Review: riveting, dark, read this story and the second novel in a day
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 14, 2013
I enjoyed these two novels (The Foxhole Court and The Raven King). The story was engrossing, but very dark emotionally, which is to be expected when the story concerns mafia, death threats and mental illness. After finishing, it took me a while to rise out of the miasma of the main character's life. So as I said, very dark, but riveting.I admit to skimming some of the sports bits. That said: the sports bits that I read were very well done. I've just never been that interested in sports. But the author has meshed the sports very well with the plot and character emotions/thoughts, so I doubt many readers will skim like me. I'm a chronic skimmer or speed reader. Some things just put me into speed mode. Sports is one, but gotta say, I slowed down for this book. This is an excellent first novel in a series and well written over all.Mafia matters are very intertwined with the sports in this series. It works. It was very easy to suspend disbelief except every once in a while I wondered if Japanese mafia members were really that f---ed up and totally without a sense of humour. There's always some twisted SOB or two in a story with mafia.I'm looking forward to book three and how the main character continues rising out of his emotional shut down while learning to have faith in some of the human race again.