Review: I just don't get it
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 29, 2011
ThIs book could have been really good, there was potential in the beginning.  Unfortunately it went downhill as the story progressed.  The first chapter was interesting until it got near the end, it turned out to be an LSD hallucination but the author makes sure to point out that the diabolical canisters mentioned really are there and all lined up in the hotel room. Then the chapter suddenly ends, and I assume the canisters to be a foreshadowing, a loose end to be neatly tied up at the conclusion.  Nope.  Never hear about them again.  This is one of many things I anticipated would be followed up and weren't.The first quarter of the story, you are told about the mysterious brown package that gets delivered to this unlikely "spy/hostage hotelier" chick at every location, and also what's in it and maybe a little about the "job".  The entire middle of the story, the mysterious package is mentioned but we don't ever find out what's in it or what the point is.  Towards the end, the author doesn't even bother mentioning the package anymore.  I still don't understand this.  Not only that, but the chapters/visits themselves get cut shorter and shorter as the book progresses.  There are 5 paragraphs with random demographic and historical facts about the location at the beginning of every chapter, then a couple pages about what brings her there, then turn the page and you're suddenly on the next chapter reading random trivia about a different location.  It got to the point that I was getting really fed up, but I was about 2/3 through it and expected those loose ends to start being explained at any time so I kept pushing through (a fruitless effort). The author could have taken just 5 or 6 of the locations, fleshed out the characters and gave them some decent plot to follow, and this could have been a much better outcome.