Review: At least I didn't pay for it
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 10 4, 2012
I seem to be in the minority here, since most reviewers liked not just the story and the writing, but even the protagonist.Me? Not so much. Okay, the premise wasn't bad, nor was the world-building, though it could have used a little more detail, maybe, and, from a plotting standpoint, the story was well enough executed. I do resent the fact that there was no foreshadowing of the final culprit. It would've been nice for the reader to try to figure things out instead of letting Kat's computer bud do so, creating a sort of deus ex machina conclusion.As for the technical writing, I felt some serious copy-editing was needed. Lack of proper punctuation made some sentences hard to read. In the same sentence, "them" in the main clause becomes "it" in the subordinate clause. There are verb tense issues. At times, the writing is really awkward. "it would cause more attention and trouble if I ran into trouble." A very "troubling" sentence. I can't believe any editor would let that slide. Antecedents to pronouns are often unclear. There are other  issues, too, but, suffice it to say, from the standpoint of craftsmanship, I found the writing amateurish and distracting.My biggest disappointment was with Kat. I'm amazed to see so many positive reviews, especially some from women. For me, this was so obviously a male writing a female character from a male point of view that Kat never rang true to me, particularly as a first person narrator. Her breast fixation was extremely annoying. Her description of the other women of the story was blatantly sexist, clearly male fantasy wish-fulfillment on the author's part, I thought. Also, the "men are pigs" card was seriously over-played. There was even some verbal bashing of a gay male. The attempt to evoke sympathy for Kat because of her rape was not badly done, but, ultimately, it wasn't enough to overcome the other shortcomings of the book.I confess, I found Kat's character so jarring that I checked out the Amazon teaser of Halstead's _Traitors_, and found therelationship between Kat and Nathalie was much more convincing. Still, I'm not at all sure that I will eventually read anything more from this author. Obviously, not recommended, even if it's free.