Touching Evil, Kay Hooper

So I am in the middle of my book club book, "Touching Evil" by Kay Hooper. I just wanted to sum up some of my preliminary thoughts of the book -- I'm not finished it yet, but I've already got a fairly definite idea of how I feel about it.

Its a good story, good concept, excetera, but it feels like its missing personality. Maybe I've been spoiled by personality-ridden books such as Laurell K. Hamilton's "Anita Blake" series, or Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" series*, but I miss the wicked humour, the sarcasm, protagonists struggling with a thousand different things at once.

Or, to be blunt, I don't like the character of Maggie Barnes in "Touching Evil".

It could be that I am still holding against her the fact that she called the rapist "an animal" three times nearly consecutively in the opening chapters. I know it isn't rational, but holy irritation, Batman. Secondly, she doesn't really have a definite voice. She is strong, but she is also weak, and while a contrast like that is normally interesting, her character seems to just ... fall flat. I don't care about her. I don't care what happens to her, and for the most part, I don't care what happens to the other characters in the book either.

I don't hate this novel, but its not a novel I'll remember for a long time after reading it. Its sort of ... a quick, beach read -- although right now I'm doing it without the beach.

*Okay, and don't even get me started on Anita Blake's sextacular activities of late. Way to jump the shark, Laurell. HOWEVER, The Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris is probably one of my favourite series ever, and I cannot recommend it enough.