This originally appeared on www.gimmethatbook.com as this post: http://gimmethatbook.com/2014/09/23/the-competition-by-marcia-clark/

Rachel Knight’s 4th outing seems to be business as usual; the familiar characters are investigating a Colombine – style shooting at the local high school. Two students come in with guns blazing during an assembly and wreak havoc, and the body count is high. Knight, Bailey, and Graden attempt to track down the shooters, but as soon as they get a lead, things change and confuse the trail. Our favorite gang banger, Luis Revelo, makes an obligatory appearance also. The more I read about him, the more I wish Clark would give him a bigger part in her books.

This story line was very interesting, bringing in psychology and referencing other tragedies such as Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook. I think the book could’ve been about 70 pages shorter, as Clark added twist after twist and it started to annoy me. Without spoiling things, all I can say is that the last 80 pages dragged, and then all of a sudden sped up, as if she just wrote any damn thing just to be finished. Pretty much everyone becomes a red herring, and I lost track of how many times they “solved” the case and then it twisted again. I just kept rolling my eyes and turning pages.

All that aside, The Competition is a solid book for Rachel Knight fans. Looks like I’ll be continuing to read through the series.

( )

3-1/2 stars so I rounded up. I enjoyed this and was pleasantly surprised at how well Ms. Clark can write. More to come ( )

Marcia Clark's book, "The Competition" left me a little disappointed, probably because I allowed my expectations get the best of me. I noted that most readers gave this book highly favorable reviews, and given that the author was a well known prosecutor in her past life, I'd hoped for a legal thriller along the lines of books written by Scott Turow or John Grisham. Instead, this book was just another police crime novel, with two female protagonists, one a police detective and the other a special prosecutor. The narrative seemed to have a lot of unnecessary talk with a couple of psychologists attempting to come up with a profile of the perpetrators, none of which seemed particularly helpful to solving the crime. Meanwhile, the two women team up to lead the criminal investigation and be the only ones clever enough to solve the crime and take out the bad guy. It reminded me very much of one of those old TV police dramas where the star of the show is initially misled, then catches a break and gets smart, and ends up predictably solving the crime at the last minute.

I guess the book was "ok", but I had trouble buying into the premise, the dialog, the characters, the believability of the story line, etc. I was curious about Marcia Clark's new career as an author, but I'm pretty sure I won't be picking up any more of her novels. ( )

I am really eager to begin to read this one because I am hoping to find out the answers to a past that has haunted her.

I can empathize with her ability to keep from letting the occasional curse word escape. LOL I can relate to her being cold all the time and dressing for warmth. I do too. I crave 80 degrees.

These characters have grown on me in a big way. This is my fourth book in the series and I have enjoyed watching Marcia Clark’s writing grow and develop. This is the best one yet.

The Competition deals with a sensitive subject…school shootings.

It took me a while to figure out the last villain standing and even more what would be the villains fate. It was so obvious in hindsight, but isn’t that always the way it always is?

Marcia Clark does a fantastic job misdirecting me.

I still have questions about Lilah and Romy, so I guess there must be another story to come.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Competition by Marcia Clark.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com ( )

This was my first Marcia Clark book and, wow, what a writer! The book is about a high school shooting, similar to Columbine, and the search for the killer (s). There were a lot of twists and turns and although I kept trying to figure it out myself, I didn't see most of it coming. The story is all about the police investigation, no courtroom stuff. I think I'll check out the other books in the series, as I'm really impressed with the writing and the story line. As a former prosecutor (remember the O.J. Simpson case she was on?), Ms. Clark is good at writing about what goes into. Police investigTion, interviews of witnesses, evidence, etc., and she's a master. Highly recommend!

***I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.*** ( )