 |
This could have been SO good, if only an editor had rapped Klavan’s knuckles, handed him a thesaurus, and screamed “Show, Don’t Tell.” I bought this because the extremely descriptive cover promised a great plot involving bikers. I’m a biker’s wife, read a great deal, and always hope some author will go beyond the stereotypes. Oh well. The first clue that things weren't going like the book jacket promised was the author's intro. In the grand tradition of romance writers, Klavan speaks to the reader as if they are desperate fans agonized to know what happened to characters in a previous book. Uhh, yeah, anyone losing sleep over it? I was also embarrassed by his cutesy comments encouraging readers to buy the previous book because he has to "support" his family. Ugh. He refers to several true crime events (like everyone keeps up with that, too), and is coy about his books being based on those cases. Except, of course, his books are more shocking, have more sex, more More. Then he analyzes the plot and characters of THIS book, and apologizes for the character’s frailties. Now I know why. Klavan has obviously never heard the old writer's adage "Show, don't tell." The character descriptions are plastic, statistical and romance-reader variety (heavy emphasis on what they are wearing). The writing is pathetic. I guess the ongoing repetition helps fill up space, since there really isn't much story here. Example: "He was wearing an ironical expression, too, as if something struck him as funny. Or maybe everything struck him as funny--or maybe it just struck him as too stupid not to laugh." Oooookay. This is one of our heroes, folks. Quite the thinker. Unfortunately, all the leading men expound thusly, without benefit of a thesaurus. The old cop goes on ad infinitum about hookers, and moons over a special hooker (from the previous book of which we have heard so much!) And the "oddly intellectual biker" Cobra (per book jacket blurb) bores the daylights out of the lead female, and this reader, with his nonstop speeches. One speech full of wannabe biker clichés ran almost a page. To further confuse the issue, there’s an occasional narrator who knows all the inner thoughts of the main characters (including their sex life??), even though he's a lowly clerk in the P.I. office. His point of view jumps in and out of the story at random, psychoanalyzing the two main good guys, his college term paper, feminists, fellow students… and he's not the sharpest pencil in the office, either. Very little of these speeches contribute to the plot, and should have been edited. The action scenes go well past the point of tension to...well, after a four-page fight, the reader is ready for someone to get killed or go to the hospital. Anything, please, just stop. The only saving grace to this book was a sub-plot involving a professor with an interesting problem. The details (surprisingly, in this book) didn't kick in until about page 142, however. The characters in the subplot were the reason, and the only reason, I finished this book. They were the only ones I cared about.Read full review
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Books
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Books
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
