For I Have Sinned
by Kristen Houghton
Series: A Cate Harlow Private Investigation
Publisher: Koehler Books (November 1, 2014)
ISBN-10: 1940192714
ISBN-13: 978-1940192710
For I Have Sinned
By Kristen Houghton
Review by Jeani Rector
Kristen Houghton’s For I Have Sinned is a standout. Not only is it a suspenseful mystery, but it delves into timely controversy of Catholic priests and the scandals throughout history. Houghton relates these true events into the lives of a fictional character, interweaving the two seamlessly.
Both shocking and exciting, For I Have Sinned is a real page-turner. The protagonist Cate Harlow is a sassy and likable private investigator who has two men in her life: the first is Giles, the medical examiner and the second is a cop who also happens to be her ex-husband Will. Needless to say, the divorce was very amicable, if you get my meaning. All of the Houghton’s characters are well-developed and the interchanges between the three make for a fun romp of a ride.
The plot begins when Marie hires Cate to investigate the disappearance of her brother Joshua. Cate starts doing her job only to discover that Josh may have run away on his own. She finds ominous drawings of stalking hyenas and begins to believe that Josh was running away not from his home, but from something else. What follows is shocking and in many ways sad, but always suspenseful.
Things heat up when Will phones Cate to see a crime scene in the middle of the night. Someone had murdered a priest, and there would be more murders to come.
While I could anticipate that the murders are somehow connected to Josh, Houghton nonetheless writes in a way that I could not stop reading. I wanted more. Houghton has the talent to suck the reader into her world and make the reader really care about the characters and root for them. The plot contains many exciting twists and turns and the end is satisfying.
Being familiar with Ms. Houghton, I was delighted to see a subtle sense of humor in her work. For example, when Cate is looking over the titles in a bookcase, she notices one called And Then I’ll Be Happy! which just so happens to be a previous book authored by Houghton.
All in all, For I Have Sinned is a very good book and a worthy addition to any mystery reader’s collection. The novel spans a few genres: it is definitely a mystery—but contains elements of suspense and the gruesomeness of the murders—that creep into horror. So whatever genre you prefer, this book is for you.
You can buy the book HERE
About the author
Kristen Houghton writes "nice little horror stories" guaranteed to make you check your locks and look under the bed before going to sleep." Her book, Stolen Property- Tales of Terror, is in pre-publication. She also publishes the Catherine Harlow, Private Investigator series where her detective encounters plenty of horrors of her own.
Kristen is the former head writer and fiction editor of Mused Literary Magazine. Besides blogging for The Huffington Post, her portfolio includes a weekly column for the new, innovative TwoDayMag.com, writing for More Magazine, the San Francisco Examiner, and various other in print and online magazines. She also writes under the name CK Houghton.
A California girl at heart, she and her husband, Alan reside in the New York City area which is "magical." For more about Kristen, her books and short stories, please visit www.kristenhoughton.com/
About the reviewer
While most people go to Disneyland while in Southern California, Jeani Rector went to the Fangoria Weekend of Horror there instead. She grew up watching the Bob Wilkins Creature Feature on television and lived in a house that had the walls covered with framed Universal Monsters posters. It is all in good fun and actually, most people who know Jeani personally are of the opinion that she is a very normal person. She just writes abnormal stories. Doesn’t everybody?
Jeani Rector is the founder and editor of The Horror Zine and has had her stories featured in magazines such as Aphelion, Midnight Street, Strange Weird and Wonderful, Dark River Press, Macabre Cadaver, Blood Moon Rising, Hellfire Crossroads, Ax Wound, Horrormasters, Morbid Outlook, Horror in Words, Black Petals, 63Channels, Death Head Grin, Hackwriters, Bewildering Stories, Ultraverse, and others. Her historical fiction full-length novel about the 1348 pandemic of bubonic plague titled Pestilence: A Medieval Tale of Plague is published by The Horror Zine Books.