This book is from Raven Books, an imprint of Orca Book Publishers,  under the rubric “Rapid Reads”and is classed as Adult Fiction.  My copy is an advanced one from uncorrected proofs.  The author, James Heneghan, was a fingerprint specialist for the Vancouver Police Department and has won numerous awards for his books for young children.  This novel is not for children by any means but follows the Rapid Reader genre put out by Raven Books.  This is the second of these books I have read and reviewed and now that I have more experience with them I can understand where the publishers want to go: to those adults who are not highly literate but are interested reading.  As a result the grammar is spare and the adjectives strong.  Subtle nuances are not in this genre and endings can be seen coming.

At the same time the plot has interesting turns and one can quickly come to enjoy the activities of the protagonist.  In A Woman Scorned the hero is Sebastian Casey, a reporter for the West End Clarion.  Casey, a transplanted Irishman, is not very ambitious, seeking neither fame and fortune but with a bump of curiosity.  Normally assigned to City Hall, Casey finds himself suddenly sent to cover police activities or the “cop shop” as they call it.  A fortunate happenstance as a City Councilman is found a suicide but did he truly cut his wrist and bleed to death in his high rise luxury condo?  Casey is not so sure and off we go on an adventurous mission as he starts to unravel the skein of facts. 

Mixed in with the above Casey also has to cope with the fact that the love of his life, while in Ireland caring for her dying mother, has apparently taken up with a writer there.  Oh the vicissitudes.

A good Rapid Reader, I finished it in two hours, and I believe it is spot on for the audience Raven Books intends.