Review: Well-Written British Crime Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2012
Hope Road is a very well-written book, already summarized well by several reviewers, so I won't go into the plot details. John Ray is certainly an interesting main character, and the reader is kept curious about the other primary characters, as well - the Ukrainians, John Ray's surprisingly adept receptionist Connie, his girlfriend Den, Lanny, the murdered prostitute Donna, and so on.Perhaps because I wasn't able to really devote a lot of time to reading this book in two or three sittings, I found myself needing to look back a few times to reference one character or another. However, it may also have been because though the author wove a tight plot, I didn't think that he worked hard enough on developing the characters, several of whom seemed somewhat one-dimensional. I would have liked to have heard a bit more about Freddy, John Ray's friend who was accused of murdering the prostitute (as well as being in possession of the car with a large stash of counterfeit bills that became central to the plot.) I never had the sense that I knew him at all. What were Den's motivations for being with John Ray, or his motivations for being with her? What about the people running the motel - we know what they did but I didn't get a sense of knowing them well. Again, some more effort on developing the characters would have added to the story a bit.I liked how it all came together, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing until close to the end, with a complex and tightly woven plot. It is definitely written with British terminology and as an American, I found that I needed to "translate" a few words in my head as I was reading - no big deal and it didn't detract from the story. I enjoyed reading this book and would read another book by this author.I won this book from LibraryThing in return for writing a fair and honest review.