Review: Great Book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2012
I have an academic interest in medieval torture devices, so the idea behind this book really appealed to me. I was a little worried that the author would either write too much about the methods (and the book would be too graphic), or not enough (to the point that the killer could have used more mundane methods and we'd never know the difference). Thankfully, that didn't happen. The implements of murder are described in enough detail that the reader knows what is happening, but not to the point that you feel like you are in the middle of the Inquisition.An adage about writing is "write what you know." From the biography, it appears the author is a golf-playing journalist, so Tyler West is a gold-playing journalist. Of course, this can lead to the main character doing too much and being too good, since he is the alter-ego of the author. This, however, is also avoided. West is a likeable character, but he has his flaws. (A lot of them, actually.) The flaws don't take away from the book; they just make West feel more like a real person.I look forward to reading more in this series.