Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsA work in progress and in search of an authentic voice.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 12, 2021
I assume from the subtitle that this is the beginning of a series, and if so, the future books will need several improvements. This book does not have the terse and effective style of Lee Child, nor the meticulous details of Michael Connelly, two of my favorite authors. It struggles with the rhythm and spacing, the overall arching groove of a story. It jumps from a slow-moving and sleepy (i.e., boring) pace into total war, where everybody shoots at everybody with carefully described model numbers for the guns. (Bad guys, of course, carry the typical baddie, the AK-47) Its characters are neither likable nor memorable; they feel two-dimensional like lifted from a Lifetime Original movie. Bad guys need to be smarter, to be challenging, good guys need to be more interesting so that we can care for them. They need no character development, but they do need uniqueness, something that colors the story. The main character feels sterile, with no smell, no taste, no color; he has neither superhuman strength nor cunning intelligence. He has no inner dialogue. He blends into the background. He has to have some "superpower," some remarkable attribute! Even Jack Reacher has a foldable toothbrush! (Oh, and Cassidy needs to get lost: she adds nothing to the story.)
