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Heart Collector edition by Jacques Vandroux Wendeline A Hardenberg Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks

Download As PDF : Heart Collector edition by Jacques Vandroux Wendeline A Hardenberg Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks

Heart Collector edition by Jacques Vandroux Wendeline A Hardenberg Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks

A serial killer mystery set in Grenoble France, that
touches on many different topics.
A woman's body is found in a Church museum, with
all the doors locked, and the alarm set, we find out
differently later in the book.
The body has been cut open, the heart removed, and
the body sewn back up.
Proof of undeniable skill, as one Investigator states.
Enter Captain Nadia Barka, lead Investigator, for the
time being, she gets put on medical rest, after being
by a street gang, as the killer gets away.
Now meet Julien, a computer geek, and the one that has
visions/dream about dead people.
After the second body, the one where Captain Barka is
shot, is found, we get into......
Paranormal and Exorcists, Satanists and some BDSM.
Along with Aztecs and Mayans and a French Indiana
Jones, complete with fedora and bull whip.
Throw in some more street gangs, into drugs and gun
running, and lets not forget a possible 2nd serial killer.
And a scene where we have, A mass of red flesh to be
sampled later.
There are overt clues and some you may miss if you
are not careful.
I will not give away any more of the story line, you
will have to read it for yourself.


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Heart Collector edition by Jacques Vandroux Wendeline A Hardenberg Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews

There is much to like in this story, and I teetered between rating it 3 or 4 stars. In the end, I decided to go with three on the basis that while the story held my interest enough for me to finish it and all the loose ends were tied up at the end, the number of flaws was sufficiently high that I would not seek out another work by this author again.

On the positive side, the characters are engaging and given believable motivations for their actions. The setting of Grenoble, France is interesting and the author does a fair job of incorporating details to create atmosphere. The story moves along without unnecessary subplots--though as another reviewer mentioned, I thought it must be close to finishing when I was less than 2/3 of the way through. I almost started skimming, but then the pace picked up and excitement built toward a satisfying conclusion.

On the negative side, I found the following factors spoiled my enjoyment, and in some cases they became annoying.

* The story is told from multiple points of view, which is fine, but instead of being limited to one point of view per scene, the narration gives us information about what's going on inside different characters' heads from sentence to sentence. For example, when Nadia faces a group of criminals early on, we learn what all of them are thinking at once "...the crooks realized that the one who had fired at them was a woman. They shrugged--they weren't punk kids to be impressed so easily. But what they saw in Captain Barka's eyes paralyzed them." A skilled narrator can make this "head hopping" seamless, but in this story, the transitions were often jarring and I had to re-read parts to figure out whose thoughts were being examined.

* The main characters, Nadia and Julien, are 36 and 30 years old, respectively (though Nadia's age isn't revealed until pg 149). Nadia is a veteran police officer who has earned the rank of captain, and yet she's referred to in the text as "the young woman" over and over and over again. Instead of using her name or a pronoun, the author (or perhaps the translator?) chose to use the "young woman" label in a way I found inappropriate and grating. Likewise, Julien is sometimes referred to as "the young man," but not so often. His friend Sophie, age 31, also gets "the young woman" label.

* Unrealistic dialogue jarred me out of the story in a few places. How many people have you heard use the word "incongruous" in conversation? Perhaps the worst example is when a mother is telling the police about searching for her missing daughter at the hospital and she says, "One of the receptionists remembered seeing the young woman leaving with a blond man." There's that annoying "the young woman" phrase again. What mother is going to refer to her own daughter that way?

* Overuse of exclamation marks! This may be due to having been written originally in French, but I grew tired of seeing normal declarative statements given the extra emphasis. It came across as melodramatic in places.

So it's not a bad story, and I don't feel that I wasted the hours reading it, but with so many little things marring the reading experience, I can't in good conscience give this a higher rating. The writing simply doesn't merit it.
The best thing I've found about 's First program is the chance to read authors that I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. This is especially true of foreign authors as I don't usually look for translated books. Surprisingly, at this point I would say that I've enjoyed the foreign authors more than the Americans. Jacques Vandroux's "Heart Collector" continues to tilt the scales in that direction.

While not a great mystery by any means, it was an entertaining diversion for a rainy winter day. The characters were attractive; the murders, while horrifying, weren't described in graphic detail (not when they were happening any way) and the translation retained the south of France atmosphere without trying to "Americanize" it too much. (I should say that I found the homeless man's use of "Dude" distracting, but that evidently really is an accepted translation of "mon gars".)

This is a standard police procedural/detective mystery not a "paranormal" fantasy. The paranormal aspect is actually rather tame and, if anything, feels like a bit of a cheat used to solve the mystery rather than through police work.

In addition, the story was occasionally disjointed and since the "twists" were telegraphed well in advance, it became a little long and tedious in spots. At one point I assumed the book was reaching its denouement and then realized my kindle showed "57%" complete.

So while flawed, "Heart Collector" was a likable read, if not wildly entertaining. I would definitely read more from the author (if offered at a reasonable price, of course). I'll probably sign up for his email list, offered at the end of the book, to be alerted if there are future translations.
A serial killer mystery set in Grenoble France, that
touches on many different topics.
A woman's body is found in a Church museum, with
all the doors locked, and the alarm set, we find out
differently later in the book.
The body has been cut open, the heart removed, and
the body sewn back up.
Proof of undeniable skill, as one Investigator states.
Enter Captain Nadia Barka, lead Investigator, for the
time being, she gets put on medical rest, after being
by a street gang, as the killer gets away.
Now meet Julien, a computer geek, and the one that has
visions/dream about dead people.
After the second body, the one where Captain Barka is
shot, is found, we get into......
Paranormal and Exorcists, Satanists and some BDSM.
Along with Aztecs and Mayans and a French Indiana
Jones, complete with fedora and bull whip.
Throw in some more street gangs, into drugs and gun
running, and lets not forget a possible 2nd serial killer.
And a scene where we have, A mass of red flesh to be
sampled later.
There are overt clues and some you may miss if you
are not careful.
I will not give away any more of the story line, you
will have to read it for yourself.