Tag Archives: 2 stars

books, Dark fantasy, Reviews

The Failures (Wanderlands 1) by Benjamin Liar

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Stars: 2 out of 5

That cover is gorgeous, by the way, and drew me to the book in the first place. The blurb sounded intriguing as well. And after reading the inspirations the author took from other authors that I love, like Sanderson and Erikson, this book should have been right up my alley. 

Then why was it such a frustrating read? Well, because of the squandered potential. The world is unique and intriguing. There was so much potential, but it is squandered.

The first problem is that because the world is unique, the author throws too much of everything at the reader at once, but at the same time, doesn’t explain enough of how this world functions or even how it all fits together. Case in point – the different POVs from various groups (the Killers, the Monsters, the Lost Children, etc.). We alternate between them from chapter to chapter, but NOWHERE does the author mention in which chronological order these events actually happen. For half the book, I was under the assumption that all these stories happened at the same time, just in different parts of the Wanderlands. So I was very confused when I started encountering characters from the other storylines in Sophie’s neck of the woods. Or when I discovered that Candle is another certain someone we follow in another story arc. This makes for a confusing and messy narrative where the reader is left to puzzle out what even came first and what is even important.

 As an aside, the whole Deadsmith story arc could have been cut out of the book without really impacting the overarching plot. Yes, he is the one who broke Candle and pushed another character on her path, but did we need chapters and chapters of his endless pursuit of his Prey? Just to see him appear for like two paragraphs at the end of the book and bugger off again? Also, what was the whole point of Lourde/West/Mr. Vulch? 

The other issue is the characters. They are so larger than life that they stop being characters and become caricatures. It’s hard to empathize with any of them apart from Sophie. By the end of the story, I didn’t care about what happened to any of them apart from Sophie and Ben, who, surprise, surprise, were the most human of them all. 

I was also disconcerted by the use of names of Christian origin in a foreign world. It’s not a future Earth, it’s a completely different world. So why do we have a James, a Chris, a Katherine? Or even Sophie, for that matter? I understand the Behemoth having Earth-sounding names, because they come to the Wanderlands from other worlds, some of which might be our Earth (as implied for Gun and Jackie), but the characters that are born and raised there? You don’t even have to use your imagination anymore to create names, ChatGPT can do that for you, so this screams of lazy writing.

Finally, I understand that this is the first book in a series, so it has to do a lot of setup, but I also expect to read a fully finished story arc – with a beginning, a middle, and a resolution, or a return to the status quo, by the end of the book. Here, we have a cliffhanger. NOTHING is resolved for none of the characters. Yes, you could argue that Sophie’s story gets some kind of resolution, but does it really? After almost 600 pages of setup, and hints at something catastrophic, we just end mid-action, almost. There are more questions than answers. Where is Winter? What is happening in the rest of the Keep? Why did the Consort take the Cold Key? 

As it stands, I was left frustrated and disappointed by the end of this book, and with no desire to read the next one.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, epic fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Lost War (Eidyn 1) by Justin Lee Anderson

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I was excited about this book when I read the blurb. It also has raving 5-star reviews on Goodreads, so I was really looking forward to a great new epic fantasy series when I picked up this book…

That excitement turned into confusion within the first few chapters. It really felt like I was reading the second, or maybe third book in a series, not the first one. Characters kept mentioning events that happened or things they did, and I was like, What am I missing? I even went on Goodreads to check that there wasn’t a prequel or something I missed. Nope, this is book 1. 

And I could have pushed through the confusion and still liked the story. There are plenty of wonderful books that literally drop you in mid-action and let you figure out the world and what the heck is happening as the book progresses. Unfortunately, this book isn’t one of them. 

The problem here is that nothing that happens for the first 70% of the book matters where the story is concerned. The characters meander from point to point and keep making seemingly random detours. It almost feels like the author had a plethora of great ideas and didn’t want to sacrifice any for the sake of the plot, so he plopped them all in. What’s the harm, right? Especially since none of it matters, once you get to the plot twist in the end. Well, it made for a bloated and boring narrative. 

The characters could have been the saving grace of this book, but I hated all of them, apart from maybe Samily. I especially grew to despise Aranok. He is supposed to be one of the most powerful magic users in the kingdom, and the King’s Envoy (with or without memory modification). Yet he behaves like a spoiled 5-year-old with poor impulse control. He is a grown man, for Pete’s sake! Why does he throw temper tantrums every time something goes wrong or someone dares to go against his orders? He treats everyone else around him with such smug superiority, I wanted to slap the shit out of him most of the time.

