The Naked Eye by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen + Giveaway

When I was first asked if I'd like to read The Naked Eye by Iris Johansen and her son, Roy Johansen, I jumped at the chance.  I had not read the previous two books in this particular series, but I had read several books in Iris' Eve Duncan series and liked them very much.  Being the 'read series in order' person that I am, I went ahead and read the first two books, Close Your Eyes and Sight Unseen.  My experience with all three of these books was mostly positive, but I do have some issues.  And I'm struggling a little bit with what to say here about those issues.  Let's just talk, OK?

The main character in these books is Dr. Kendra Michaels.  She is a music therapist by profession and she also assists the FBI and police with crime investigations.  Kendra was born blind and spent the first years of her life in the dark.  She had a special operation using stem cells when she was 20 that basically caused her corneas to grow properly.  Partially due to her initial blindness, her other senses are extraordinary.  When she sees a crime scene, she picks up on all kinds of details that even the best forensic scientists may miss.  Did you ever see the TV show The Mentalist?  Not exactly the same thing, but with the same sort of result.

Kendra has a complicated relationship with almost everyone she's ever known.  She does have some close friends and her mother is very much present, but she is not really what you'd call a 'people' person.  She's a great investigator.  She's an abrasive, belligerent, prickly, control-obsessed individual.  I found it very, very hard to like her.  Her emotions are hidden well, but they definitely exist.  She has extremely high expectations for herself and places herself in danger often.  She does have people that she loves fiercely, but she wants to control their actions too, often for their own safety.

The Naked Eye brings back a serial killer that Kendra had helped put in jail much earlier in her career.  In the second book, this man was supposed to have been executed by lethal injection.  Kendra was positive that the convicted killer had somehow finagled a way to not only escape his punishment, but escape jail, period.  The story also includes characters from the Eve Duncan series and they play a big part.  As Kendra has been trying to convince her contacts at the FBI and her sometimes investigative partner, Adam Lynch, that Eric Colby is at large again, a journalist that wrote a scathing article about Kendra is murdered.  Evidence is left that implicates Kendra, who is sure this is the work of Colby.  And the search is on.

I enjoyed the thrill of the chase that the authors wrote in The Naked Eye.  I liked seeing Eve Duncan and really liked the characters of Beth and Sam.  The tension was intense and I wanted Kendra and company to succeed in finding Eric Colby and make him pay for all his crimes.  I also wanted Kendra is ease up a little on herself and others.  I will say that she seemed a slight bit more mellow in this book.  Maybe she's learning.

So, will I read the next book in the series, providing there is one?  Maybe.  I don't think I'd rush to read it, but yes, probably.  I need to see if Kendra can learn and grow and change.  I also would like to see what happens with Adam Lynch, who I like very much.  I do think that I need to go back and see where I left off in the Eve Duncan series.

Thanks to Lisa at TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me with copies of all three books.  I think I'm the last stop on this tour, but here's the link to the other participants.

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I am able to offer a giveaway of the first book in the series, courtesy of the publisher.  This is for Close Your Eyes, and it is limited to US/Canada only.  If you'd like to win a copy, please make sure that I can find your email address somehow, either through your comment or through the link to your name.  I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner on Thursday, the 27th, at 8:00 AM.