Review: Swan Song (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 7) by Michael Hiebert

This is it, the time I find out how well I did in following the clues and determining who the shooter is at the Dakota Shane concert being held in Portland's Rose Garden Arena, who was shot -- and who, of those shot, would live, who would die, and whose lives would never be the same* -- and, most important, why the shooter is doing the shooting.

In an email I sent to the author after I read Cranked, I threw some theories out there, trying to see which ones would stick. They were all pretty off the wall, including, if I'm remembering correctly, that the person I thought would turn out to be Billy Ray's (Dakota's son) father would also be his killer. To my surprise, I was told I was about 30% correct with my guesses. After reading Swan Song I've come to the conclusion that Michael Hiebert isn't just a great storyteller, but he's a very generous person too. If I had even 0.3% (that's three-tenths of one percent) right, I'd be amazed at this point.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that Hiebert read my email, thought to himself, "How did Kevin get it right? He figured it all out, and now I'll have to change the ending so that he's wrong!" and then wrote a new ending. However, as I was reading Swan Song, as each piece was revealed it was obvious that some things I discarded as being improbable were not only probable but happened, and that, even with course corrections made necessary by the characters charting their own destiny as the book was written, each piece of the puzzle fits perfectly.

In trying to keep this review spoiler free, I'm avoiding saying too much about the book itself, but I will say this: The shooter's identity is so obvious, once revealed, but I kept finding reasons why it couldn't be this particular person. That, in itself, speaks to Michael Hiebert's ability to reveal only certain facets of a character's character.

Now that I've finished reading The Rose Garden Arena Incident in its original serial form, I plan to wait three or four months and read the entire saga as a novel -- in one or two sittings.

Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 Stars

I received an advance copy from the author in exchange for my honest review.

*With sincere apologies to DC Comics for appropriating and paraphrasing their slogan for 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series: Worlds will live, worlds will die, and the DC Universe will never be the same.