And all the female characters just fawn all over him and excuse/justify/downplay his horrible behavior. Because he is so “special”. Excuse me? I haven’t seen his “specialness” in this book, not even once. I’ve seen him make stupid decisions and put himself and his companions in mortal danger time and time again. And it fell on others to pull his butt out of the fire every time. 

I also found it extremely irritating that he kept questioning Samily’s faith. That was rude and boorish, as well as painted him in a very negative light. We get it, you are an atheist. That doesn’t mean you have to disrespect someone else’s faith or try to make them miserable because of it.

I also don’t particularly like when the author fridges characters just for shock value, like he did with Vasin and Glorbad (spelling?). Also, what the heck is it with these unpronounceable names? And Minygogg, really? Maxigogg was already taken?

I also don’t think that the plot twist ending justified the meandering plot and boring sidequests. If anything, it made me mad that I wasted so many hours reading a story that didn’t particularly matter because it was all a lie. That I had to endure countless pages of Aranok being an ass just to learn that, hey, even with his memories restored, he is just as big on ass. Needless to say, I have no desire to follow his adventures into the next book. I think this series and I will be parting ways on book 1.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Witch Queen of Redwinter (The Redwinter Chronicles 3) by Ed McDonald

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I don’t think I have ever been this disappointed by the conclusion of a series before. This book was a huge letdown both as a standalone and as a book destined to wrap up Raine’s story. It was messy, it was dragging, and it lost all of my goodwill by the time we arrived at the end.

The biggest issue is the fact that the stakes went sky-high in between book 2 and book 3, even though only about six months passed between the events of book 2, when Raine and companions ended up in the Fault, and the beginning of this story. Yet all of a sudden, the world is ending, all other nations have fallen, the Fault is bleeding back into the real world, and ancient monsters stalk the forests and mountains again. 

How did that happen so quickly? We didn’t even know this danger was looming on the horizon. It was never forshadowed in the previous books. As far as I know, the stakes in the previous books were localized to Redwinter and this one particular Crown. There were no hints of a bigger conflict brewing anywhere. When I picked up this book and started reading about all of these catastrophes happening, I really thought I had missed at least one more book in the series that would have built up to this conflict. You simply can’t introduce such huge portions of new lore in the last book and not leave your reader lost and dissatisfied. 

And even despite all these new revelations piling up on top of me from the beginning of the book, this story is boring and feels like an ever-ending road trip of little significance. I understand why the author decided to split Raine into two; otherwise, there would have been no way of showing what was happening in the real world while she stumbled her way through the Fault, feeling sorry for herself. But the unintended consequence is a disconnect between the reader and the two Raines. Who am I supposed to care about? Who is the real Raine and who isn’t? Also, neither of the two is particularly likable.

This split narrative also kills any forward momentum in this book. The moment you get invested in something happening to emo-Raine in the Fault, the chapter ends, and we are thrown back into the real world and dominatrix Raine being awful and not caring about anyone or anything. It’s hard to follow two separate stories when they constantly switch places, but also when you are less and less invested in either one.

The other issue is that I didn’t particularly like what Raine has become in this book. Neither of her two incarnations was likable. The one in the Fault continues to be whiny and woe-me, my destiny is so hard, I love those two people, but I can’t have them. Doom and gloom, and somebody, please, put her out of her misery! 

And the author’s solution to this dilemma? A trisome… Yeah, no. Hard pass.

The Sarathi Raine in our world is everything wrong with death witches in the first place. The way she throws away lives like kindling is simply disgusting. And I can’t forgive what they did to Castus, who was the best character in this quagmire, hands down. He deserved better.

By the time the ending finally arrived, I was done with this book and mentally exhausted. Also, any connection or ties I had to these characters were long gone. Yes, I was glad that Ovitus finally got what he deserved, but the rest of them? Couldn’t care less. I also didn’t need this chapter-long excursion into the past to show us how the Queen of Feathers interacted with all other Dark Queens to set up the tools of the last battle. Those were just names and voices in Raine’s head in the previous books. I had no connection to them. Why did I have to waste time on this?

I am sad. I loved the first book in this series. It was well-written and hinted at an interesting world to explore. Then book two focused on teenage feelings instead of developing the lore and foreshadowing the events to come. Now, book three tried to stuff too much information into one book and failed horribly.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, murder mystery, Reviews

The Donut Legion by Joe R Landsdale

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

DNF at 54%.

This was my first encounter with this author, and it didn’t go as well as I would have hoped. This book just felt… off. 

While I was quite excited to read about a small town in East Texas and discover some of the quirky characters that call it home, something about those characters just felt… unnatural. They didn’t read like fleshed-out people but more like an amalgamation of quirks and one-liners that the author wanted to put there. That wouldn’t have been a problem for supporting characters that we only see for a couple of pages and never hear from again. But here even the main protagonist doesn’t read like a fleshed out character. 

Also, the main plot is to find the protagonist’s ex-wife, right? Well, for the first 200 pages or so, this is barely mentioned. Yes, he makes some enquiries, but our protagonist does not feel any urgency, dread, or emotion about it. He tells his brother that he thinks he is still in love with her, but none of his actions show it. If my ex went missing and showed up as a ghost, I would have been moving heaven and earth to find out what happened, but Charlie just kind of… takes his time to look into that in between long discussions about the nature of religion and cults with his brother, or other philosophical meanderings along the way. 

And that brings me to the next part that didn’t work for me – the tone of this book is definitely not my cup of tea. Is this supposed to be a serious thriller? A satire? A parody? There are jokes throughout, but to me, they fall flat, especially when put alongside graphic descriptions of some pretty gruesome murders. I mean, a guy Charlie talked to is basically dismembered and burned, and Charlie’s reaction to learning this is… nothing. Not even horrified, or feeling guilty about it, because his interrogating this guy might have been the cause for this. His reaction is just to shrug and move on. That doesn’t make me like the protagonist any better, sorry.

Then “Scrappy” comes to the scene and the book fell apart for me. She is not a likable or believable character. In fact, she comes across as extremely rude and self-serving. And again, Charlie says he might still have feelings for his ex-wife, yet he falls for her almost from the get go. 

All in all, the jarring juxtaposition of humor that mostly fell flat for me and depictions of some pretty graphic and horrible murders made me gradually lose interest in this book. Added to that some irritating characters, and I am calling it quits. I might try another book by this author, since some reviewers say that this wasn’t his strongest offering.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Horror, Reviews

The Atrocity Engine (Custodians of the Cosmos 1) by Tim Waggoner

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I was ready to love this book. On a side note, love that cover! That’s what drew me to the book in the first place. 

The idea behind this series is very intriguing – the world is basically dying (albeit slowly) because there is a giant black hole in the center of the universe called the Geir that is devouring it. Our protagonists work for the Maintenance whose sole purpose is to slow down the destruction of the known universe and delay the inevitable collapse. Our antagonist is an aspiring member of the Multitude, whose purpose is the exact opposite – precipitate the end of the universe and inflict as much death and destruction as possible in the process.

The premise is excellent, and I was all onboard to enjoy a thrilling ride… but I was sorely disappointed. 

There are several issues, but the biggest one is the lack of worldbuilding, or the inconsistency thereof. The author mentions that the Maintenance has existed since at least the Roman empire and that they know everything it’s possible to know about Corruption and entropic energy… Yet they miss some pretty big clues during this book. 

Their agents are supposed to be trained in fighting the Corruption and the corrupted people, yet in all the fights we see, they freeze or behave like this is their first time on the job. The most glaring example is when 4 Interventionists just froze and let their enemies swat them with a car like flies. These people are supposed to be professionals, so why is it that the only two people who know what they are doing are our protagonists? Also, whose stupid idea was it not to arm the agents that are the first in the field? Yes, they their role is to observe and call for backup, but they have a right to defend themselves while backup is getting there. 

But my biggest issue were the characters. They are very one-dimentional. The bad guys are so bad they are almost caricatures of themselves. I mean Rachel takes the cake of psycho bitch who loves making her victims suffer. But she is also not very bright… I would even say stupid. All her actions show a lack of planning and an inability to predict the consequences even two steps in advance.

And Neal and Gina… well, we have the grizzled veteran and the special snowflake. Neither of them are interesting or relatable. 

Neal knows everything better than anyone else at Maintenance, and is always proven right. Constantly goes against the authority of his superior, but somehow never gets even a slap on the hands for it. Then why is he still at the bottom of that ladder?  If he is so great, shouldn’t he be running the joint by now?

Gina comes across as naive to the point of stupidity. Oh, you only now start to wonder if your family is maybe pursuing their personal gain instead of the goals Maintenance has? What, you never noticed that none of the other Maintenance workers lived in mansions and drove expensive cars and wore luxury clothes? You never once stop to consider why your family thinks that is normal when the very core of Maintenance is to live modestly and only take what you need? Yeah, I didn’t connect with her at all, and her POVs were a chore to read through.

The plot itself is full of contrivances and conveniences that drive it to where the author wants it to go instead of letting it evolve naturally as a consequence of the actions characters take. I’m guessing that’s why the villain comes across as brain-dead and making such stupid decisions.

All in all, this was a complete disappointment for me, and I will not be continuing with this series. This was also my first book by this author, and now I’m not even sure if I want to give him another try.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I was very excited about this book because the blurb gave me the same vibes as the Wayward Children series by Seannan McGuire, and I loved the first few books in that series. Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to the expectations.

One of the reasons is that the story takes too long to get going. We don’t travel to the magical world until almost halfway into the book, so everything before then is set up. That would be fine if the pacing of this section wasn’t so sluggish. I found myself yawning and wanting the author to get on with it on more than one occasion.

My other issue is that I didn’t particularly like the writing choices in this book. The interruptions by the “Narrator” were extremely off-putting and yanked you right out of the story every time they were inserted between chapters. 

Another issue is that I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, so I wasn’t invested in their stories. This is particularly true for Jay and Raif. The author sets them up as these star-crossed lovers destined to be together but separated by circumstances, but that didn’t work for me. Call me old and cynical, but I find it hard to believe that Jeremy would pine for his high school sweetheart for 15 years after the fact. I mean they were 14 when everything happened and were only together for 6 months. Are you telling me that he couldn’t move on? Yeah, not buying it. Same goes for Raif who didn’t even remember those 6 months or that he was in love with Jeremy. 

And I might have been okay even with that if those two characters were interesting. As it stands though, they behave like they never left their teenage years, even though both of them are in their thirties in this book. I’m sorry, that’s not how thirty-year-old people in general behave, not unless they have serious developmental issues. Which I could understand in Raif’s case, because he had amnesia and carried a hidden trauma because of that all those years, but Jeremy seems like a well-adapted individual who traveled the world and saw plenty of good and bad stuff. What’s his excuse for behaving like a hormonal teenager? That’s why I feel like this book reads like a young adult book, even though it’s not marketed as such.

I have nothing much to say about Skya or Emily because they serve more as plot devices than actual people, so their characterization is non-existent. 

My biggest issue with this book is that this fairy tale has no “teeth” – nothing truly bad happens to any of the characters. Everything is too easy and harmless. At no point in this story was I worried about the characters or the decisions they had to make. And since the stakes aren’t all that important, nothing feels earned. Good fairy tales know that there is darkness as well as light in the world, and that to have heroes, there needs to be dragons. Heck, Skya even talks about that in the book! Unfortunately, the author loved her characters too much to truly make them suffer, so her dragons were nothing more than tame lizards, easily defeated.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Red Delicious (Siobhan Quinn 2) by Caitlin Kiernan

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Stars: 2 out of 5

This was a letdown from book one, to be honest. I liked Quinn in the first book – she was foul-mouthed and irreverent, and as far from a typical urban fantasy protagonist as you can get. It was fun and refreshing. Unfortunately, the author went all in on that concept in this book. And this is the case in which too much good stuff spoils the brew, at least in my opinion.

Quinn is so snarky, vulgar, and unapologetically evil in this book that it stops being funny and gets rather annoying. Why would I care about what happens to her in this book if she is no better than any of the bad guys? If she is, in fact, also a bad guy who admits that she loves playing with her food and gets drunk on the terror and suffering she causes as much as on the blood she drinks? I like my anti-heroes at least somewhat redeemable. Oh, and that “yeah, I’m a monster, that’s what monsters do, get over it” attitude the author chose to endow her with doesn’t help much either.

My other issue is the constant breaking of the fourth wall Quinn does in her narrative. It’s fun when it’s done once or twice, but when it’s continuous, it gets old fast. Especially when you insert a freaking short story in the middle of the story… That dampens the enjoyment just a tad.

But the biggest issue I have with this book is just how stupid all the characters are. Yes, Quinn repeated several times that a detective she ain’t, but she can at least try to use her brains once in a while, no? Or all those other high and mighty demons, necromancers, and adjacent who want the magical dildo, what exactly was their thought process behind all this? Sit on their hands and wait until the artifact drops on their lap? Throw the most retarded of Mr. B’s minions at it and see if she can find it? That’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off for them.

I kept waiting for Quinn to at least try to use the few brain cells she hadn’t fried with drugs in her past life to try to investigate this, but she never did. I mean, there is no real mystery in this story, no plot Quinn has to puzzle over. She just stumbles from one deus ex machina event to another (and even jokes about it, ha-ha) until she is miraculously alive in the end. And by the way, the author never even tells us how she manages that particular feat, probably because she ran out of ideas on how to make it plausible.

In the end, I was mostly irritated by the story and couldn’t care less who ended up with the magical dildo. Also, why would anyone even want this thing in the first place? It’s cursed. Whatever fleeting bliss it gives you, you forget the moment it’s over, so what’s the point? 

More importantly, I grew more and more irritated with Quinn, to the point that I didn’t even care how the story would have ended. I mean Quinn tells us halfway through that she survived to tell the tale, so even that suspense is gone out of the narrative.

As it stands, I have no desire to pick up the next book in the series.  I believe that Siobhan Quinn and I will be parting ways right here.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Stone Cold Magic (Ella Grey 1) by Jayne Faith

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Stars: 2 out of 5

This was a promising start, and I enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book, but it went downhill after that for a few reasons.

I think first and foremost, at least for me, is that I grew to despise the protagonist. She was mildly irritating at first, but I chalked it off to her upbringing and a recent traumatic experience she went through. The longer I read though, the more I understood that no, this was just how Ella truly was. 

She is extremely selfish, and she is very passive-aggressive when she wants others to do something for her, which is… all the time. She never pauses to think about the consequences of her actions to herself or anyone else she drags into the messes she creates. And, as I said, she gets passive-aggressive when they try to say no, or just brushes off their concerns like they are not important or valid. Because they aren’t to her, either important or valid, because nothing is more important to Ella than Ella. 

Case in point, when Damien, a guy who she met barely a few days ago, tells her that he is not comfortable breaking into a highly fortified compound on a pretend inspection because he doesn’t want word of this to get to his very influential family, she just… brushes this off? And the weird part is that he still goes with her. Why? Why is she portrayed as this special snowflake that all men (even gay men) fall over themselves to help and coddle? 

She also suffers from the TSTL (too stupid to live) syndrome, because she thinks with her hormones, not her brain. Like the decision to keep the reaper’s soul, even though it’s devouring her, just because she saw a vision of someone who might or might not have been her missing brother. Now she is persuaded that this soul is the only way she’ll find him. Erm, why? Did she exhaust any other means of searching for him? Because it doesn’t look to me like she tried all that hard. She even flat-out refused help from a licensed private investigator. Really? 

Or deciding to infiltrate a secure compound to “liberate” a gargoyle with a human stuck in it. All this with only 8 people, none of which are aware that she is planning a kidnapping instead of a simple inspection to make sure the boy is still alive. And the worst part is, there are no consequences for any of that. Ella does the most stupid and hair-brained things and the author just rewards her for this. 

In the end, I didn’t care about whether Ella and co freed Nathan from his stone prison, or whether she would survive the reaper’s soul. In fact, I was rather rooting for the reaper to win her over, so that I didn’t have to read about her anymore. Needless to say, I won’t continue with this series.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy, YA

A Tempest of Tea (Blood and Tea 1) by Hafsah Faizal

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I was attracted to to this book because of the gorgeous cover and a description that promised a fun heist where a group of underdogs went against a tyranical government. What I really got was… not exactly that at all. Partly, this was my fault, because when I bought this book, I didn’t realize that it was young adult. Me and YA books rarely speak the same language, probably because I’m several decades past that particular stage of my life. 

Still, I can enjoy some modern YA books, and I’ve read a couple series that I absolutely loved this year (Like the City Between Series), so my failure to mesh with this book is not just because it was YA, but because of the things the author decided to put their emphasis on instead of what I expected them to concentrate on.

