Book Review: Guilt by Degrees

Book: Guilt by Degrees (Rachel Knight book #2) by Marcia Clark

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Review:

Right off the bat, I felt like this book was longer than it should have been.

When I was reading this it felt like I was reading two books in one. Because when the story wasn't about District Attorney Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller trying to gather evidence for a murder case for an unidentified victim who was homeless. The story switched every now and then to focus on a lady named "Sabrina" who gathers information and secrets for a price. It also took a little while before the two plots started to connect but when it did it fit.

I honestly didn't care for Sabrina's narrative or why she was doing what she was doing. But she is important to the story but I still think it would have been better if the story had just focused on Rachel trying to solve a nearly unsolvable case with the reader getting the information about "Sabrina" as the story progressed.

The story is good but there is so much of the story that is focused on random stuff or nonessential details that it slows down the story's momentum. Also, there is so much food and drinks mentioned throughout this book that I was half expecting to find a few recipes at the end.

The author does a good job of showing the reader that Rachel has a nice balanced life from her going out to get something to eat with her friends or boyfriend. And similar to the first book, Rachel continues to spend plenty of time telling the reader about all the clothes that she's wearing as well as what others are wearing. It's good to show that Rachel has a life besides her career but perhaps it would be okay to cut just a little bit of that to keep the flow of the story going more smoothly.

I don't think I mentioned it in my review for the first book but Rachel continues to deal with her older sister's disappearance. It happened when they were younger. But after her boyfriend Lieutenant Graden Hales offered to look into the case, it made their relationship even more complicated. Which introduced relationship drama that I didn't really see was cause for. The way I see it Rachel got mad all because he wanted to help. She accused him of prying into her private life but it's not really considered private if the information can be found from old newspaper articles online. The guy was only trying to help.

As the second book in the series, I did find it to be better than the first but with so much focus on so many other things the mystery ended up feeling like it was pushed to the background.