Thin Air (Jessica Shaw Book 1) Kindle Edition

This month’s Amazon First choices was about the same as any other month. I decided to give the private eye novel a shot, finding that it was written by an up and coming writer, a journalist from Scotland. Read on to learn what I found intriguing and disturbing.As I read the prologue, I recollected my college English Lit professor extolling the virtues of writers in different societies. American writers portrayed crime fiction in a violent fashion, while British authors tended to do so in intelligent twisting stories that tended towards cunning villains who minimized the harsh violence. Well, the author of “Thin Air” certainly did not ascribe to the typical UK, (aka Sherlock Holmes) style evident through the seventies.BLUSH FACTOR: Lisa Gray is sure to make a name for herself in the coming years. “Thin Air” comes across as a work of a seasoned author. What this means, the book is replete with adult language (eff-words and so forth) and adult situations. Violence is as graphic as the language, but not in an over-the-top manner. The romance-oriented sexual situations are stimulating, also without going too far for most people. Suffice it to state that, although greatly intriguing, this is NOT the story for your young child. It also may be just a little too raw for a few elderly folks.Having warned of the mature content, there is no way I would caution against reading this for most adults I know. Just trying to prepare you by setting the scenes without giving any spoilers.THE WRITING & EDITING: As I mentioned, it is difficult for me to believe this is a debut novel. I suppose her journalism experience, and her editing experience is a factor in her skill, but I have not come across many new writers with the skill and talent displayed by Ms Gray. Editing, incidentally, is professional.I’m not sure where to add this point, so I’ll do it here. Although I’ve not been to Simi Valley in decades, I did enjoy re-visiting the area by reading this novel. I was easily able to recollect my memories of numerous visits to the valley just beyond Chatsworth. Then again, back in those days, before Ronald Reagan, it was a quiet, peaceful, sleepy berg just emerging from its days as the backdrop for western movies and television series productions. Her description of the valley made me homesick. Well, a little homesick…POV: Alternation point of view. The prologue is first person and, in my opinion, just a bit more revealing than I was accustomed to. Certainly, those among you who choose to sample the first 10 percent will be able to decide if this is the right story for you. If it is, I am confident you will leap to purchase and will find this to be a great page-turner. Of course, for those who find the prologue to be a turn-off, theyWill be none the worse off, because they weren’t forced purchase it before glimpsing the quality and tenor of the writing.EXCERPT:No excerpt needed with this crime story. The prologue well sets the tone and gives a fair assessment to the curious souls.BOTTOM LINE:My one slight caveat is the prologue. Well-written, to be sure, but, combined with the rest of the tale, it leads to a confusion and, in a good way, a ton of surprises throughout. I almost want to shout from the rooftops about the quality and pace of the writing. It is ALMOST that good.Four, maybe almost five stars. Perhaps if it had gone a little deeper into character development, I would have rated it five. I was shocked and pleased at how well a writer from the UK could describe, without going overboard, the areas of Southern California that I called home the first 25 years of my life.

I received this book for free through Prime First Reads. It sounded like an interesting mystery and the start of a series. Jessica Shaw is a PI from NYC, who travels a bit aimlessly taking missing persons cases around the country until she recognizes the child in an old case as her!!Overall it was a good story and kept me reading at times to figure out the mystery from the past. There were a few issues I found with the story, and the first was that at times, Jessica was hard to take seriously. Thought there were obvious mistakes that she made right up until the end of the book. Not sure if I will continue with the series, but it's on KU with audio so might see where Jessica goes from here.

It was well paced and a good, casual read. Would have liked more depth to the characters, but maybe that will come in future books!

I found this a very good read. Characters were explained and utilized well. The ending did seem rushed. There was a couple places and people at the end, that were touched on earlier in the book and I didn’t remember who see were talking about.I too had no idea who she was giving the money too…

It’s a good distraction/time filler, strong female protagonist. Some cliches and wrapped up in a bow at the end. All in all, I enjoyed the experience and would probably read other books by the author

I don't hand out five star ratings too frequently. But Thin Air kept me gripped all the way to the end. I got this book as part of Amazon's Kindle First program. As an Amazon Prime member, each month I get to choose on of at least six titles for no additional charge. This month I chose Thin Air.The surprising part is that I actually read it. I have over nine hundred books on my Kindle (probably nothing compared to some people), and when I finish a title, I normally go back to the oldest title in my library. So I have yet to read one of my Kindle First titles. Until this one.Prologue: The book begins with a murder. Written in first person from the perspective of the killer. We have no clue who it is, other than the indication that the person murdered seems to know the murderer.Jessica Shaw is a private investigator. Originally hailing from New York (or so she thinks), she has left there and travels around, living out of cheap hotels, wherever she can find a job to work. She specializes in missing persons.One day, as she sits in a diner, in Simi Valley, trying to figure out where to go next, she gets an email from a "John Doe," simply titled "Your next case?" She opens the email, which included only a link to a missing persons website. She clicks on the link and sees the photo of a missing person, a two or three year old kid. She had seen the photo before.Because the kid was her.Now there's a plot line I've never seen before. I am instantly hooked! From this point, the story shifts back and forth between several people. One of them is Amy Ong, the girl who is murdered in the prologue. As the story unveils, we get bits and pieces of what has happened to her and why.We are also introduced to an LAPD detective named Jason Pryce. The thing is, Jessica had seen him before, too. She finally realized that she had seen him at her father's funeral a few years back.As this story unfolds, the connections get more and more complex. There are unexpected twists and turns that simply leave the reader almost gasping for air. Perhaps I'm being overly dramatic, but it really felt that way. There were quite a few, "Oh, my GOSH!" moments in the story. Those are the things that keep me reading.There would, no doubt, be some who would disagree with me, but I would put this story right up there with The Girl On the Train. It kept me that interested. And the ending, well, lets just say I didn't see that coming.I will definitely be on the lookout for more of Lisa Gray's work.

