Never Smile at Strangers

Never Smile at Strangers, by Jennifer Minar-Jaynes is a story where teenagers begin to disappear in a small southern town. There are various suspects as the author manages to show the bad qualities of each of her many characters. I found myself suddenly suspecting one character after the other but I also managed to explain to myself why each was innocent. The true criminal was not one I had questioned until toward the end of the book, but there was even more of a surprise ending, which I had not expected.

I’m not into gory details and this book is full of them. But I got through those descriptions because I wanted to get to the end of the book and find out “who dunnit!” There is one major complaint and I know I’ve written about this before with other books. The typing and grammatical errors were littered throughout the book. Self-publishing is great for those who want to get their work in print in today’s tough market. But, writers, please get someone to edit your books before going to the expense and trouble of self publishing. Believe me, you’ll sell far more books if they’re not full of errors. If I wasn’t reviewing a book and it was so full of mistakes, I would have put it down long ago. And I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else.

Other than my one big complaint of grammatical and spelling errors, I can recommend this book. It’s a quick read and full of suspense.