Review: This Is Devin Jones by Kristen Conrad

Published: July 2016

Pages: 306

Synopsis: "Beverly Hills Police Detective Devin Jones has a problem – no, it’s not the dead body that turned up on the lawn of a washed up drunk Hollywood legend, and it’s not even that she’s been having an affair with the biggest actresses in the world who’s now marrying her male co-star, it’s that Devin has been set up on a blind date to the glamorous Hollywood Screen Awards - and not only is her date a dud, but when Devin comes back from a bathroom break during the show, the theater is eerily empty and a madman has taken 25 of the world’s biggest movie and TV stars hostage. Suddenly Hollywood’s biggest night becomes Hollywood’s biggest nightmare. Alone and unarmed, Devin Jones has to get them out. Or die trying."

Rating: **

I’m really on the fence with this one, so have no choice but to give This Is Devin Jones 2 stars.

I decided to read This Is Devin Jones based purely on the blurb and I must admit, I was a little disappointed. I read this to be quite tongue in cheek, not too serious and reminded me of the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich because of this.

The title was simple and fit with the main theme of Hollywood/celebrity culture; as you could imagine “This is Devin Jones” being announced over a tannoy. Also being the first book about the titular character, it made sense for a simple yet bold title.

Themes explored include Hollywood and celebrity culture, which I felt was approached in a cliched, over-stereotypical way almost as though the characters were caricatures of real people. Another major theme was gay relationships which for the most part I thought were represented well. Except Lori. She was a vile person and a horrible representation of a lesbian. This is a prime example of how lesbian and gay relationships are often portrayed as dysfunctional in some way as Lori was most definitely a dysfunctional lesbian. But clearly well written. How much I disliked her character is my main memory of the entire novel, which I think is a shame that one character negatively outweighed the rest of the characters and even the plot. I am sure this wasn’t intentional on the author’s part.

I did find myself getting a bit bored around halfway through, but I carried on as I was mildly intrigued by what would happen at the end. I thought the end was somewhat predictable, but did wrap everything up nicely.