Review: 'Plot Boiler' of a Mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
As a 'Vine Voice', authors ask me to review works and offer a free copy.  I read the early reviews of this novel.  They were highly favorable and so I thought it was only fair to buy my own e-version.  This book IS worth a purchase, but, to my mind, has been overrated by 'freebie' reviewers.  The action follows a hero from the time of the 'Irish Troubles' in the late 1920's and parallels some of the action with Shanghai, China about ten years later, just prior to World War II.  The Shanghai of the time was a 'wide open' city, full of commercial and criminal opportunity.  Colonial powers had divided things to their liking but Chinese Nationalism and Communism were also vying to gain control.  During the plot of the book, many small 'mysteries' arise and are eventually solved:  how did the hero's father really die?, was Fiona killed in the castle fire?  Can our Police sergeant find the Shanghai crime lord's lost sister and determine she is genuine?  How will our hero's inherited ethos as an honest policeman stand up against the temptations of a crime-ridden, foreign city?The research here has produced a wonderfully evocative novel in terms of broad 'local color.'  I agree with other reviewers that this is a strong suit in the novel.  The author uses language well and he tells a good story.  (Male) readers will find a lot of 'wish fulfillment' sexuality in the book: our hero samples a range of local beauties and even seduces his now 'married' childhood sweetheart.  I downgrade this book in my taste for these 'romance' tendencies.  There are also a few too many plot twists...but some readers like them, I guess, judging by the ratings.If one likes escapist reading (and don't we all, sometimes), this is a good purchase.