What certainly captivated me about the plot of this book is how the protagonist is listed as a missing person and that she is totally unaware of this. The mystery that unravels surrounding her identity is pretty thrilling as the writer pulls in a parallel plot with the murder of a young girl.For a while I found it difficult to see any connection between Jessica’s story and Amy’s murder. The narrative perspective shifts between several key characters and it takes a while for readers to learn about key events leading up to Amy’s murder, for example. However, as the plot developed, I found that I had correctly predicted the outcome of the novel, reducing the thrilling event of this read.Jessica is quite a sassy Private Investigator. Breaking locks and pulling on contacts, she is one to have on your side! However, her appearance in Eagle Rock has set the local gossips chattering and soon it becomes clear that she isn’t the only one interested in a murder and child disappearance that happened twenty-five years ago. Jessica is eventually able to solve the clues about her past and readers are treated to total closure at the end of the story.What made this a satisfying read was the fact that the writer does not leave this story on a cliffhanger. Despite being the first in a series, it is not made clear where Gray will take the story for the next instalment. Whilst this does mean this is easily read as a stand-alone novel, I certainly believe that this reduced how gripping the novel was as it reached its conclusion. It’s not a boring story, but the obvious plot development meant that for me, the story lacked a natural increase in pace towards the end. The end is simply that: Jessica has the answers to her past and moves on. As a result, I would consider other thrillers first before reading this book.This is a good read but not very suspenseful or gripping. It moves at a relatively fast pace and the end is satisfyingly conclusive. Whether I would rush out to read the next one however, remains to be seen.

Got this for free as part of Prime Reading and couldn’t really say I agreed with many of the reviews.I think the back and forth writing style is confused and means the story keeps on building in parts rather than in sequence. With better writing it could work, this doesn't in my view.The female lead seems to have jumped straight from a Stieg Larsson trilogy (read and you’ll see) and it’s very hard to warm to her or many of the characters.If you get it for free or 99p then it will distract you for a while, but otherwise there’s a lot better out there to pass the time.

I’m an avid thriller/crime reader, and long term Amazon customer, but this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write a review.This is a terrific debut by Lisa Gray and I can’t wait for the next instalment of Jessica Shaw. I was initially slightly sceptical as it felt like it was a familiar female protagonist - attractive, feisty, but with a troubled history - but she really is a believable character you warm to. Not sure if Pryce will return in future instalments, but I’d love to meet him again too.It is also very well written: too often a debut novel gives you a great yarn but lets itself down with less than perfect editing or (shudder) grammar, or just the whole pace of the novel is off kilter. Not so with ‘Thin Air’, and it was no surprise the author is a journalist, although I was surprised to read she’s British - as with Lee Child, it feels authentically American.I didn’t read this in one sitting (chance would be a fine thing), but I did read it within 24 hours, which is praise in itself. Recommended!

The idea behind this book is an intriguing one - a private investigator whose job is to look for missing people - finds out that she herself is a missing person, but that's really the absolute high point of the plot. The book is readable enough but I didn't find myself particularly engaging with the characters or caring much about that happened to them. Having said that I might have given the book 4 stars as a good first attempt if it were not for a dreadful plot contrivance - our heroine is given a letter from her dead father about 2/3s of the way through the book - a letter which may have the answers to the questions she is looking for - but she doesn't read it till the end! This letter tormented me to the extent that I wondered if the writer had forgotten that plot point. In what universe is it conceivable that Jessie wouldn't tear the letter open and read it right away? Author needs to move away from Thriller Writing 101 and inject some reality into her books. I might read another one if I got it free on KU but my gut tells me that this book is the high point of the series. The missing person plot was the only thing that set it apart from all the other generic PI books.

I was absolutely lying on the edge of my bed I was very ill, when I read this ,,what could be reality. How folk lick against life because of his life has treated them with harder times than others. It is going on in the younger generation these dzys, so very sad for them but so hurtful to those they kick against.Thank you for the magnificent plot and reality written. It made me sit up and wonder about many every day horrors that are going on and how young folk can be helped to tunnel their strong hatred into getting a better life for themselves.So many people are helping in many ways with success but there are so many confused young people with no thought for their future.Please write another book but with some advice e what many people would appreciate.Thank you so much for writing this book.