Deathscape

Dana Marton

Self-Published
Publication Date: Nov 1, 2012
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Purchased

After a near-death experience, artist Ashley Price is compelled to paint visions of the dead, and fears she’s gone crazy. Then she paints a man buried alive and, recognizing the surroundings, she rushes to save him.

Instead of being grateful to her for rescuing him, Detective Jack Sullivan accuses her of being in league with a serial killer. He swears he will put her behind bars. Except, the more time he spends with her, the more he falls under her spell. Can he trust her, or is he walking into another deadly trap?

After two rounds of sickness in my household, I’ve now managed to get sick myself. Because I’m the whiniest sick person I know, I decided that losing myself in a book was the best way to get through this nasty stomach bug without my hubs and daughter running to the nearest hotel in fear. None of my Netgalley books appealed to me, nor any of the books sitting on my GR to-read list (some having been there for ages), so I spent a little time on Amazon looking for something new. I stumbled on this little gem which had good reviews on both Amazon AND GR, and it was only $.99. SCORE!

Deathscape surprised me. It was a short read, it only took me a few hours to get through, but those few hours were well spent. The book is told from three POV’s: the hero’s, the heroine’s and the villain’s. The first chapter actually opens in the villain’s POV, which I thought was quite clever. It was a fairly simple plot, but because of Marton’s choice of POV in the beginning, I was hooked from the first page. I had to know who the villain was and why he was chasing Jack. And when Jack and Ashley met, the chemistry between the two smoldered, and I needed to know if they could ever find their HEA.

My favorite part of the book was that Marton kept me guessing throughout. There were several characters that could have been the villain. She’d drop little clues and hints, and I’d convince myself it was the _________ <insert character profession here, I.E. the mailman, the handyman, etc.>, and then Jack would find new evidence and my prior resolve would crumble to dust. I loved the guessing and the internal arguments I had with myself as I raced with Jack to find the killer.

I enjoyed both Jack and Ashley’s character. They probably won’t be making any of my Top 10 lists for the year, but they were a perfect fit for the story. Both were wounded and damaged, looking for the one thing that could make them whole. Jack was obsessed with his revenge, and Ashley was unable to let go of her guilt. I loved Jack’s statement at the end of the book:

“I thought Blackwell was important.” He drew a long breath, held her tighter. “Then I saw you go under with him as I was tearing down the road. It put things into perspective.”

Sigh. Despite their rocky beginning and the emotional chains they’d ensnared themselves in, Ashley and Jack managed to find their way.

I’ve read some pretty shady self-pub books in my day, but Deathscape was definitely top tier. There was no awkward dialogue, no weird allusions or descriptions, and both the suspense and romantic plot arc was believable. Here’s another sample of Marton’s great writing:

Tomorrow, said the voice of fear in her head.
It always said, tomorrow, whether it talked about going to the grocery store or starting a new painting. Tomorrow you’ll be brave, fear whispered. Tomorrow you’ll be normal. Just give me today.
That was how fear stole whole lives away.

Marton has made a new fan out of me. I may or may not be making more purchases on Amazon later today…