Book Review:

Alibi by Sharon Shinn

Publication Date; November 2024

Summary from Goodreads:

Teleportation makes everything possible.
It allows Taylor Kendall to live in Chicago, work in Houston, and take a part-time job tutoring the teenaged son of the richest man in America. But the more time she spends in Duncan Phillips’ lavish home, the more uneasy she becomes. She adores Quentin, who is suffering from a fatal degenerative disease. She’s strongly attracted to Bram Cortez, who heads up security for the household. But she’s growing increasingly afraid of Duncan Phillips, who makes it clear he has no interest in his dying son—and far too much interest in Taylor.
When Duncan Phillips turns up dead, Taylor’s on the short list of suspects who could have killed him. Sure, she was in Atlanta on the night of the murder. But Atlanta is only a few minutes away by teleport . . .

Confession:

There were a lot of things that I liked about this book, but I was very disappointed that it wasn’t the thriller I was expecting it to be. The premise is awesome and I think it had the potential to get to that thriller status, but it just didn’t ever get there. But even with that big disappointment I still liked the characters and the story.

Taylor is a very relatable and likable character. She felt very realistic to me and I totally got her. I loved her relationship with her brother and her two closest friends and enjoyed spending time with them. I also liked how she related to her students and how much she cared for them and enjoyed teaching. It was a nice representation of teaching at the college level. I also loved how she related to Quentin, the sick and dying teen she tutors and how much she wanted to help him. I even liked the romance aspect of her life and how cautious and slow both characters chose to be. I really liked Taylor and Bram together and was rooting for them both to finally admit their feelings for each other.

The characters were great, all of them were caring and wonderful people. But Quentin kind of stole the show. He was an awesome character. Very likable and even though he has been dealt a tough deal in life, he has a very sunny disposition and seems to really enjoy life. I loved the banter between him and all of the other characters.

So unfortunately as much as I loved the characters, the story was not what I was expecting. The murder doesn’t happen until almost the end of the story, (45 pages left in the book). That is when the thriller part of the story really took off and was great. I was really on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who the murderer was, but it went so quickly that it felt rushed and almost an afterthought to the rest of the story. It also ended up being someone that wasn’t even on the radar, but in retrospect made perfect sense. There just could have been more in the rest of the story to help the thriller aspect. I think the author has the potential to write a great thriller, it just needed to be executed better.

I really liked the author’s writing style. She really made me like the characters and I loved the dialogue between them. The science fiction feel to the story was there, the teleportation part of the story was interesting, but could have been developed more. The setting felt very contemporary, just better tech for traveling. But really nice vivid descriptions of the people and places visited.

Overall this wasn’t a bad story, just not the thriller that it could have been. If you are looking for a solid story that is very light in the science fiction genre, this is one you might want to take a chance on. If you are looking for a science fiction thriller, this isn’t it.