R E K. (bigstone) - , reviewed Blessed are the Dead (Gabriella Giovanni, Bk 1) on + 1438 more book reviews
It's fun to read an author who creates a character that provokes real emotions from a reader like me. Belcamino wrote this debut novel using her experiences while working as a newspaper reporter where she covered a serial murderer. The protagonist is Gabriella Giovanni who is assigned to a missing persons case in which a child has vanished. For her, it is personal because her sister disappeared at a similar young age and it brings back those chaotic memories and the hurt attached to her sisterâs loss.
Gabriella loves her job as a crime reporter for a Bay Area newspaper. She devotes every minute it takes to research, interview and write her stories. At the same time she is coping with an editor who doesn't like her and an ambitious young woman rival who will sneakily do whatever she can to discredit Gabriella and her work.
The naïve Gabriella interviews a serial killer named Jack Dean Johnson. He gives pieces of morbid details so that she begins to think he may have kidnapped her sister. Yes, he tells her, he's killed many times both women and children. Yet Gabriella needs to learn if he kidnapped the current missing child. During her research, she meets Donavon, a hard nosed detective who may or may not be able to help. Often, too, she is haunted by dreams and flashbacks of her sister's funeral and grief. Determined to find the truth, Gbriella becomes careless, taking dangerous chances in her encounters with the killer.
This is a well written mystery by a talented young writer whose news writing experience shows. Gabriella is almost too emotional at times but one cannot help but empathize with her situation. Donavon and other characters add much to the story. The book was nominated for a Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel and an Anthony Award for Best First Novel. It's hard to believe that this is the author's debut novel it's so well done.
Gabriella loves her job as a crime reporter for a Bay Area newspaper. She devotes every minute it takes to research, interview and write her stories. At the same time she is coping with an editor who doesn't like her and an ambitious young woman rival who will sneakily do whatever she can to discredit Gabriella and her work.
The naïve Gabriella interviews a serial killer named Jack Dean Johnson. He gives pieces of morbid details so that she begins to think he may have kidnapped her sister. Yes, he tells her, he's killed many times both women and children. Yet Gabriella needs to learn if he kidnapped the current missing child. During her research, she meets Donavon, a hard nosed detective who may or may not be able to help. Often, too, she is haunted by dreams and flashbacks of her sister's funeral and grief. Determined to find the truth, Gbriella becomes careless, taking dangerous chances in her encounters with the killer.
This is a well written mystery by a talented young writer whose news writing experience shows. Gabriella is almost too emotional at times but one cannot help but empathize with her situation. Donavon and other characters add much to the story. The book was nominated for a Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel and an Anthony Award for Best First Novel. It's hard to believe that this is the author's debut novel it's so well done.
