A Deeper Darkness: Sam Owens, Book 1

I love a book where mystery takes the lead and winds through different phases. Just when I thought I knew everything, I was confronted with a different and winding road that led to the ultimate conclusion.

I really wanted to love this series as much as her Taylor Jackson series. But I had a hard time getting into the story. This series focuses around Taylor's best friend Sam. Sam is the chief medical examiner for Nashville.As the story gets underway, we learn that two years earlier, Sam lost her husband and twins in a flash flood. Sam is still grieving, and not handling her loss well.When she gets a call to go to Washington D.C. at the request of an old boyfriend's mother, she sees it as a way to escape for awhile. Eddie Donovan was her college sweetie. They loved each other, but Donovan broke it off with Sam when he joined the Army. He was going to be a Ranger. Now, fifteen years later, Donovan was killed in a car jacking. His mother has asked Sam to perform a second autopsy. She just knows something else is going on.When she arrives, she meets Donovan's wife and children. She doesn't realize how much it hurts that he's moved on and how happy he was with his life.The second autopsy does show something that was missed the first time. It prompts the detectives working the case to take another look. Then a second man is killed, and its learned he was in the same squad as Donovan. Now they have two dead men who are linked by their jobs and their service together.Sam does a lot of healing in helping Donovan's wife and mother deal with their own loss. But she doesn't really start to feel better until she meets Xander, another Ranger who served with Donovan.This story really dragged for me. There was a lot of internal dialog from Sam trying to deal with her own issues. Then throw in some detecting, then back to Sam's issues. It picked up in the last five or so chapters when they started closing in on the killer. But up to that point, it was so slow. I found it hard to pick it back up when I had to stop reading. I hope the next book is as exciting as the other series. This one was just so-so for me.

I will state first that I have great admiration for any author who can write a mystery/thriller and have the book published (I believe "good" mysteries/thrillers take more talent and imagination to write than mainstream fiction), so congratulations to Ms. Ellison.This book I cannot recommend. The protagonist is a bundle of contradictions. At the same time, she came across to me as quite pathetic, not very likeable, certainly in no way to be admired or pitied, and with a woe-is-me guilt obsession that results in her victimization as a sufferer of an OCD neurosis (the ubiquitous in books hand-washing obsession-compulsion) - woe-is-me. It took the author until the very end of the book to describe the "catastrophe" that drove the guilt and the neurosis. In fact, to any practical person, this catastrophe, as a causative factor, just didn't make much sense. The reason for her feelings of guilt was lame and shallow, and for a highly educated forensic pathologist, as she was depicted, it didn't seem reasonable that she would embrace such a high level of guilt.The woman heroine was poorly developed as a character. One minute she's on her knees begging the Detective in the murder investigation to let her contribute, and a few pages later she's ignoring his phone calls. Also, other central characters kept coming to her, or searching her out, as a person in whom to confide or someone who could render assistance in eliminating that specific character's turmoil. This was a quite odd phenomenon, as the central female character was never shown to have any special talents, skills, knowledge specific to the case (having known the key victim 15-years ago with no affiliation interlude), or investigative powers. This was a sort of deus ex-machina that, for me, was annoying and not believable.The story did not flow, but appeared more as though the author sort of developed ideas and scenes as she went along. The feeling was that there was no outline or story assembly of a start, middle and finish before the writing began. Just a lose idea of an approximate plot - a plot that, in the final analysis, didn't make a lot of sense based on how intelligent and savvy the characters were portrayed as being.I have not read other books by this author, but I understand that this tome was a "stand-alone" and out of the pattern of her other books that feature the same characters from story to story. Based on my experience with this book, I think I'll pass on her other offerings. I did finish this story, but it was a struggle in self-discipline to get through it.

JT Ellison never disappoints..Dr. Sam Owens is a medical examiner with a sad past. She is asked to perform an autopsy on her former lover by his mother. Along the way she get embroiled in the lives of his wife and children and others who are trying to find out the truth of his death. Lots of twists and turns and a good view of someone suffering from o c d and it's manifestations.Definitely worth reading

I hadn't read any of Ellison's books before "A Deeper Darkness" but I will soon be remedying that. This is a mystery thriller written the way it's supposed to be written.Strong character development - I soon felt like I knew the main protagonist, Dr. Samantha Owens, and cheered her on and grieved with her. Secondary characters were fleshed out well, too. I liked the love interest but also liked Fletcher and especially Lurch.The story itself is fast paced with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing almost to the end of the book. I ended up staying up all night finishing the book - and I'm not complaining. It was worth it. I especially liked the military aspects of the book, with many of the main characters of the story being Army Rangers.A flood, friendly fire, PTSD, a car jacking?, a diary written in Latin, a bit of OCD behavior, old loves, new romantic interests, autopsies, Rangers dying everywhere, an illegitimate daughter, a mountain hermit...all tied together in a rip roaring fine book.I have already got an Advanced Reading Copy of  Edge of Black  and am going to be reading it next. It's snowing outside and I have a good book to read. Life is good!My only complaint was the formatting on the Kindle version. The story was bunched together, making it a bit more difficult to read.

“Uh oh” I thought when I read that here was another forensic pathologist. Another Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs? Well, I have to say, definitely not! Admittedly her job is the same, but there the similarity really ends. Owens has suffered much tragedy in her life and has become OCD as a result – I must admit that One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three… was a little wearing at times, but it appears to work for her. Called upon to help the mother of a former lover who has been shot is hard enough in itself, but it gradually becomes clear that this is no straightforward drive by shooting, and the story line really takes off at this point, becoming more intriguing by the page. It is a complex story involving friendly fire and a rape that materially affects relationships in a very close knit Ranger Group.All the characters are believable and the descriptions are well coloured. The denouement is very exciting and contains even more twists and turns than one might have been expecting. Definitely worth a read, and I shall have a look at the next in the series.

I like this author, have read a view of the Taylor/Baldwin books which are very enjoyable, I therefore expected to feel the same about this. Unfortuanately the character was not as charasmatic as her other characters and I didnt really get into the book like I usually do. It was a good read but somewhat disappointing.

Nothing to dislike. The story never stops until the end.

A gripping read from the start. Certainly keeps you guessing. Great character's you can relate to and feel for them. I am not going to detail about the book as I would recommend that everyone should read it!!!!

This book kept me guessing to the end,i have read a couple fo JT Ellison books previously and have not been disappointed with this