Review: Interest slumped at 22 percent
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 13, 2013
PLUNDERING THE TILL is described as a "hard-hitting account of love, lust and corruption." That it may be, but certainly not during the first 22 percent of it, i.e. the first seven chapters.I know I'm at odds with the reviewers of this book who have gone before me and awarded four or five stars, but, of course, they presumably read the whole thing. They're made of stronger mettle than I.By the time I'd reached that critical 22 percent, no one of a multitude of major and minor characters had engaged my interest even so much as a smidgen. And waiting for the plot to gain momentum was perhaps like watching the heat radiate off the pavement down in South Texas near where the border with Mexico meets the Gulf - the area where the story begins.If you're hawking a one-of-a-kind item - I don't know, like self-washing windows or a breed of dog genetically programmed to scoop his own waste into a plastic baggie - then it'll market itself. But if you're selling books, tires, mattresses or breakfast cereal, then you've got to grab the attention of the punters from the get-go. And PLUNDERING THE TILL just didn't do that for me.Not wishing to be unreasonably unfair since I didn't finish the remaining 78 percent, I'll award this novel three non-committal stars and let others do the heavy lifting. In the meantime, I'm just going to delete it from my e-reader and move on.