Review: A Cornucopia of Mayhem, Mystery & Machinations
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 28, 2012
I love a good mystery, especially one promising to have things hidden in dark corners and the idea of it being in a world I feel is pretty corrupt over all, our drug industry. This book truly intrigued me and I jumped for the chance to read and review. The most important things I require to rate a book a good mystery are:**Suspense and creative action**Keeps me guessing with character twists and puzzles.**Good character builds and believable settings.**Surprises me till the endThere was tons of great suspense and a lot of action. From start to finish we were running along, tying our shoes and tucking in our shirts just to stay caught up. To the point where I wasn't sure if I was going to the Ball or to McDonald's for lunch. One minute the Russian Mob was trying to kidnap them or managing to do so, torture information out of them. The next some corrupt officials from some odd FDA office are doing the same thing. Throw in my favorite program WITSEC and a wayward witness and.. wait where are we going? It has a whirlwind romance, whirlwind hijinks, and whirlwind craziness.It definitely kept me guessing, some of it good, and some of it not so good. The good was I never saw things coming! The puzzles presented were just mind-boggling. Since this is a mystery I cannot go into details on what worked and what did not work for me. A lot of the problems I had were because there was not enough information given. Things just were not fleshed out so I had to take it at face value.My biggest problem, the character builds. I do not have a problem not liking characters, but the only one I liked, was the U.S. Marshal and he was just not in it enough. I did not like Rebecca for many good and if you read the book obvious reasons. I started off liking Liam only to want to kick him a lot, which still is OK. Liam is the most complex character but I grew up in that world of big money and a lot of responsibilities and being able to live like he did. Some of that stuff just did not jive with me, but again that is me. If I had not known the ins and outs of the accounting I would not have caught on to the inconsistencies. The settings were there, believable however not enough descriptors! I wanted to have the scent of the breeze, the flow of her hair, the light in the room etc. It felt rushed and not very three-dimensional.I enjoyed the story and the idea behind the story and the puzzles through to the end. I did not stop reading it once I started. I only put it down when things frustrated me and to sleep for the couple of days while I was reading it. As I was nearing the end I really was getting excited, it seemed to be coming together and seemed it may not let me down. Without spoiling Missing Rebecca, I did not see the end coming and the end was.... jarringly unexpected and not really in a goodway.Full of suspense, mystery and thrills. I would recommend those who want a quick read at the airport. Be prepared it has a lot of  f-bombs being dropped and some really over the top mob stereo types. The swearing did not bother me, but it may bother others! It was OK, I did not hate it, did not love it, but it worked for a weekend read.