UNBLESSED is the latest in the Jane Halifax series of books, featuring the TV series character of the same name. A forensic psychologist, Halifax has worked with all sorts of criminal types - from serial to opportunistic killers, and in the last book, herself, when she suffers from sudden onset amnesia as a result of a car accident. You don't need to have read the earlier books in the series necessarily, although Halifax has got a bit of baggage that she's carting around with her which is not always fully revisited in each outing.

In UNBLESSED she's in the US visiting her stepdaughter Zoe, when she finds herself dragged (kicking a lot) into the case of a tech mogul who is initially suspected of killing off her business partner and his girlfriend (who is also the CFO of the company). Now Sarah Noble is, in many ways, a typical tech mogul. She's on the autism spectrum, renowned for her constant wearing of headphones to block out the world and her astounding mathematical aptitude. She's got a company that is working with the American Defence force in the area of missile defence systems. Working with weapons systems, there are complications like the official secrets act, federal government and agency oversight, and some complicated contractual obligations and implications. Although it was an argument much closer to home that threatened the end of the company. Her now dead business partner attempted a takeover / to remove Noble, a problem that conveniently went away when he died in a mysterious plane crash. Needless to say, Noble has a perfect motive and the ability to hack the plane's guidance system.

Halifax finds herself court appointed to care for the sometimes mercurial, always tricky, moody, and flat out a bit odd Noble in a series of very luxurious locations, with an increasingly unnerving range of threats getting closer and closer.

To say there's a lot going on in this plot might be setting too low an expectation. Along with the plane crash, there's a tanking share price and a market that had already been twitchy about the battle for control. The work is extremely secretive and sensitive - the interception and redirection of missiles - which according to a badly timed whistleblower's accusations, may not be as solid as investors have been led to believe. Then there's Noble herself, and the struggle that Halifax has in trying to get her to cooperate with the conditions of the court imposed care and therapy orders. Noble's her own worst enemy frequently, maintaining a manic work schedule, alongside some serious depressive episodes, alienating everyone who seems to be trying to help her, and refusing to acknowledge the reality of a situation that keeps changing anyway. Add to that drugs, Hollywood connections, people wandering about shooting guns, and an armed drone attack, and, well it's no exaggeration to say there's a lot going on.

Reading UNBLESSED was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand there is so much to this, you'd think it would be moving at a serious pace, juggling enough balls to keep a reader on the edge of their seats. Too often though, it slowed to snail's pace, bogged down in repetitiveness and side lines. Whilst the Halifax / Noble dance was all a bit predictable, the biggest problem for this reader was the way that big things just seemed to disappear into the ether. There is also Noble's tendency to move around a lot, which meant that the action seemed to be constantly packing up and going somewhere else, a metaphor that never quite became clear. Perhaps the biggest problem of all was that there were such big stakes in this mysterious weapons system, that one of the aspects of the plot around this just. never. made. sense. And came and went in the blink of an eye. As that resolution kind of collapsed into place, this reader was left wondering why the very long build up.

The 3rd book in the Jane Halifax series finds Jane in New York visiting her stepdaughter who is in the process of producing an album. It seems Zoe’s musical career is on the verge of taking off. But this merely puts Jane in the crosshairs of a brewing legal stoush with her specialist skills as a forensic psychologist putting her in high demand.

Jane is approached by Zoe’s lawyer to meet with his boss who is representing autistic billionaire tech whizz Sarah Noble in a murder case. Her business partner and CFO had just died in a plane crash - the company’s plane. Suggestions have been made that Sarah is capable of hacking into the controls of the airplane and intentionally crashed it.

The fact that Sarah and her partner had been at odds in the lead up to the crash definitely doesn’t help the case. In fact, she had just sacked her partner from the company and, as a result, the company’s share price was in free fall. The nature of their business, technology enabling the interception and redirection of missiles, is both technical and sensitive in nature. The Department of Defense has a significant stake in it and depends on Sarah’s mental acuity to remain focused on the job.

It’s Jane’s job to keep Sarah on the straight and narrow through the difficult time of dealing with the court case, the slavering press pack and Sarah’s tendency toward non-conformity.

This is a setup that has a great deal of potential but, unfortunately very little is actually delivered. An autistic billionaire genius who’s in the process of designing and building a new high tech weapons system for the military should have provided many moments of fascinating insights and nuance. Unfortunately none of the promise is realised.

Instead, what we’re given is a meandering snoozefest where very little happens for way too long. A court ordered home detention puts the brakes on any hint of action, Sarah remains stand-offish and limits interaction with Jane and Jane’s unclear of her reason for being there.

The question of who was responsible for the plane crash becomes a peripheral issue while the main focus is drawn to the company’s latest weapon invention. And even that is poorly described and kept in the background, merely discussed in the vaguest of terms.

It felt to me that the brief moments of action that took place were scattered among long periods of inaction within the billionaire’s estate. It all moved along at a slow pace and the attempts at building up tension simply fell flat. Repeated mentions of a falling share price, secondhand accounts of ongoing legal wranglings and vague attempts by Jane to offer her psychiatric expertise all conspired to cripple any flow in the story.

In looking around for things in the story I actually enjoyed, I can pinpoint the camaraderie formed between Jane and Sarah’s bodyguard Joey Fatialofa. This, at least, provided some moments of solid character development as the pair worked out together, discussed important issues and had each other’s backs in some of the hairier moments.

This episode of Jane Halifax fp failed to deliver the drama and keen insights from Jane herself that shone in the two earlier books. It just all fell a bit flat and failed to hold my attention.

My thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC that allowed me to read and review this book.