Stratagem by Robin Caroll

Book description:


A High-Stakes Simulation Adventure Leaves Grayson Thibodeaux the Prime Suspect. . .for Murder

Deep in the gritty underbelly of New Orleans, psychologist Grayson Thibodeaux loses everything when his wife leaves him to climb her company’s corporate ladder. He buries himself in his job of creating mind-bending adventure games for businesses as team-building explorations. When his ex-wife’s company hires Grayson’s to create an elaborate game, he doesn’t see how things can get worse. Until she dies during the course of the game he created…making him the prime suspect for murder.


My review:

This is a different kind of book for being Christian suspense. For one thing, the book centers on and is from the perspective of a male, though the book is was written by a woman. Kudos to her for doing so. The Christian fiction market tends to be geared more for women, and it was refreshing to read a book that wasn't that way so much.

The plot was really good, and the game that the plot centered around was quite a genius idea for Carroll to come up with.

This is a classic "who dun it", and it was a great one. I had a suspect early in the book, but was wrong. I was leaning towards another, who turned out to be the correct one, though the author did change my mind briefly on that and had me suspecting the opposite sex briefly of who I was suspecting

There are a lot of police interviewing suspects and others involved, which could be monotonous, but Caroll did those well and they were interesting and even amusing at times.

Grayson was the main character, and was a very likable one who you could not help but feel bad for and believe in his innocence. Even though a fictional story, the issue of forgiveness was addressed and the necessity of him forgiving his dead wife.

This was different from Caroll's usual books - which I have been reading for several years now - but it was a great read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

 Stratagem is not a book I was given for review, but one I purchased and decided to do an official review for.


About the author:

“I love boxing. I love Hallmark movies. I love fishing. I love scrapbooking. Nope, I've never fit into the boxes people have wanted to put me in.” ~Robin Caroll is definitely a contradiction, but one that beckons you to get to know her better.

Robin’s passion has always been to tell stories to entertain others and come alongside them on their faith journey—aspects Robin weaves into each of her published novels.

Best-selling author of more than twenty-seven novels, ROBIN CAROLL writes Southern stories of mystery and suspense, with a hint of romance to entertain readers. Her books have been recognized in several awards, including the Carol Award, HOLT Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and more.

When she isn’t writing, Robin spends quality time with her husband of twenty-eight-plus years, her three beautiful daughters and two handsome grandsons, and their character-filled pets at home.

Robin serves the writing community as Executive/Conference Director for ACFW.

Check out her website at RobinCaroll.com