Review: Hubris by P. A. Wilson

Hubris (A Charity Deacon Investigation) By P.A. Wilson ★★★★★


I love mysteries, thrillers, suspense; give me anything with a dead body and I'm happy.  In Hubris we get a body within the very first chapter.

Charity Deacon is a private investigator slash freelance journalist, who, after witnessing a mid-day murder disguised as a car crash and later accepting a missing persons case, finds herself plunged into the dangerous underworld of Vancouver.  Where prostitution, human trafficking, and the rule of Chinese gangsters is just a normal day.

Told from Charity's point of view Hubris is a fast paced page turner, we meet Charity, her best friend Lu, her friend-with-benefits Jake, and her client Val very quickly.  Quick actually does a good job of describing Hubris, but that could just be because I had a hard time putting it down.

After agreeing to take Val's case, Charity's life grows a lot more dangerous, and the reader moves a bit closer to the edge of their seat.

I really enjoyed the set up and development of the characters in Hubris and of course, the story itself.  Ms. Wilson uses an informal language and tone in both the narration and dialog which results in a plot and characters that are completely believable.  Charity isn't a badass or a magic user, on the contrary, she's kind of clumsy and she talks to herself, frequently.  In other words, completely normal.  It is this normalcy of the characters, and the situations they find themselves that really makes this book such a page turner.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good paranormal story, the unexplainable, in-human monster stalking the streets is deliciously terrifying, but the human monsters are always far more scary.

Nearly impossible to put down, I would recommend Hubris to anyone who enjoys the detective novels or the suspense genre.  I for one, am glad I had the opportunity to read it, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next  (mis)adventure Charity gets herself into.

There only negative thing I have to say about this book is that in my copy of Hubris there were a few mis-spellings, and some typographical errors which made for a bit of difficulty, especially in one paragraph where it seemed a few words had been left out entirely.  But as no publication is perfect, these flaws are fairly minor, and I still rate Hubris as a five star story.

If you are looking for a fun story, a realistic heroine, and you're alright with staying up til 3 in the morning to finish a book, than you owe it to yourself to give this one a spin.

DISCLOSURE: I received Hubris as a gift from Ms. Wilson after I'd expressed interest in reading it, and she had expressed interest in my reviews. This in no way effected my review, and the above is my honest opinion of the book.