfect, I enjoyed FLAWLESS, and look forward to A PERFECT OBSESSION. Kieran and Craig will be partnered again, and now that all the secrets are out in the open, I am anxious to see them work a case.

This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer