carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

3.5 Stars

I have to admit that I am a little torn over how to rate this book. I have been a long time fan of James Grippando and have really enjoyed every one of his books that I have had a chance to read. I liked this book well enough but I just don't feel like it is nearly as good as what I have come to expect from this talented author.

This story was told a little differently than what I have come to expect from Mr. Grippando. This story is told almost entirely from the criminals' point of view. The detectives solving the case get a relatively small voice in this story. I have become very accustomed to reading stories mostly told from the point of view of a very strong, likeable character trying to solve the mystery, or one of the good guys. In many ways, this was a story where I just sat back and watched the criminals catch themselves with their own stupidity.

One of my main issues with this book is that I couldn't find any characters that I really grew to like. Every single person involved in the heist were about as unlikable as I have ever experienced. Even Ruban's wife, Savannah, who was not directly involved had such a weak personality and was so easily persuaded to go along with everything that I ended up disliking her as much as the individuals actually involved in the crime. I don't think that the detectives were in the story enough for me to connect with them in any way and their personality didn't have a chance to develop at all. They felt a bit flat to me. The character that was the most likeable was Jack Swyteck who showed up for a small cameo role at the end of the book but showed more character and spunk than anyone else in the book.

Even though I didn't care for the characters, I still enjoyed this book. There were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing and it was actually kind of amusing watching how many bad decisions some of these criminals could make. Connections were made in ways that I never expected and the plotting of the overall story was very well done. I found that this was a book that was actually really hard to put down because I just had to know what was going to happen next. The pacing of the story was well done.

I would recommend this book to mystery thriller readers who like a book full of twists and turns. This is not my favorite book by James Grippando but I found it to be a very worth while read. This is definitely an author that I will continue to follow.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from HarperCollins Publishers - Harper via Edelweiss for the purpose of providing an honest review.