Thriller

A good, quick summer mystery! ( )

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Public defender, Kendall Deaton, is happy in her marriage to Matt Burnwood even though she doesn't really like the amount of time he spends with his father or their love for hunting. She overlooks those things until she takes the case of a local woman accused of killing her husband. Kendall wants to use the fact that the woman was being abused as part of her defense, but she is appalled by her husband and father-in-law's attitude, making her realize that she may have made a mistake in marrying Matt.

The first half of The Witness follows different timelines and characters requiring the reader to pay close attention to the story, but also creating layers to add enjoyment of the plot. However, the latter half of the story is over-the-top crazy, with several one dimensional characters that have questionable motivation for their actions. Also, some of the language use is very uncomfortable. There is enough left, though, to keep the reader interested and there is an unexpected twist near the end of the story that ties up some of the loose ends. Overall, The Witness has a great setup, but the execution of the latter half of the story is unimpressive. ( )

Kendall is put in a witness protection program after witnessing a terrible crime. There is a bad storm on the way back to South Carolina, there is an accident involving the car in which Kendall is riding. One officer is dead and another, John suffers from amnesia. At the hospital, rather than tell the doctor the truth, Kendall claims John is her husband. Kendall plans to escape the hospital and go on the run. John catches up to her and goes with her. Kendall and John live together as husband and wife (John still has no memory) and a romance begins. Kendall keeps in touch with a friend back home and finds out the perpetrators of the crime, have escaped jail and are looking for her. She has to leave John and go on the run. ( )