If you enjoy suspenseful tales or creepy books, especially this time of year, then #SomethingWicked could be the read for you!

Something Wicked is a re-released UK novel by very popular author Kerry Wilkinson. I have read so many amazing reviews of Wilkinson’s books and I was really looking forward to reading one by him. Something Wicked is the first in the Andrew Hunter series so I thought this would be a great place to begin. And it was.
Andrew Hunter is a sarcastic, interesting PI with a past. His smart, quirky and sassy side-kick, Jenny, helps him along with her techie knowledge and inability to truly sense danger. Together they make a terrific team. Let me say that I would read entire books featuring Jenny alone – she is a great character!
What appears to be a run of the mill missing persons case soon turns devilishly wicked. There are so many twists and turns with a shocking surprise ending that at times it was hard to keep up with who was who and doing what. However, all of that served to keep the suspense building until the climactic conclusion. This is definitely a fast paced thriller!
I did find certain tics rather annoying, things that I seriously doubt many other readers would notice. Andrew Hunter complains about being “old” a LOT. A whole lot. He hurts, cannot bend down, has problems running, etc. etc. I kept waiting to find out how old he was, perhaps he was a retired former cop or maybe he had an old war injury. Nope. He’s in his THIRTIES! WTH!? He also worries incessantly about people perceiving him to be an old pervert because Jenny – his assistant – is a very young beautiful woman. She’s in her 20’s! Okay, seriously, this got to be incredibly tiresome. Nosy neighbors weren’t just “annoying neighbors,” they were old women (40s or 50s) with jiggly, purple lined thighs. Really. When I was in my mid-twenties, I dated a man 15 years older than me. He was 40. Hello!? This is the 21st century and age discrimination and elder shaming should not even be in someone’s wheelhouse! I’m in my mid-50s and if I could not bend down to get something off of the floor without complaining, I would be in a doctor’s office in a nanosecond to find out what the hell was wrong with me and, believe me, I have a lot of things wrong with me! Subtle messages like this serve to re-enforce the stereotypes against aging. I did not like it at all. I liked it even less when I looked up Wilkinson’s bio and read HIS age! Based on this type of stereotyping – needless and unnecessary to the story or character development- I won’t be reading any more of his books. There simply are too many other great writers out there to waste my time on a twenty-something boy who stereotypes people over 30. (See – that was age-bias. It’s not pretty, is it?) With that said, however, overlooking this HUGE drawback, the book is a good mystery and with a strange and wicked ending.
Thanks to #Netgalley and Bookouture for my copy. Posted on NG, GR, Amazon, Twitter, FB and my blog on October 10, 2018.