Review: Nice short, nicely written.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2013
Book Review: Overtime In The Woods by Ryan Sean O'ReillyReviewed by J Bryden LloydWriting Style - 3.5/5.0 (Good)This is a nice narrative, nicely thought out and fairly well executed.The book proclaims itself as a `suspense fiction', though to be honest, I felt it fell a little short on the suspense. The mood remains fairly constant throughout, with the main character not wanting to be discovered. For the most part, the dialogue was okay, if a little predictable. There were a few exchanges that felt a bit `wooden', I expect to introduce the awkwardness between the two men.Character Development - 3.0/5.0 (Okay)The characters are well written and fit nicely into the parts. Even the absent `Bossman' is reasonably well characterised.As with a great many short stories, the characters never really develop on a large scale. The two main characters do switch places a little, in the eyes of the reader, but not in a way that makes you feel any specific empathy towards either of them.Descriptive - 3.5/5.0 (Good)There is a consistently good descriptive element throughout the story, and this is used well to keep the atmosphere of the piece flowing. The dialogue is not really linked in with the descriptive all the time, though when it is, the writing feels far stronger than when the narrative is pulling the descriptive with it.Language & Grammar - 4.0/5.0 (Very Good)There were a handful of places where I, personally, felt a comma or new sentence would have been appropriate, but to be fair these were relative points and more my preference than correction.On the whole, the language selection is very good, the editing and grammar equally so. There were no areas where I misunderstood, or had to consider the meanings of things and that made this a nice read.Plot - 3.0/5.0 (Okay) - MINOR SPOILERSI liked the premise of the plot, the simplicity of the stoyline and the way the characters were created. I really didn't feel that this was `full of suspense', and despite the plot content being well done, I did think there were a lot of things in there which could have had more potential.The tyre was shot? Or was it? If Ruff knew he was an investigator, did he leave him a message on the camera? Why leave the tape in the camera with such blatant evidence on it? Where was the money going?There were some nice twists there to exploit, but the author seemed to miss them, and although what he ended up with was `nice' to read, it could have been much better if a couple more things had been added in to make the story complete.General - 3.5/5.0 (Good)Firstly, I have to say that the title is a major spoiler for me. I was asked to review this book, and where the author has clearly put time and effort into creating the story and even a reasonably nice cover, the title is awful.If I was in the Amazon store, seeking a book to purchase for my Kindle, this would never get a second look.Once into the story, there are a lot of positives. Yes, there are a few negatives, but I view these as my personal taste issues, rather than errors in the writing. Having said that, the subject matter itself (although it is interesting) does not turn this into the `edge of seat' ride I was expecting from the blurb.Perhaps as part of a larger story, this would be an excellent sub-plot.This is `sort of' a 3-and-a-bit rating, with the potential to blast through 4 stars very easily. Enjoyable and nicely written, but...