Irrefutable (Dale Roberts)

I don’t know if I would read another book by Dale Roberts. I might, if assured that certain things improve.

For one thing, although the story in Irrefutable is okay, it’s not compelling. For another, Roberts’ writing style doesn’t grab hold of me. Finally, his writing and editing mechanics are rather pathetic. I have more to say about the mechanics later.

Cypress Village (Florida) Police Department Detective Sgt. Alex Mendez, Violent Crimes Unit, hallucinates and talks to his dead wife, Allyson in moments of high stress. He blames himself for her death many years ago (they had argued, she thought he was having an affair and left the house).

Two women in their mid-30s are raped, both were jogging, pushed from behind and attacked. Apparently, there is a serial rapist at work, similar to a group of cases many years ago. Information on these two rapes, along with a third that occurs soon after, is being leaked to the media, who have christened by perpetrator “The Trailside Stalker.”

Deputy District Attorney Rachel Summers, Allyson’s boss and best friend, has become close to Alex’s 16-year-old daughter, Carmine, who in turn has developed a friendship with the sexual assault nurse helping with the case – Janet Freeman.

Suspects are presented and developed, all of whom turn out to be red herrings easily spotted as such. When the real perpetrator is revealed, it’s actually not that much of a surprise – it’s telegraphed early on.

Now, for some criticism on the mechanics (and I do this with all due respect for Mr. Roberts’ hard work):

·         The scene of the first crime is spelled two different ways: McManus and McMannus.

·         Inappropriate apostrophe #1: “He hasn’t? That hurt’s my feelings."

·         Inappropriate apostrophe #2: "So, she get’s not only her name, but ..."

·         Missing apostrophe: “Besides, I don’t want her to hear a bunch of sirens and know were coming.”

·         Inappropriate capitalization: "The Identities of the victims have not been released."

·         Sloppy editing, use of similar but wrong word: "You end up spending more time answering their questions that you do on the case."

·         Here's another one of those: "I can put your umbrella over her with ours."

·         Ignorance of meanings of similar-sounding words: "Samuels was un-phased" should be "unfazed."

·         Capitalization problem: “'Are you okay?' He said as he entered the house ..."

·         Contraction error: "That’ okay. I’ll just let you go."

·         Horribly wrong word choice that only exhibits lazy ignorance: "His mind sorted through ... all the bazaar theories."

I stopped looking for these about halfway through the book, there were simply too many. It matters not whose fault it is, the ultimate responsibility lies with the author.

Irrefutable (2011)

Dale Roberts

DTR Books ($7.99 digital)

ASIN: B0052GFSIG