Language : English
File size : 884 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 352 pages
High graduations signal a new beginning, a time in one’s life when opportunities lie at your feet, waiting for you to pick one to your liking. That’s what the main characters in Robert Lehr’s new book, The Redhead, believed in until a heinous crime occurred that left everyone aghast and many of the youth in town perplexed and even afraid of what the future will bring.
Set in the willowy town of Stonewall Flats, The Redhead follows the statuesque Carolyne Culpepper, whose red hair and amazing visuals make her stand out in any crowd, and her group of friends who are about to finish high school. Armed with much anticipation and full of hope for a brighter future, Carolyne and her friends went on to celebrate a momentous chapter in their lives with a graduation party at the country club. All was well and pretty, or so they thought. Come the next morning, the news of the disappearance of her best friend Lindsay Thomas shook the whole town.
As everyone in Stonewall Flats braced themselves as more and more information came to the surface and what happened to Lindsay was finally determined, Carolyne’s determination to get to the bottom of things became stronger as days passed. This determination propelled her to become the best detective she can be, in the hopes of making up for what happened to her best friend.
Earning the nickname “Pepper” for her character and antics, she takes on the most unusual cases and beats herself up every time she falls short. Not only does the past mess up her mind, but it has also affected her decisions in life and her future. As she faces various hurdles in her career as a detective, Pepper finds herself wanting to find love in the unlikeliest of places and embroiled in situations that are too complicated for any normal person to handle.
At once gripping and mysterious, The Redhead will take readers to the edge of their seats and will make them root for the protagonist as she tries to overcome her guilt and inability to help her best friend despite not being at fault. The book reads like a standard mystery novel where you root for the hero and want the villain to be stopped in his tracks but at the same time, it also evokes feelings of compassion and sensitivity to the pain and guilt that have heavily influenced Carolyne and her decisions in life and work.
With its short chapters, the book feels like you’re accomplishing much even if you’ve just completed just a handful. However, the story can be dragging at one point or another, with the details of the previous chapter not being etched as firmly in the mind of the reader as the author intended. Nonetheless, at its core, The Redhead is a novel of good versus evil as well as a story of redemption and attaining one’s happiness despite the odds.
Three-and-a-half stars out of five but still worth the money and time.