Killer Summer (Walt Fleming Series #3) Book

I'm a huge fan of Ridley Pearson's books. However his Walt Flemming series just isn't what I'd call an enjoyable series to follow. Have you ever been started into a book and then continually go looking to see what the total number of pages in the book are ? Every sitting I kept thinking I must be further along than what page number I seem to be trickling along at. Pearson's, "Killer Summer", was just one of those books I had to keep looking to see how many pages were left to read. About 50 pages into this book, the book's total of 455 pages seemed daunting. "Killer Summer", is the third book of this series. The first two books were okay but nothing to get me too excited about working my way through the series. Walt is still moping about his wife Gail shacking up with his deputy Brendan. Walt still doesn't get much time with his young daughters. Problem nephew Kevin remains the thorn in Walt's side while trying to keep him out of trouble. With a high roller wine auction set to arrive in Sun Valley, Walt has his hands full with thieves, con men, and the rich who don't see the law applying to themselves. When Walt sniffs out a heist about to go down involving priceless wine bottles nephew Kevin manages to create havoc hurting Walt's sting operation. That wine robbery job morphs into a much bigger scam involving Hollywood hot shot producer Teddy Sumner and his daughter Summer, 16. Before long Summer and Kevin are flying away in a stolen lear jet. As the stolen jet must land as it catches on fire the crew of three bad guys need to keep Summer and Kevin as hostages. With a plot that mopes along at a snail's pace this one seems to drag on forever. With long boring passages that do very little to advance the plot, "Killer Summer", has some dull and not very interesting characters to help Walt on his mission. Fiona the local photographer who works in conjunction with the local sheriff's department who should be a more primary character gets squeezed too much throughout. Fiona makes it pretty clear she's got a crush on Walt, but he can't see the forest through the trees. He's just oblivious as he can possibly can be. This yarn badly needed a spark to happen between Walt and Fiona. Yarn didn't need a confrontation with soon to be ex-wife Gail. I spent a huge chunk of time getting through this "thriller'. Pearson's Walt Flemming series is not his most exciting work to be sure. (I have fourth book in Walt series on my nightstand too !). "Killer Summer", gets two stars out of a possible five stars. It's far too long, and gets lost within itself one too many times. I'd say read this one only if you're planning to read all four Walt series books. Fourth book has got to be much better ! (I hope).