Review: A pleasant little romp through Hollywood
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2013
*NOTE: I received a free review copy of this story.*Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 7/10PROS:- I liked Jem’s voice: pleasant and slightly sardonic without being off-putting. I also found all of the Hollywood intrigue amusing. I have a twisted sort of interested in the movie-star lifestyle, but at the same time it disgusts me. Jem’s view of Hollywood is very similar to mine, which made him an easy character for me to identify with.- There’s a very intriguing development early on that kept me wanting to read on, right about the time when I was starting to wonder where the story was going.CON:- There’s some skipping-over of conversations (example: “We chatted about movies, weather, family, the usual stuff. I learned that Nick worked robbery and homicide…He’d made detective only a couple of years ago…He didn’t share details of his job, but…”), which I realize is necessary in a story of this length. But it makes the men’s connection feel a bit tenuous to me.Overall comments: This has a lot of amusing moments and nothing that’s too unpleasant. It takes a fun angle on the typical “cop story”: Nick is a detective, but Jem’s case belongs to someone else in the department, so we’re left in the dark about most of the details pertaining to the investigation. Which leaves lots of time for Jem to play amateur private eye and get himself into trouble.