The Blade Man by Debra Purdy Kong – book review

Disclosure.  This post is a review of an e-book I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

I have received a free e-copy of the book The Blade Man by Debra Purdy Kong to review. You may find out more about Debra on her website.

Here is the book blurb.

Who is the Blade Man and why has this mysterious loner been attacking Mainland Public Transport bus drivers? And who is trying to burn MPT down? The company’s president suspects an inside job and orders security officer Casey Holland to launch an internal investigation or face termination.

Convinced that she’s being set up to fail, Casey feels the pressure. With her and Lou’s wedding only weeks away, Casey desperately needs answers, but anger at work and on the streets thwart her efforts. Nor do the police welcome her help.

More employees are attacked, and the president forces Casey to take deeper risks. But how much is too much? How far must she go before facing off with him and MPT’s enemies? Find out in this explosive sixth installment of Casey Holland transit mysteries.

This is book 6 in the Casey Holland Transit Mysteries series, but the first one that I have read. It is supposed to also work well as a stand-alone read, however I struggled to get into this book. In particular I was faced by jargon almost immediately on pages 2 and 3, which I always find a big turn-off. Firstly I had to look up RCMP which I discovered is Royal Canadian Mounted Police and then I unsuccessfully tried to look up MPT. The dictionary had 79 possible definitions. It was only much later I realised that it was shown in the blurb, however I did find the answer shortly afterwards on page 6. I don’t know if these would have been obvious if I had read earlier titles.

Chapter 1 was supposed to be exciting with the bus trying to edge through streets of riots, but I just felt underwhelmed. A bus security officer doesn’t sound much like a lead character really. However I persevered with the book, but initially it was hard work and took me quite a few chapters to start getting into it.

There were two main strands to the story, knife attacks and arson. Is it the same person or are there multiple perpetrators? Could it be an inside job? Casey is tasked to investigate.

Her fiancé Lou is a bus driver at the same company, which causes some complexities between her personal and professional life. Meanwhile she is guardian to 14 year old Summer who is pushing the boundaries. This is rather a piggy in the middle role for Casey between Summer and her mother Rhonda, who is serving a life sentence for second degree murder. Throw into the mix, a group of teenage bus spotters and another group of teenage thugs and you get a storyline that should also appeal to YA readers.

The Blade Man is available on Amazon in Kindle format. I would anticipate its release in paperback soon, as Debra’s earlier titles are also in paperback. This wasn’t really a book for me, but maybe I should have started with book one.

Visit Yet Another Blogging Mummy on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram