Review: More Romance Than Mystery
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2014
I chose to give The Professor two stars rather than one because the beginning was intriguing and the potential was there for a very engaging mystery.  I purchased this book after reading another of the author's works and being impressed with it.  Sadly, this did not carry through to this book.I will say up front that I dislike mystery/romance combinations.  When I read a mystery, I expect a solid story built around the facts of the case.  To me, throwing in a romance cheapens the experience and often calls into question the author's ability to successfully write a mystery.  Very rarely can an author combine the two, but in these instances the romance is subtle and in no way impedes the progress of the story.I felt The Professor employed a mystery aspect simply as a lame vehicle for a romance story...and not a capably written one at that.  This book employs all the devices I find repugnant in a story: 'Insta-Love', page after page of the inner musings of the involved characters...so much so that I found I could skim a good portion of the chapters without missing anything relevant to the story, and a one dimensional villain whose only function is to be the stumbling block between the hero and heroine.I would not choose to read another work by this author for two reasons: this inept book being one, but the larger reason is that it is clear, from looking at the reviews of this book, that the author's family and friends are called into service to pad the review numbers.  You can always tell this is the case when a truly sub-standard book has a suspiciously high rating with only a few actual reviews.  The high star ratings all indicate that those reviews are 'helpful', while the low star ratings are always voted 'not helpful'.I refuse to support an author who employs this kind of dishonest review padding.Present your work to the public.  Allow the readers to critique your book (GENUINE readers...not your Aunt Martha and the girl who does your nails, whom you've instructed to give a positive review), LISTEN to the readers' reviews and work on your craft accordingly.A true author learns as she/he goes along and isn't afraid of the process.It will be interesting to see how many 'Not Helpful' strikes I get from the author's family and friends.