Vincent’s Blog

The characters, even those who only put in a brief appearance, are three-dimensional and fleshed out well. The main character, Mike Hegan, is a tough guy who’s had a rough time of it emotionally – and the punches, literal and mental, keep rolling for him throughout the book. All of this makes you want to take his side in every fight. With this mystery, the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride that weaves in and out of the lives of several different people from varying walks of life, including mobsters, horse trainers, artists, policemen and florists. The setting also changes often – from racetracks to mobsters’ homes to Caribbean islands. All of this combines to make the story anything but boring. I would love to see this turned into a series. Hegan and his large florist friend would make an interesting PI duo, especially if the author added some more humor to the mix. The only thing that keeps this novel from being a truly great book is the lack of proofreading done on the manuscript. Please, for the love of God, get someone to fix the manuscript and resubmit it so that readers can truly enjoy the experience of reading this great story without the irritation of typos, incorrect punctuation, etc.

If you are a fan of novels that keep a good pace and also keep you thinking then A Woman to Blame by Vincent Panettiere will be right up your alley. The main character is Mike Hegan, tough guy cop whose career ends because of medical disability. His life was no cup of tea either. After announcing his engagement to his fiancé he loses her. He has substantial conflicts to deal with within in his family. And he’s a cop, it can’t get much harder. The story opens with Mike on a small Carribean Island investigating a homicide that he disagrees with the official ruling on. His quest for the truth takes him places from Chicago to the Carribean and introduces to characters from all walks of life. Even the small characters that we only see briefly are well developed and interesting. The characters are so engaging that I would love to see Mike Heagan as the center of a series. Well done.

A well-written mystery novel is highly dependent on its cast of characters. If they are not well-rounded, there will not be as much intrigue regarding who is guilty. If they are not interesting, then the reader will not care who is guilty and who is innocent. The way in which the characters are introduced is fairly interesting as well. From early on, the novel will occasionally appear to shift viewpoints slightly. While some reviewers have claimed that this can get confusing, it also teaches the readers to stay on their toes. It is also a much more sensible style of writing when one considers that the author, Vincent Panettiere, used to work on unproduced screenplays. The main character is definitely one of the most interesting of the bunch. Mike Hegan is supposed to be ending his career, but he cannot let go of a case that he feels has been wrapped up too neatly. He decides to delve further, and turns out to be right in doing so. Some reviewers have stated a desire to see this tough, stubborn detective as the basis for a longer series. Whether or not this comes to fruition, the depth of Panettiere’s character writing would certainly validate further mystery novels by this impressive author. “A Woman to Blame” would have made an excellent movie had the original idea been picked up for a screenplay, but it might make an even more excellent novel as it is now. This incredibly well-written mystery is worth checking out for those who like a truly gritty tale with a sense of intrigue that seems torn straight out of yesteryear and fashioned in a way that modern audiences should be easily able to appreciate.

Immediately within the first couple pages, readers are drawn in to an intense and mysterious tale. A young girl is introduced and her seemingly free-spirit, grasp the attention of the readers, because some men come into camp and very quickly, her mom, the Mud Woman disappears. Thus, the mystery of her disappearance begins and readers meet another character, Mike Hegan. Far from the refugee camp of the Mud Woman, Mike finds himself immersed in the disappearance of this woman, leaving the reader wondering how their lives and stories become intertwined. Once readers understand the characters and can make some sense of them, The Scopas Factor is a well-written and intense mystery. There are many tales of lies, deceit and secrets that make this book difficult to predict. I found myself on the edge of my seat, wanting to read more to try and figure out if Mike Hegan would be successful in uncovering how and why the disappearance of the Mud Woman took place. Because of the intense way the story sucks the readers in, time passes by quickly at the suspense of what will happen next.

This book took me a bit to get into since it follows different characters in the beginning than the main character. However, it’s set up is relevant to key aspects through the rest of the book. From the book description I thought the fiance, Diana, would be more absent, more of a plot device. On the contrary, she’s active and funny and makes a great counter to the more serious, grounded Hegan. It’s fun watching them get sucked into a circumstances they don’t want to care about, and then watching them figure out all the stray pieces and having to run all over creation to put those pieces together. Probably what was most interesting and unexpected is the art factor. The role of art and artists comes up a lot--reminiscent of the Da Vinci code in a way. As someone who enjoys art of all varieties, I enjoyed this very much. I give four stars because despite the engaging plot, witty characters and sharp dialogue, there is a lot of telling where I would prefer showing. The author obviously put in a lot of work on the dialogue and I wish they would have used it even more to expose information and character traits. Maybe that’s just a personal on my part.