Review: Page turner and surprises
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2013
I received a free copy from the author in return for an honest review.I don't normally read thrillers. I've been reading a lot of mysteries lately, and also read a lot of fantasy, with an occasional science fiction story thrown in to the mix. That being said, why would *I* decide to read in this genre considering I don't normally read in it?I'd hit a rut in my mystery and fantasy reading, that's why.But enough about me, and on to my impressions about this story. Nicholas Colt is a man who once was a rising rock star until his wife, baby, and band were all killed in a plane crash - with Colt the sole survivor. He feels guilty about it, though it's been something like 15 years since the crash. I liked how this was brought out in a prologue, so we care right away about Colt.He's living in a trailer on a friend's tract of land, always late with the rent, but he does have a P.I. badge and a gun and hopes to get more business. I expected this story to have a sleazy atmosphere throughout, but it didn't feel that way to me. Sure, there's sleaze, especially once we get into the drug sub-culture stuff. And there's a really nice twist when we encounter a dude named Fatso and his henchman...but I won't tell you what it is, because it surprised me. Why ruin the surprise?The ending also has a twist, but seemed to be right in line with what was going on in the story. Suffice to say that the ending is not what you were expecting.Think that's all the surprises? Not for me! The book is relatively clean - word wise and scene wise. We're told about Colt making love to his new girlfriend, Laurie, but without the details. I liked that, in the way I like old movies from the 1930s and 1940s, where certain things were hinted at, leaving the rest up to the imagination of the viewer.I expected there to be a lot more coarse language, a lot more cursing than there was. That it was relatively clean that way does not detract from the grittiness of the tale.All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at how I turned the (virtual) pages on this one; I finished about 2/3 of it the first day and finished it a day later.Definitely worth reading. I've put the next one on my Wish List.