Like other fictional detectives before her, Charlotte is flawed. Grieving the recent death of her husband, coping with her narcissistic, destructive mother and adapting her obsessive-compulsive disorder behaviors to her life and work are her albatrosses. Her penchant for negative thinking gets translated into anticipating trouble. Truly, her travails have made her a capable and successful professional crisis manager. She is good at her job and is paid well.
"Deadman's Switch” is not about the mystery per se but more about the process of solving it using Charlotte's intelligence and attention to details. The requisite crime, clues, red herrings and love interests are present. Following a suspicious train derailment causing the deaths of a beloved movie icon and the train's engineer, Charlotte is called in to manage the situation.
Unlike other genre writers who let techno aspects drive the narrative, Seranella gently instructs about train engines, tracks, derailments, etc., without sounding like an engineer or being an uninformed female fish out of water.
Unfortunately, Seranella died in January at age 50. Her earthly life and travails prepared her for Charlotte, who is appealing, intelligent and savvy. Seranella made solving the puzzle fun, and the reader learns something along the way.
— Julia M. Norlin
