Hand of Fate by Lis Wiehl - Disappointing, but a quick read

Hand of Fate is aptly described as a fast-paced, non-stop whirlwind. It is the second book in Lis Wiehl's "Triple Threat" series, featuring a female crime-solving trio in the vein of James Patterson’s “Women’s Murder Club” series. I did not read Wiehl’s first book Face of Betrayal, but I didn’t find that to be a drawback.

The story opens with the shocking murder of popular, highly controversial, talk-show radio host, Jim Fate. Rather than a dearth of suspects, there are too many to name. The three friends who form the “Triple Threat” club – prosecutor Allison Pierce, FBI agent Nicole Hedges, and journalist Cassidy Shaw – work together to narrow the list.

In addition to this high-profile case that could be a career maker for each of them, they all hold secrets of their own that they struggle with privately. Because their friendship is a new one, based on the tenuous thread of having attended high school together, the absolute trust that comes with the aging and deepening of relationships has yet to arrive. The unfortunate result is that the reader doesn't become overly invested in the characters either.

Although the book is a page-turner, it is so (too often for my taste) not because you cannot wait to see what happens next, but because you are trying to tie up the frayed ends of the women’s secrets. Two of the women carry serious issues charged with emotional and physical consequences, but Wiehl fails to assign them that level of importance. Long brewing and elaborate issues are unrealistically “addressed” and “solved” in a matter of pages. Each of these characters and their secrets are worthy of entire books in themselves, and might well be better suited to that treatment. I would be interested to see what Wiehl could accomplish with that approach.

The book is characterized as Christian fiction, but I found it no more so than the last Dean Koontz novel I read. That aspect felt forced and almost more of an afterthought of "How can we differentiate this book from the dozens of others that are so similar?" Making one of the women an atheist comes off like a set-up for future exploitation of the religious angle. If you are drawn to books based on a designation of Christian, you will not receive any unpleasant surprises, but you shouldn't expect any real theological treatment.

Overall, Hand of Fate is a good summer read, as it is short enough to read in a day or two on the beach. I give it three stars.

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for an honest review.