In the second book of his mystery thriller series, "Jonathan Roper Investigates", Michael Leese brings the dynamic duo of Roper and Hooley on another complex adventure to uncover the who, what, and where of notorious serial killer "Face Ripper". As a avid reader of mystery novels and regular viewer of crime TV shows, I'd like to consider myself an adequate judge of a good thriller novel when I read one. For me, I thought some chapters were rushed, while others were painstakingly dragged out. While there was a riveting hook in the beginning that successfully made me want to read more, as I went along, there seemed to be minimum diversity in paragraphing lengths (4-5 sentences), and quite a few run on sentences. Although sequence of events were adequately placed, as a whole the plot seemed loose, and with many gaps that left me wondering.

Allow me to commend the author on his skillful use of adjectives, foreshadowing, and suspense. This created a vivid and lively picture in the reader's head as events unfolded. His expert use of dialogue made the characters come to life on the page. What I greatly appreciated in this novel was the warm Sherlock and Watson, father and son relationship between Hooley and Roper. Their connection is carried throughout the book and for me, is the singular aspect that shone the brightest throughout. Even the small details, such as Hooley and Roper grabbing a quick sandwich at the local café, or them back at home, reveling in a hot, therapeutic shower after a long day of work. These everyday, normal actions allow the reader to relate to the characters. Contrasting the normality to Hooley and Roper's exciting life, I felt the whole fighting crime, spy talk seemed childish and unsophisticated.

Whilst antagonist Mr. Roberts, and protagonist Brian Hooley are well developed characters, I felt that as a second protagonist, Jonathan Roper was severely less developed in his character role as an autistic detective. Having previous knowledge of people with autism, I felt the author properly conveyed the characteristics that an autistic person would display. Yet, I felt myself wanting to know more about Jonathan Roper as a person, what went on inside his head. I believe a major contributor is the fact that the author used third person omniscient as the dominating point of view. To me, this seemed to make transitioning confusing and unnatural. Enough said, third person omniscient is a challenging point of view to master, and I respect the author for putting himself up to the challenge.

In the conclusion of the book "I Can See You", the author packaged the ending nicely and there was the desired unexpected twist reveal of the antagonists true identity and purpose. In credit to the beginning and end of the book, I felt myself being pulled into the world of Hooley and Roper. I caught myself wondering "whodunit?". Writing a novel, in any category of genre, and getting it published, should be viewed as a major accomplishment and highly respected. While this book would not be at the top of my recommendations list to readers, it is finely executed and deserves to be appreciated as such.