Review of The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Review of Lindsay Cummings' The Murder Complex

Release Date: June 10th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.

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In the future, the human race is on the brink of extinction, when a cure is found to destroy all disease: Natural death is a thing of the past. Meadow has been trained to defend herself & her family, so that she does not become another one of the dead like her mother... killed and left in the streets, to be swept up like trash. Zephyr is a Ward. An Orphan of the Initiative, whose job is to clean up the bodies. When fate has them meet, it is like he has known her all his life... he's dreamt of her for as long as her can remember.

When they are about to kiss for the first time, they look into each other's eyes and a switch is set off in his head... The Murder Complex. Zephyr is part of a Undercover Science Experiment that kills off citizens who are chosen in a lottery based system to combat the ever growing numbers of people.

I was intrigued by the synopsis for The Murder Complex & captivated by the idea of this story... and I was not as happy with the complete book as I would have hoped to be. Where as a good mystery keeps you guessing as to what is going to happen, I found myself guessing the ending instead. The whole book was not that way, but parts of it were very predictable. I found the love story portion to be unexplored & a little forced.

I would have to give Lindsay Cummings a hand for a valiant attempt on a different take on dystopia in her Freshman novel... but really do hope the sequel is a little less predictable.

Please do not take this as a bad review, because I did enjoy parts of the book. I will be reading the sequel when it comes out... and hope that you all give the book a chance. I believe is supporting all kinds of artists in their venture, especially authors. And although my review may not be the best, I have read many reviews of readers who really enjoyed this book.