Review: Pretty Good with a couple of caveats
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2014
I am beginning to warm up to The protagonist Jon Stanton but still struggle with his age versus his worldly outlook and experience. It isn't completely unbelievable, there is just a feeling he should be much older than in his early 30s.I had three issues with this particular book that almost made me give up on the series. None of them are that bad, but they all occurred very close together and having become very disappointed in Lescroat, White, Perry and several other big named writers for similar issues, I have found my tolerance wearing thin. In this case two of the issues are almost more editing/proof reading gaffs, but ultimately the author is responsible for his own work. Two do not require spoiler alerts and the third I will just touch on as it illustrates a larger point. As usual, Stanton gets his head bashed in and when he comes to, he is being held captive. In captivity he observes the door to freedom has several locks, yet they all disappear, save one simple one he is able to unlock when he needs to. The lock he describes is one we have all come across and know how to unlock, so that is ok. It is the fact the proof writer missed the obvious error in the number and complexity of the locks. Second, when he next shows up to police HQS, there is no mention of any signs of the beating he took. This is germane to that particular part of the story so it throws the plot a bit askew, which, in my case, combined with the third issue I had made me think Methos was just getting sloppy and stopped caring about plot and character development. The third issue (briefly) had to do with a conversation between the two main Las Vegas male officers concerning Stanton's time in Las Vegas. I wouldn't have given it as much thought as I did, except for the two miscues I just noted. The third issue worked itself out in the end, but I felt a bit let down the book hadn't been better proofed so as to not cause this.Ok, I know, no one is perfect (except Jon Stanton), but I find myself almost looking for signs that the authors I like are burning out or just not trying as hard as they did in their earlier writings. In Methos case it isn't entirely fair because this was one of his earlier books, yet since I am reading them now and I read pretty quickly, I tend to gloss over that fact a bit. Perhaps this is more for Mr. Methos' future books, or any author for that matter.So for this series, don't give up because the protagonist is Mormon or a just a bit preachy at times. He reminds me of many of my LDS friends. His character is believable in that regard. I will certainly continue the series.