Review: Could've used focus, but still an interesting tale with a lot going on
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2013
After an opening that raises a bunch of questions to instantly piquemy interest, there is finally a formal introduction of the maincharacter of the story, Dr. Joe Luca. The early chapters areinterspersed with lengthy exposition that defines the relationshipbetween Luca and co-star David Stern and their pasts, home life, etc.I thought the beginning was front-loaded thanks to these flashbacks,which still happen intermittently throughout. I can see why they mightbe necessary, as the story is largely about the duo's friendship.Still, it didn't flow smoothly to me. The two have led prettyinteresting lives, and their careers (surgeon, businessman, andnightclub owners) are odd matches. Still, these two hatch a plot tosecure money. Joe will wine and dine a chosen investor's daughterwhile David smooth-talks the investor. After this two-pronged approachnets them money they plan to bail and repeat the scam.Of course nothing could be that easy, and Joe meets his match inAlexis, a woman as strong as she is beautiful. With their plot on therocks, their friendship faces turbulence. Murder and thrills follow,but it takes a while to even get to the crux of the plot. There's alot going on in this book (from the friendship to the scam to theromance to the murder), and I kind of wish it just focused on thefriendship and scam, as Joe and David were pretty amusing characters.The prose follows a stream of consciousness pattern. There are a lotof rambling and run-on sentences, which can make things harder tofollow. I thought PALS was decent, but could have used more focus andrevisions to get rid of a lot of the distracting elements.