Review: Singer and St Jude: The Lost Cause by Lazette Gifford

The particulars: Science fiction, Double Dragon,  available as e-book
The Source: Fictionwise
The Grade: B
The Blurb:

In 2039 Los Angeles, half ruined by devastating quakes, is in the hands of three policing forces--the National Feds, the State Militia and the city's own Local force, all of them squabbling over jurisdiction. Religious intolerance grows under the watchful eye of the CCP, and survival is a precarious game of chance and cunning. And in this maelstrom of disaster, two Local detectives, working on their first case together, try to find a drug dealer with a secret he's willing to sell--if he lives long enough. Unfortunately, Elias Singer is about to learn that his new partner has a dangerous secret all his own..

The review: 

This book languished unread for a long time before I picked it up. And I am glad I did.

It took a couple of pages before I was truly hooked, but once I was I couldn't stop reading. I wanted to find out how St Jude and Singer got out of this mess.

In someway, this novel scared me. Oh, not because it is horror, but because the direction the post apocalyptic world it paints are so believable. From the quakes, that wrecked California, since scientists know a big quakes will hit California, sooner or later. Too the religious intolerance that is a big part of the world. The quakes have led to a bleak world, filled with suspicions against those that are different. Like Jews, Retro, and Catholics.

The plot also felt believable, from the hunt for the drug dealer, too the sudden twist that blew everything onto a new level of importance.

What made the book work for me was the characters. The quiet love between Singer and his wife Leah made me smile. I especially liked how they gave each other space to fulfil what was important to them. I also liked how Singer and St Jude gradually became partners in the truest sense. They trusted each other with secrets that might be disastrous if they leaked out.

The biggest problem I had with this book was formatting errors. It happened more than once, that spaces were missing or in some cases letters. This is an error due to Fictionwise formatting, I suspect.