Review: Surprisingly bad
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 10 31, 2013
Usually I don't go on and on about a book I didn't like. I just say why I didn't like it and let it go. This book is different.I read the reviews before I downloaded this book and they were really good. I now wonder if the reviewers were all people who couldn't say a bad thing about this book because they knew the author.This book is dreadful. It's just badly written. It's just bad.I couldn't make it past the first 100 pages. The characters are ridiculously unrealistic. They say the most ridiculous things. The time in the story is all skewed. In one scene, they arrive at someone's house to have a discussion of the philosophy of beauty. About ten lines of dialogue pass and they all troop out again. I kept paging back to see if somehow I had missed something but nope. At another meeting of the group, one person is sobbing about having cancer.... the others talk to her for a moment then go back to discussing the topic of the evening and again, there's a weird telescoping of time and it's time to go home because that person is now tired. Nobody offers to stay with her or asks her what they can do for her. It's bizarre. We are supposed to believe these folks have known each other for some time.Two men are competing for the attention of the main woman in the story but it's so incredibly lame and apparently she is utterly unaware of it even tho they are practically having a tug of war with her.The policemen are like cartoon characters of policemen. I kept thinking the book was written by a woman because I honestly do not think that men think the way these characters do but then would check and nope, it's written by a man. It's flat, it's boring, it's unrealistic. I don't care at all about either of the 2 murdered people who you never get to know even after they are dead as the police BARELY question anyone and the sad little bit of information they do get is immediately dismissed. Even the sort of dressing down the lead detective gets from his boss about finding the murderer is pathetic.Seriously, did other people read the same book I was reading? I could have written better in 6th grade than this is written.The following is an instance where I'm just boggled at the way it's written. This is sort of the introduction of the character who we met once before:"Herb answered the door for his guests. He had a disarming and open manner, but an incisive and organized mind that could cut straight to the heart of an argument or problem. This earned him a reputation as an excellent researcher at the medical school and was past president of the American Genetics Society."Another person describing her husband who has just been murdered to the detective:"He played poker with some of his friends occasionally, if they needed someone to fill in. His hours were so long and hectic that he never could play regularly, tho he enjoyed it. He drank scotch occasionally on weekends and socially, but limited it to two in an evening. He said he liked his mind to be clear, so he wouldn't take drugs. And he never, ever had an affair. I would know if he did, because Morrie couldn't lie to me. He always had an open, honest face. I really loved him and he loved me." She broke down and started sobbing. "I'm sorry, detective. This is really hard."Basically at this point he thanks the woman and leaves.To me, it's just bizarre. The grammar and spelling are ok if you ignore the extra commas everywhere in the part of the book I read, but honestly... it's just so badly written. Maybe these are bad examples but they stuck out to me when reading it. It's just so shallow and flat. I'd definitely not bother even tho it's free.