Review: Interesting and Odd
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 10, 2013
The mystery was interesting to follow and the relationship between Smith and McCray was entertaining at times.  I appreciated the diversity of the characters:  the Native American and black cops, the Filipino hairdresser, etc.  The killer is ruthless and the murders are very violent, so this isn't a book for the faint at heart.  Still, there's a lot here that's odd and just didn't work for me.  Harry's treatment of Sean bothered me.  He kept referring to Sean as a boy when he was a twenty-one-year-old man.  At one point Harry acknowledges that Sean is a grown man and that he should refer to him as such, but then he goes right back to referring to him as a boy.  Sean doesn't help by behaving in such a way that it's understandable why Harry treats him as a child.  I started to wonder if he was developmentally disabled.  (Given Sean's upbringing and background, I wouldn't be surprised.)  Plus, Harry is so down on himself and sounds like he needs to be put out to pasture and he's only in his 40s!!  I also didn't like the high level of sarcasm here.  Practically every character was sarcastic and kind of mean.  Minor characters are often referred to in derogatory terms. There's so much negativity here and not just from the killer.  That being said, I would like to read more of John Inman's work.  I think he tells a good story.