I was coming for an action-filled heist capper with engaging characters and high stakes, where I could root for the good guys and rage against the villains that oppress them. And definitely cheer when they finally managed to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat and save their home and their livelihoods. Overtrowning the current government was optional but would be a cherry on top.

What I got instead was chapters and chapters of characters catching feelings for each other, and being to naive/immature/emotionally repressed/stupid (circle the word that applies) to acknowledge those feelings. Seriously, nobody in this crew is mature enough to face what they are feeling and talk about it like normal adults. Be it Arthie and Laith, or Jin and Flick, they keep putting their heads in the sand and singing “La, la, la, can’t hear you!” every time. Yes, you are attracted to each other, get over it and move on with the darn heist! Flick was especially getting on my nerves with her unwillingness to face the facts about her adoptive mother. I mean, she is so naive, I can’t believe she managed to survive on the street long enough to have a forger business.

My other problem is that the worldbuilding is lackluster at best. The author throws in some description of the world, but they are vague and don’t paint a full picture. We have a masked King that is elected by a council, but exactly how does that work? Also, is this supposed to be steampunk, gaslight mystery or what? Is this world magical, or industrial or a mixture of both? How did the vampires come about? What is their standing in the society? At the beginning of the book the author says that they are treated like parriahs, yet there is an exclusive club for vampires that seems to hold sway over the highest reaches of the government. Everything is vague and half-baked, and honestly, I started loosing interest when I realized that it won’t be explained better.

Also, I never could connect with any of the characters. Jin was okay, apart from becoming a bumbling fool every time he was with Flick, but I couldn’t stand Arthie. For someone who was supposed to be one of the good guys, she is an extremely unpleasant person. Also, I still don’t quite understand her motivation and her backstory, and I couldn’t care less.

In summary, this is a giant miss for me. I finished the book, but I was tempted to quit around 60% in, and only the fact that I was stuck in a place with no internet and this was the only book actually downloaded to the Kindle on my phone made me keep reading.

books, murder mystery, Reviews

Red Team Blues (Martin Hench 1) by Cory Doctorow

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

This was my first encounter with cory Doctorow, and the result is rather underwhelming. The blurb sounded very promissing – a forensic accountant, cybercrimes, cryptocurrencies, and all that jaz. I was fully onboard and ready to enjoy a good story. Unfortunately, the book itself was a big disappointment.

My biggest issue with this book, and why me and this story didn’t mesh at all, is the writing style. The prose is extremely dry and impersonal, even though it’s not third person omniscient. We are watching the events unfold from Marin’s perspective. But the book reads more like an instruction manual than a heart-poinding crime story. I mean, the author describes a horrifying scene of death and torture in the same dry language as a romantic encounter our protagonist has with one of his lady friends. Both scenes are supposed to evoke emotions, instead, they just induce boredom.

Part of the problem is also that the author doesn’t particularly do a good job with showing things. We are told that Martin is profoundly shocked by what he saw when he found those slain kids, but we are not shown that. Show us hims having nightmares about it, or a panic attack once he gets out of the crime scene, or something. Don’t just tell me that he didn’t sleep well, then continue with the story like nothing happened. I can’t be emotionally invested in a situation, if the protagonist doesn’t seem to care one way or another either.

My second problem is Marty himself. Boy, does he have plot armor or what? Also, he reads more like the author’s wish fulfilment than a real person. So he is 67, doesn’t exercise or try to keep himself in shape (at least the author doesn’t mention him going to the gym even once or for a hike, or something). He drinks like an Irishman, easts whatever he wants… yet he doesn’t seem to have any health issues (at 67), or have to take medication for anything, and he can spend weeks homeless in the streets of SF and still be a functional human being after that? Oh, and all hot, intelligent, younger women he encounters fall head over heels for him instantly. No seriously, this guy has more intimate encounters in this book than James Bond. Either this dude won the gene pool jackpot, or the author really doesn’t know what being in upper sixties feels like for most of the population.

On top of that, the story got bogged down in useless descriptions of dinners the protagonist cooked and consumed, alcohol he drank, or other rather useless trivia that didn’t advance the plot in any way. I mean, you could easily have trimmed off at least 100 pages. It would have made the book a lot tighter and faster to read. As it stood, I got bored a few times while reading and had to skim along until the plot would pick up again.

All in all, this was a disappointing book for me. I don’t think I will be continuing with this series, and honestly, I don’t know if I will check out other books by this author.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.