Review: I did finish it, at least!
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 28, 2012
Unfortunately, I agree with most of the two-star reviewers, although I did manage to finish reading Murder in Ballyhasset. And furthermore unfortunately, also, I have another book in this series; should I read it now, in hopes of seeing substantial improvement, or wait until I've forgotten the things about this book that bothered me? It certainly wasn't the worst book I've ever tried to read and, in fact, it appears from one of the reviews that the author has corrected something that reader found annoying - the frequent use of the word 'like' at the end of a sentence of dialogue, apparently to denote an Irish accent. I did find run-on sentences (two complete sentences separated by a comma), occasional incorrect word usages (i.e. 'pouring over' a pile of files rather than 'poring over'), and some confusion over dates scattered liberally throughout (Wednesday 6-14-72 is followed by Sunday 6-17). At the very end there's another puzzlement; at location 3488 Libby is talking with Mick and tells him that the killer has committed suicide, but several pages later she hears that news for the first time herself, when her business partner tells her the killer took a cyanide pill in his cell (location 3541).Those problems were accompanied by inadequate character development and a general lack of detail. I found myself knowing very little about any of the people in the book or about the locale, either. Of course, those are things that can improve with practice. Who knows? Maybe some of my favorite authors now were a little rough around the edges, too, when they were starting out. I will be interested to see how this writer's talent develops!