Book info

• Title The Bubble Gum Thief
• Author Jeff Miller
• Year 2012
• Genre Mystery

Special Agent Dagny Gray is smart, athletic, and fearless. She's also fragile, depressed, and anorexic. If she doesn't get healthy soon, the FBI will drop her--and she'll never have a chance to end the crime spree of the so-called 'bubble gum thief.' It all started with the theft of a pack of gum, and the ominous note he left behind: THIS IS MY FIRST CRIME. MY NEXT WILL BE BIGGER. Every two weeks, he delivers on this pledge, committing a bigger crime, and promising that the next will be even worse. When petty theft gives way to bloody murder, the stakes become clear. He may have begun with the smallest crime possible, but he's building toward the biggest crime imaginable. There's a method to the gum thief's madness, and Special Agent Dagny Gray knows she can figure it out...if the Bureau will let her. But will it be in time to prevent the cataclysmic finale of his escalating spree?

Thoughts

An interesting read, this one. It managed to steer clear of some of the more predictable cop thriller tropes, for example, our protagonist was taken off the case before it even got going, rather than halfway through. Dagny Gray was a difficult character to get to like, and I was a bit disappointed that the anorexia storyline did’t go anywhere. It had been pretty well handled up to the point it just disappeared.

The case was an interesting one, and I quite enjoyed the chase, but the twist at the end confused me. I found it hard to follow the complex web of characters, but that could have just been me being stupid. Otherwise, it was well written and interesting enough, but not quite the gem it initially seemed to be.

Rating: 3 / 5