Dispatched
Dispatched delves into the rich, alluring world of Reno, Nevada, and Kool Klassic Nights, an annual car event in the city. With a robbery planned, a dispatch center possibly contaminated, and Rob Matthew’s dilemma between helping his wife, Caryn, in the dispatch center, and dealing with the robbery and a terrorist attack, there’s an ample amount of interesting twists.
The joy of this book is that the characters are all likable and fully realized, and Kandee Ann Kahn is smart to keep each section short. The reader bounces from sheltered Carla, roped into a robbery plot with her husband and brother in law, to the emergency’s dispatch announcement, on to the meeting of Caryn and Rob. The quick chapters read much like phone calls to and from the dispatch center. Kahn’s focus is the main plot: weaving the terrorists’ actions with Rob’s concern for his wife.
The gritty and dangerous working lives of firefighters, dispatchers, and law enforcement is realistically rendered. The reader soon learns that many such people are involved when an emergency arises. This lends authority to the book, which in turn strengthens the plot’s details.
The novel’s language is sometimes quite simple: sentences begin the same way and do not vary much in length or structure. Similarly, there are times when Kahn repeats information one too many times, or states something obvious—the love between Rob & Caryn—without going into detail. If certain sections in the book were trimmed, there would be more room for physical descriptions of the setting and characters.
With murder, love, betrayal, and a plethora of likeable and sometimes unpredictable characters, readers will find themselves dispatched on a truly interesting journey, where one can never be completely sure of the plot’s direction.
Reviewed by
Lisa Bower
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
