Review: could have been 4 ****
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2012
This book is second I read from this author.  This one is much better than first.  It would have merited one more star had the editing not been so poor.This is another installment of his character "Lucky Lucas."  While (seeming) a series character, this tale is a stand alone.  Which I like.  Lucky is a retired police officer who manages (again) to pick up a private investigator type job.Friend of friend set up deal.  It seems as if no one but Lucky wants Lucky to retire.  If the stories keep getting better as this writer hones his abilities, we will be happy readers that Lucky does not retire.This case is about finding a missing girl for her parents.  The girl is legal age and left brief note that set tone for familial relationship.  It seems as if there are some family issues - but we are only given hints and innuendo regarding that particular plot device.  I don't find this unfleshed bit dissatisfying as our narrator (Lucky) tells us that it is not his business or of interest.  His job is to find girl - not fix family.  So that unexplored bit is not a problem within book.Lucky detects, finds some answers and new issues develope that Lucky also needs address.  Typical, and predictible scenarios occur.  Though, SOME bit of twists do occur.Seeming, this author is growing as he writes and offers a positive direction to his premises and characters related to story development.  He has a good idea here and shows Lucky very well (rather than telling about him).The issues with this story don't relate so much to suspension of belief or contrived conveniences (small bits were "convenient" or contrived - but not horribly so) even with the somewhat predictible nature of some of the tale.  The issues this author contends with are really bad editing.  There are numerous punctuation errors.  There are many grammar errors (three used for there is just one example).  Additionally, there are a number of instances wherein the author got character name wrong.  Thomson Jason and Julian Caball are characters in book.  They are different people.  But, a part read as:  "Jason Caball was resting in the drivers seat of his silver Audi..."Also:  "Julian and I are going to work on his confession...(text removed by me for length) ...when we're done Jason can call a cab..." (this was phone call between Lucky and Jason) .Then again:  "Julian made a right hand turn...there were only two cars in lot, but it's a big space; Jason parked a good distance..."and so on...those are pretty big errors that an editor should have caught and corrected.  Due to the substantial errors in the manuscript, I could not merit the fourth star I wanted to give.  The errors stalled pacing for rereads to glean intended message.STILL, I think (especially due to the improvement of this over his first work) this is an author worth reading again in future.  He just needs to invest some time in learning editing for self, obtaining a good beta reader, or - perhaps - even a pass by a professional editor.  His work could shine to a much higher degree if he did so.Christine