Review: The wheels, they are spinning.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2012
With the announcement just a couple of weeks ago that the Dead Man series was picked up for publication through Amazon's "47 North" imprint, I feel sorta bad posting a negative review of the fifth volume; I don't want to poop on their parade.But I consider this the weakest entry in the series so far. Matt Cahill, the man who shouldn't be alive but is, wanders into a small Nevada town (which is supposed to be a Old West town maintained for the tourists, even though we never see a single tourist) with a mysterious team of mercenaries after him. The town is cut off from the outside world by an obligatory contrivance, and Matt and a cadre of smalltown cliches (why would a town this small have a sheriff? come to think of it, why would any town have a sheriff, as it's an elected county position?) have to hold off the mercenaries by themselves.It feels here like the series is spinning its wheels; fortunately, the one good point to the novel is that it introduces -- or re-introduces, for the first time since the initial installment -- that Cahill might be valuable to someone trying to find a means of immortality. So while Cahill is chasing Mr. Dark around the country -- for no reason that's all that clear, a weak point in the series concept -- there is now established an organization chasing Cahill. Here's hoping that that concept pays off in future installments, or the whole enterprise might peter out.Disclaimer: Because of the unelected dweebs at the FTC who wouldn't know the First Amendment if it wore a thong and gave them a lap dance, I must hereby announce that the media reviewed herein was received gratis from the distributor of said media with the understanding that I would comment on said media in this blog.