Third book in the AKA Investigations Series. This time with new main characters, and about 500 point of views. After a steady increase in book ratings, this book here was a disappointment.

This book here kept back tracking. Certain things would be seen by certain people, the story would progress and then . . . oops, now we are back to the beginning of a particular plot point. Watching everything unfold again. From another point of view. That was . . . annoying. I probably could have just lived from having the women's viewpoint and just the ones in this book. Just leave the AKA people out of it, as their participation wasn't needed at all.

The romance angle wasn't needed as well. Just seemed to serve as a forced inclusion. Like, these books need to have romances in them, right? So . . . 'force'. There. Romance. Mmmphs.

The next book goes back to the main characters but, I'm kind of leery of looking into it. Since it has been implied that it will be the same story, but now from the main characters point of view. I was bored with the story the second time around. I don't need to see it a billion more times.

I initially thought that this would be a different type of book than it was. There was a certain vibe at the beginning that lead me to suspect certain things. Things that would move it out of the mystery genre. But no, this had mystery elements.

Right, let me see, I wrote done the point of views as they turned up. I might have missed one or two along the way. So, point of views: Kendra, Ponzi, Anna (the last two being the 'wronged' women, Kendra just the lesbian in lust for the straight Ponzi), Ginger (from prior book), Jobeth (I think she had a few lines from her point of view), Payne Hollister (I might be mispelling his first name; he's the rich guy who likes raping women), Dr. Garrison Bishop (Ponzi's husband, Anna's former boss and current blackmailee (as in Anna's blackmailing him), and another rapist), Chloe (a neighbor of Anna's who apparently is just there for someone for Anna to hook up with). So, how many is that? *counts* I believe I count eight people with point of views. Wait. Hollister's sister had a scene of her own, so nine people. At least.

The book with a thousand heads (or at least nine). And that is a problem. The AKA people, Jobeth (if she actually did have one scene), and Ginger could have had their sections pulled. Anna and Chloe could have had their sections pulled, and just had Anna's participation in the plot 'seen' through Kendra and Ponzi's eyes. Not 100% certain Kendra's point of view scenes were absolutely needed. Because of the nature of the book, Dr. Bishop, Hollister, Ponzi, and Hollister's sister's scene had to be included for plot reasons. I mean, most of the police action is scene through the eyes of the non-police characters, despite having two police characters with point of views included (Ginger and Chloe). Except for some investigation by Ginger while suspended from the police, I don't actually recall that any of the important plot points were actually scene through the eyes of the police. The interviews were from the eyes of others.

And that whole - let me tell you the same story, but now from different characters point of views thing? I suppose some of that was 'needed' but . . . frankly, I started to mostly just skim. I mean, nothing I didn't already know or have implied got revealed except for who Prada was. Everything else was covered the first time around.

Those who read these types of books, and or, those who read Baeli books specifically, for the sex . . . well. I'm trying to remember here. Except for some kissing, and maybe two scenes that might have occurred while I was in skimming mode, most if not all of the 'sex' that occurred involved rape. There were, hmms, three rapes, if I recall correctly, which were 'seen' in the book, two were seen from multiple view points as they happened, and one was seen several times later from film. Well, no, two were seen later from video evidence. Those are a lot of rape scenes for a series that hadn't had anything like this before.

So, right. This is a revenge plot type of book. Ponzi was raped while she was asleep. Anna witness a different rape, though by the same man that raped Ponzi. So, Ponzi decides to go into the punishment game, pulls in Anna and Kendra (the lesbian with a massive crush on Ponzi). While stumbling around, and accidentally witnessing several rapes in person, the three attempt to implement their revenge against Dr. Bishop, and, Hollister. I forget when they decided to include Hollister in the punishment, though I know they had violent reactions when they learned that Hollister had raped Phoebe years ago.

A lot of what they do is counterproductive. Like, they pull in the AKA investigators for help. Which isn't a stupid thing to do initially, when in the stages of grief and horror. To have investigators involved. Except . . they then, they being the revenge plot people, Ponzi, Anna, and Kendra, then had to dodge and lie to the AKA investigators to be able to carry out their plot. Hence, counterproductive. Also, Ponzi lying about going on a hunting trip with her husband, Dr. Bishop, was just stupid. Ended up with a scene with Ginger hunting for Ponzi's dead body while threatening Dr. Bishop. While Ginger is suspended from the police. And while Dr. Bishop will be handling an internal affairs investigation, from the therapist report, on Ginger Grant. So, that whole scene just made Ginger look stupid, and endangered her career. For no real point. I mean, I know, the point was to show that Ponzi was in danger but . . that didn't really show that. Strike that "really" part. That didn't show that.

So. A book I forced myself to stumble through. At this exact moment I'm not really sure if I am being overly generous or overly harsh with a 2 rating. ( )