Rant Review: "The Tip Line" by Vanessa Cuti

Quick Summary

Type: Audiobook

Genre: Mystery, thriller, romance

Back Cover: "Perfect for fans of Hannah Morrissey and May Cobb, Vanessa Cuti’s debut is an unsettling thriller that asks just how far you should go to find love.

Anxious to get married, thirty-year-old Virginia Carey lands a job as an operator at a police tip line, where she thinks finding a husband will be easy. There’s Charlie Ford, a surprisingly sweet homicide detective, and charming police chief Declan “Deck” Brady. But just as Virginia’s plans begin to fall into place and she can almost picture a ring on her finger, she answers a call from Verona—a mysterious woman who provides a tip about four bodies on a remote local beach.

Verona, a sex worker, also gives Virginia details on sordid and raucous parties attended by law enforcement officers, and on the strange fetishes of cops she has been involved with. Then comes an explosive tip: Verona thinks it’s a police officer who is responsible for the killings.

But it can’t be true—the cops Virginia works with are marriage material, even if they are a little rough around the edges. While Verona trusts that her tips are being heard because she and Virginia have formed an unusual connection, Virginia realizes that the key to solving the case is ultimately in her hands.

The tip line will reveal the truth about those murders. So long as Virginia is willing to hear it."

Rating: 1 star

Review

I am starting to really, really hate books that market themselves as thrillers but are actually romances. I was fine with The Ex, because the reason for the thriller aspects was the romance and the focus was on the thriller aspects, but in this one and You Shouldn't Have Come Here, the romance was the focus and the authors forgot to focus on the thriller aspects of their thrillers.

To me, this book fails as both a mystery and a thriller. Mystery? What mystery? Am I supposed to be wondering who the killer is? Because I know for a fact that the killer is the guy Virginia's super into. And thriller? Am I supposed to be scared that the chief will kill Virginia? Because I know that's not happening. Or am I supposed to be scared that the chief will kill Verona? Because that's a given. I might have been scared if Virginia had tried to get out of the relationship with the chief and bring what she knew to higher authorities - state police or FBI or something - but since Virginia was way more interested in getting married to the murderer, and wasn't scared of him at all, I wasn't scared either.

I wonder if the author thought she was making a clever commentary on the police, or on so-called 'pick-me girls'. If so, she failed. If she intended to write a romance with a whiny main character and a murderous love interest, she succeeded. Problem is, I didn't sign up to read (or listen to) a romance. I wanted something that made my heart pump. Like, you know, a thriller.

Also, and I realize this is nitpicky but it should have been caught by the editor, but what are these naming conventions? An author named Vanessa writes about a woman named Virginia talking to another woman named Verona? Too many Vs, girl.