Title: The Empty Rooftop
Author Name & Publisher: Lily MacPherson (Less Than Three Press)
Publication Date & Length: October 21st, 2015 — 89 pages
Anya Jameson, FBI agent turned consultant, is working the most challenging case of her burgeoning career: a series of brutal murders in Cayce, North Carolina. The only thing linking the victims is that they all came from some of society’s most vulnerable groups of people and all were in search of new beginnings.
On a crowded New York street Anya stumbles into up and coming race car driver Tommi, who unexpectedly coaxes Anya out of years of solitude. But love and murder are not a good combination, and the investigation—or the killer—may tear the new lovers apart before they get the chance to build something together.
I loved both Anya and Tommi. They were fascinating women with complicated lives. Because of their jobs, they were actually very well suited to each other. I liked them as a couple as well as individually.
That said, what really made this story for me was the crime Anya’s team was working on. I loved the way the whole thing was revealed in bits and pieces. We also saw a lot of Anya’s feelings about it. For people who like a good crime drama, this was excellent. I can’t speak to the accuracy of their job descriptions or the events, but I can say it drew me in and kept me on the edge of my seat.
The only thing I wasn’t fond of was the end. I felt it dragged a bit, as though Ms. MacPherson wasn’t quite sure at what point to wrap it up. Because of the crime situation, I couldn’t relax—I kept thinking it was going on for so long because Anya was about to get killed in the end (spoiler: she lives). Except it was really just several pages of fluff. Sweet, but not really fitting for the rest of the story.
Overall, though, this was very well done, and the writing was excellent.
~Amy
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Lily MacPherson counted books as her best friends from an early age, and with her dog Matty and pet plant Liza in tow, went on many an adventure in the state forest behind her childhood home. Today she works in disaster management and writes novels in her spare time.
