Review: Another curate's egg
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2013
Made a Killing is a gritty Glaswegian crime story that chugs along by means of a tight cast of interesting characters. Flaws make people real and bring books to life and Made a Killing's protagonists certainly possess them.This is all very positive so why aren't I giving this a 'five' like everyone else?Well, I persevered with the story rather than enjoyed it and that's a million miles from what I'd hoped for from this book. In fact I almost gave up after a couple of pages because of the confusing grammar. Commas, apostrophes and the other devices which help a reader were frequently misused or just missing altogether. I know that it makes me sound a pedant saying this but, in order to enjoy a book, one has to lose oneself in it. If you have to keep stopping and starting in order to make sense of what's just gone before, that's the moment lost.There were also too many references to TV cop programmes - a weak attempt at persuading the reader that your story is the realistic one. I'd urge the author to cut it back to just one jokey comment. Less is always more.I'm also docking a star because the end was a cliché with the 'bad guy' being unable to contain themselves when it came to spilling the beans on their dark secrets (unrealistic). The car chase was a bit 'OTT' too. Here we are making jibes at TV cop shows and we end up with burning rubber.On balance, if the system would let me, I'd give 'Made a Killing' 7 out of 10 and that's not bad.In summary, the story's good (I loved the main victim and would have liked to hear much more about his antics) - it just needs a bit of editing.