Review: I enjoyed the book but I'm a speed reader....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 16, 2013
I really wish the prose had been as tightly written as in Colyott's first Randall Lee mystery, CHANGES.In slang... more bang for your buck. I think this book could have moved more strongly & swiftly if more editing had been done. As it was I just read faster but that's not an alternative for some people...who might have felt the plot was getting sluggish & there were no solutions.Randall Lee continues to be an enigmatic protagonist & the ending saved the day...especially given that the ending was followed by a selection from the 3rd book in the series expected out in late Spring. Otherwise, I would have felt as if I'd been left with a cliffhanger...but the way it moves into the 3rd book is really exciting.All the main characters... except for Master Cheng develop and move forward in this 2nd book in the series. We get to know Det.Knox & his wife Marta better. Lee & Tracy move through some astonishing changes in their personal lives & in their personal relationship.Like most heroes, Lee has a tragic flaw & I expect we'll see him continue to grapple with that...helped by the wonderful Master Cheng.Two characters from Lee's past appear but these two are left hanging at the end of the book. I'm not sure they deserved the degree of space they were given initially if they would be adding nothing more interesting. Again.. the bang for the buck factor.CHANGES moves more rapidly & excitingly. PRESSURE POINT slows up quite a bit but Lee remains intriguing. With 20% edited out, I think this book could move as dramatically & swiftly as the first in the series & as I hope the 3rd in the series will move.Gertrude Stein warned Hemingway to take a blue pencil to his prose & Colyott could profit in doing same.Otherwise Colyott has created an unforgettable & intriguing protagonist who remains both vulnerable, human & enigmatic.