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When I said this was going to be mindless fun I really had no idea just how mindless it would be! This book has been on my to read list as long as it has existed. It was the first book I listed, and so I thought I'd better put my mind to clearing up some of the backlog. I've read more than half the book and so far it has failed to induce a single emotion, beyond a little discomfort at the deeply unerotic and graphic sex scene thrown in to prove the author's a hardass who can use the word 'cock' without fear. The story, such as it is, revolves around Carla Reeves, the lead detective in a serial murder investigation. It's fairly basic crime fiction, but Ann Propero as decided to make Carla angsty and troubled, hinting throughout at her underlying personality while actually giving her none. It's not that this book is badly written, it isn't, it's that there's just nothing of interest. Too many fucked up characters that are glossed over in an attempt to create tension and mystery, when in fact all it does is make you wonder if the writer is actually interested in keeping the readers attention at all. If I cared enough about the book at this point I'd be annoyed, but I can't muster enough emotion to get pissed off. The other minor annoyance is the uneven way Prospero alternatively gives too much detail in a scene and then rushes through scenes, which leaves an unbalanced feel to the narrative. It's often confusing the way scenes move so quickly, but again it's such a dull read that I can't bring myself to worry about it.
The good thing about this book is that it's a quick read, but at the
moment I'm struggling to find time to finish it. I will soon enough, and
maybe the end will be a big enough pay off to make the rest of the book
work, though I can't see how that would possible at this point. |
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Well I was entirely wrong, there was no big pay off in the closing chapters of the book, in fact the entire book was pay off-free. I don't feel as though I've just read a book, let alone a thriller, I feel more like there was some dodgy show on the TV that I glanced at occasionally while it played out. I have read to the end of the book, and I don't feel like I know a single one of the characters, and the whole story seemed to head towards the violent and incredibly contrived climax. At no time did I engage with this book and feel part of the story, or feel compassion for the victims and cops. Not once, and the reason I didn't was it read like a first draft...maybe even a treatment. This book was a good book in the making, had the author gone back and fleshed out scenes, decided who her characters are and tidied up her style it might have worked. That is if it survived the Dialogue cliché's from hell she threw into every single conversation, and most laughably in the final confrontation with the killer. I'm not exactly sure what to say about this book, other than it was bad. It had the same effect on me as reality TV; I just let the sentences slip past me without having to think about them, and much of it was awful, and there was the odd interesting part. But for the most part it was just there, being dull and inoffensive. I couldn't in all honesty recommend this book to anyone as it was so appallingly bad. I'm glad I got through the first book to grace my 'To Read' list though!
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