Review: "A complex, very engaging psychological thriller"
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 24, 2012
"Max" was written by British author Daniel M. Mitchell and is one of several works attributable to him.  Biographical information related to Mr. Mitchell seems limited.The writing style incorporates unique features.  The tale is wound around a "story within a story "sort of construction and two concurrent threads of mystery that only converge at the end.  In addition, the author mixes in individual character background snippets that serve to explain certain aspects of the characters in the story.  The mystery in the novel is well cloaked; the crime divulged but the perpetrator disguised only to be fully disclosed in the ending.  In all this is a complex and very well written composition.The prose is generally uncomplicated, although it seems to contain a number of grammatical gaffs mostly concerning verb tense.  I at first attributed this to the British lilt, but it appeared to me later that it was probably not that as I encountered additional spelling and grammatical errors.  These types of errors seem to be prevalent in the electronic versions of novels.  At any rate, while these things are annoying, they don't materially affect the reading experience except to promote an occasional raised eyebrow or frown.  The author's descriptive ability was excellent and he was able to turn scenes into vivid reality for the reader.  The story's characters were well developed and memorable; again the writer's descriptive ability making them so.  The author uses italic text to denote, what I called snippets, to fill the reader in on character background that is apparently not part of the manuscript that the narrator is reading.  The tale is narrated by one of the characters.The novel opens with two characters meeting and driving to a private nursing home type of facility called "Overton Hall" located in the country side.  Mrs. Randolf and Mr. Miller, the reader learns, have been making this trip for many years and Miller is especially displeased with having to do so once again.  We discover that Miller is an author when a peculiar fellow named "Carl" who works at Overton Hall engages Miller to sign a copy of Miller's novel for him.  It also becomes apparent from the dialog that Miller and Carl share some other knowledge of each other as Carl hands Miller a manuscript; one of several it seems, the previous ones all burned by Miller.  This manuscript Miller is compelled to burn also, but refrains from doing so and begins to read it; and so shares its contents with the reader and introduces Max and Philip.I quite liked this novel.  It was definitely complex in its structure and requires the reader to follow thorough all the way to the end where the mystery is at last divulged.I highly recommend you add this novel to your reading list.  I would rate it "memorable".