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SCHEDULED TO DIE has a very interesting premise, with an equally interesting and diabolical serial killer. As the book opens, Dana Carrington is on business in Asheville, North Carolina, when an attractive man joins her at the table where she is dining alone and then takes her out for a show. When they arrive back at her hotel, Dana finds out that Mike Sweeney is not the charming companion she thought he was. He drugs her, ties her up, and offers her a deal he feels she cannot resist. He will give her a year to live her life to the fullest, doing all the things that she might have ever dreamed up. At the end of the year, he will kill her painlessly. However, if she goes to the police, he will torture and kill her much sooner. And he proves he means what he promises by showing her a scrapbook containing photos of his earlier victims – some who took advantage of his deal and some who did not.
When Dana returns home to Chicago, shaken and scared, she turns to her friend Erin, who connects Dana with Carter Mays, a private investigator, to help Dana find Mike Sweeney before he can harm her. Unfortunately, Mike finds other ways to hurt Dana as he targets first Erin, then Dana's mother, and then her dog. Carter offers to help Dana learn to protect herself, and he starts with a lesson on psychological strength that comes in handy as the dynamic between Mike and Dana plays out.
This is a short and very fast read, giving every appearance of being an outline for a more fleshed out later draft. It captures the reader's interest, and as a very straightforward skeleton of a book, it satisfies. However, I couldn't help wondering how much better the book would have been if Alan Cupp had gone back and provided more details about the characters and plot line. The linear narrative, simple descriptions, and even very basic dialogue led me to believe the book wasn't quite finished. Although there is a resolution, it would have had more of an impact if some of the characters' motivations were more fully developed.
This is the second book in the Carter Mays series. Perhaps with the third, Cupp will fill in the details. He clearly has a great imagination to dream up the complexities of the plot of SCHEDULED TO DIE. If he uses that imagination and fully develops the plot and characters, his series could become a great one.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, July 2015
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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