This is a Book Review for A Woman Underground by Andrew Klavan, book four of the Cameron Winter Mysteries series.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penzler Publishers | Mysterious Press for the advance copy of this novel. I was given this ebook in exchange for an honest review. I also won a physical advance copy on a giveaway hosted by Mysterious Press on X.
Thanks @MysteriousPress for the advanced copy of A Woman Under Ground by @andrewklavan pic.twitter.com/uh0pbgUU0w
— Ana Perez (@AnitasBooklist) September 25, 2024
A Woman Underground is the fourth book in the Cameron Winter Mysteries series.
It’s scheduled to be released on October 15, 2024. It’s available for preorder now.
This is a complex story with complex characters.
Who is this book for?
If you enjoy crime fiction with intricate plots, this book is for you. It’s perfect for fans of Andrew Klavan’s Cameron Winter Mysteries. Be prepared to think critically and pay close attention to details to keep up with the story.
Who is this book not for?
Readers should be aware. This text contains explicit content, trafficking, violence, and themes of racism and supremacy. The middle of this book is messy and full of difficult subjects to read. At points, I wanted to put this book down and DNF it. I can’t stomach explicit content or topics like human trafficking. I only completed this novel so I could leave a review.
What I enjoyed most:
Characters, Themes, Archetypes:
Cameron Winter, the detective operative. He wants to save Charlotte, his childhood love interest. Charlotte seems to cry for help. A gullible romantic, Winter, sets off into the wind like Don Quixote. His therapist, Margaret, is his Sancho Panza. She warns him that everything isn’t what it seems, and what do you know? She’s right. Winter must go on a journey of self-discovery. He must seek forgiveness for his past. He must fight evil racists and extremists. In the end, he should have just called Gwendolyn. She was a nice woman he dated five months ago.
The themes and ending make reading this story worth it. I hated the story about Jerry Collins. I hated the book in the story, Treachery in the Night, that serves as a set of clues for Winter to find Charlotte. And I went from rooting for Winter to find Charlotte in the beginning of the story to hoping he’d leave her. As her story unfolded, she appeared to be the most morally bankrupt character in the novel.
What I like the most about this story is the characters’ archetypes. I liked how well they tied into the story’s themes, the character arcs, and the plot.
My biggest criticism of the story was that the middle felt messy, and I wanted to put the book down. But I’m glad I didn’t! My favorite part of the novel was the ending. It gave a satisfactory conclusion and explained the messy middle. It all comes together well in the end.
My Rating:
3.5 Stars Rounded up to 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I would have given this a higher rating, but I didn’t like the way the story mentioned Jesus’s name.
Hope you enjoyed this Book Review for A Woman Underground by Andrew Klavan. If you enjoyed this check out my review for The Mysterious Bookshop Presents 2024 by the same publisher.
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Best,
Anita