An Interesting Plot Concept Whose Execution Falls Short Of Its Potential!

I’ve been a big fan of all of J.D. Barker’s books that he wrote alone but I’ve had mixed feelings about books in which he’s teamed up with other authors to write. I accepted the offer by Net Galley to read We Don’t Talk About Emma because Its plot concept seemed intriguing and I figured how bad could it be even if Barker only co-authored it. Well, as it turned out, I did not consider We Don’t Talk About Emma to be a bad book…although I found it to be only mildly interesting; and, thus, not a book I’d recommend you rush out to read.

My primary reasons for feeling this way are as follows: (1) unusual for a book by J.D. Barker, the characters were thinly developed, causing me to not be able to like or relate to them very much; (2) again atypical of Barker’s books whose plots move at a fast, hard-to pace, the pace of this new book is slowed down a lot by its narrative that largely involves the constant dialogue between the two detectives assigned to solving the murder, and who have a “past” together; (3) while this book has some good plot twists and surprises, for me they were “too few, too late” to keep me engrossed in the book; and (4) the ending seemed a bit abrupt; leading me to think that We Don’t Talk About Emma” is possibly the start of a series to be co-authored by Barker and Findorff, If this is the case, at this time I’m not likely to be going on another case with these detectives. I will, however, definitely be planning to read whatever the next book is that J. D. Barker writes on his own.

2 1/2 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

#We Don’t Talk About Emma #Net Galley

Review Copy

I love, love, love JD Barker's writing. I've been reading his books since his first, FORSAKEN, and he went to the top of my charts since then.

In WE DON'T TALK ABOUT EMMA J.D. teams up with E.J. Findorff to pen a story of New Orleans that I was unaware of. It spoke of traveler kids, something that I had never heard of before. But who is Emma and why isn't she talked about? Emma has gone missing and it's up to NOPD detective Nikki to find her.

This is one twisted tale and is just the first of many books JD has coming out in the next year. Enjoy!

This was such a wild ride. Suspense all the way through and fast pacing kept me reading every chance I got!

Set in New Orleans, We Don’t Talk About Emma is a novel about exposing the dirty underbelly of New Orleans’ high society, an underbelly as sordid, dark, and immoral as anything the denizens of Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book could talk about or anything Hollywood or music celebrities could muster in their twisted underage sexual exploitation scandals. Emma, though, and a few others, having been abused and passed around like party favors, has decided to fight back. Bodies are turning up across New Orleans with numbers scrawled on them as the countdown continues. A pair of compromised police detectives are one step behind the killers in this novel and Emma, though from a wealthy family, runs with the gutterpunks, homeless squatters who beg in the town squares and are recruited to dance in strip clubs. Barker and Findorff almost manage to make this modern thriller work, but not quite.

I love Barker's books as they are always deliciously plotted and creepy as as they come! In this one Nikki sneaks up on Herman in his garage, ready to kill him but someone there kills him first! It's clear he knows his killer but Nikki is really confused; how many women could want him dead? He'd been accused of rape before so many women are possibilities but of course we the readers, are left in the dark until the bitter end. It's a crazy, wild story that you will need to read in daylight as it has Barker's signature twisty plot!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

A pair of Police detectives try to track down a woman suspected of killing a wealthy businessman who, in turn, is suspected of raping her. The majority of the narrative consists of dialogue between the two detectives. There are some choice snippets in amongst their conversations but it’s a push to get the whole story across the line with pretty much just these two batting ideas back and forth.

The story, such as there is one, rather gets buried under the dialogue and the ending felt rushed. Not a bad read but the story needed to shout louder to be heard above the conversations.