“You’ve most likely never met a narrator like Bobbi. Tough, tender, funny, full of heart―and a transgender woman.” ―Jodi PicoultBobbi Logan is a successful businesswoman and a celebrated hairdresser. She is a witty, articulate woman who has survived rape, gender transition, a murder investigation, and countless acts of bullying and bigotry to get where she is—and she’s made enemies along the way. … enemies along the way. Now one of them is stalking her. With each passing day, the threats become more brazen, more violent, and more personal. No one knows who here stalker is or why he’s after her, but he’s getting closer every day.
Bobbi is intimidated but she has vowed to never be the victim again. She accumulates a list of six suspects, and with courage and persistence, she hunts them down, one by one—stalking her possible stalkers. But as she confronts those men who may want to do her harm, the number seven keeps haunting her—there must be a seventh suspect.
And when she finds him, Bobbi’s world implodes.
more
Like the transgender main character with all her flaws. Good strong character for the LGBT community.
A Too Edgy Psychological Thriller
Seven Suspects opens with the heroine, Bobbi Logan, a transgender woman, setting the stage with her recent history with a serial killer as an aside. This background is needed as this is the third book in the series. After this introduction, the main storyline starts with Bobbi’s daily life as a hair salon owner/operator, apartment building owner, and transgender woman. Also during this the reader learns more about Bobbi through her interactions with her ex-wife, that wife’s teenage daughter from a subsequent marriage, and various friends and lovers.
The entire first part of the novel has strong undertone of fear. Bobbi repeatedly expresses her fear of being a woman especially being a transgender woman. She has been raped in the past. Soon, she starts to feel that she is being followed. The fears become paranoia, but it becomes reality with attacks start against her property. The main storyline emerges now as Bobbi tries to figure out who is stalking her.
As I stated above, the B-storyline is extensive and well integrated into the main story. I did not realize when I started to read this novel that it is the third in a series. The author does backfill on what was portrayed in the previous novels that pertains to this one, so that fact should not discourage you from reading this novel before the previous.
While the start was slow, the action did speed up once the main storyline took over. It eventually did capture my imagination enough that I wanted to find out who was the stalker. This aspect was about the only positive I have for this novel. On the downside, the authors includes very graphic sex scenes where Bobbi was a willing and unwilling participant, graphic violence including a rape by foreign object, and language that is quite explicit. This novel greatly exceeded my rather permissive standards for sex, violence and language. Readers be forewarned.
At the end, the author did wrap up the main storyline satisfactory. The B-storyline also ended up in satisfactory situation. This and the keeping my interest in the latter part of the novel are the only reasons that I upped my rating from one star to two stars. I cannot recommend reading this novel.
I have received a free kindle version of this novel through NetGalley from Oceanview Publishing with a request for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Oceanview for the opportunity to read this novel.
There are few role models for transgender people, but I wasn’t expecting a book about a transgender hairdresser who investigates murders to really be able to stand up. I’m happy to say that this book proved me wrong. The main character is drawn very plausibly as both a hairdresser and a trans woman. Admittedly the author has real-life experience but it still takes a lot of talent to turn it into something that reads well. The book itself is well-paced and a very satisfying read. My only critique is that it looks back to the two previous books in the series too much. She provides all the detail you need to read this book stand-alone but that still takes up a lot of space with what is essentially exposition.
I did enjoy the book so much that I immediately bought the other two and read them back-to-back. A very enjoyable series.
Renee Jame’s brilliant Bobbi Logan series will truly put you into the shoes of the transgender experience in Chicago. The experience is deep, heartfelt, brutally honest, and evoke a myriad of emotions in the reader. Joy, excitement, sympathy, fear, anger, sadness, hope, empathy, love, awe, inspiration… I could go on and on about the emotions it evoked in me!
I can completely envision this intense series into a fantastic movie or television series. These books are extremely important in understanding the transgender issues that have been and are at hand. It may be shocking for the reader, but it needs to be known these things can and do happen. And at this terrible time in our politically divided world, Bobbi Logan is a true heroine. Renee James is a true heroine. Her talented and poetic writing style engulfs the reader into a life-changing journey. She has enhanced my knowledge of the transgender experience and I am ever grateful.
The audience for these books does not need to read them in sequence. In my opinion, it creates a deeper bond between the reader and Bobbi Logan to read the series through, but it is not a must. Renee James is utterly brilliant in creating understanding of events, both past and present. The education she provides through her awe-inspiring writing is desperately needed in our world.
To the negative reviewers:
If you don’t like this series, odds are you are simply squeamish about brutally honest murder thrillers, or you sadly live with hate in your heart! If you are part of the latter group, I especially suggest you read the series from beginning to end and learn from it.
I highly recommend everyone to read the Bobbi Logan Series:
Book 1: Coming Out Can Be Murder was published in 2012. It featured Bobbi Logan, a transsexual heroine, and it introduced many non-trans people to what transgender life was like early in this century. It won awards from the Chicago Writers Association and ForeWord Reviews, and was republished in 2014 with a plot change as Transition to Murder.
Book 2: The second book in the series was issued by Oceanview Publishing in 2016. A Kind of Justice picked up Bobbi’s life five years later, in 2008 as she battled the Great Recession and a transphobic detective trying to pin a murder on her.
Book 3: Seven Suspects will be released on Oct. 3rd, 2017. I takes place another five years later, with Bobbi trying to mentor her pre-teen niece and find out who is stalking her and why.