Review: Beginning Was Intriguing, But Then Fell Flat
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 02 10, 2013
I absolutely agree with the reviewer who said that the author of this book had a great premise but a poor execution.  I was very intrigued by the first couple of chapters, but as the story wore on, my interest and patience flagged.This book introduces Preston 'Press' Andrews.  After the initial engaging description of the crime and its perpetrator, we are led into 'timeline' chapters.  By chapter 14 we are not even 12 hours removed from the beginning of Preston's part of the story, but we have been 'treated' to agonizing and saccharine descriptions of this apparent super hero/detective, and yet very little about the actual crime investigation.  We know how tall Preston is and how much he weighs, the color of his eyes and hair, how muscular he is, how he dresses in Armani apparel and Italian leather loafers, how wealthy he is, how amazing he is...but still humble, how his nickname around the precinct is 'Super Dick' (tee-hee!) because he can solve ANY crime, how beautiful his sister is, how she has long, long legs, about her bra-less breasts (these points noticed by Preston himself...ewwwww), and pretty much how superior Detective Andrews is to all the mere mortals around him.We also get to know a tiny bit about Preston's new partner, Trace Evans ('Press' and Trace...those are not names, they are verbs).  Trace is a new detective, but is treated like a fresh out of the academy rookie beat cop.  Preston looks for signs that Trace is going to be sick at the sight of the victim's body.  Although I am far from an expert on police matters, I was under the impression that it takes a while to work up to being a detective, and by the time a police officer has achieved this designation they have probably already seen their fair share of gruesome sights.  Apparently this is not so in Trace's case.  It seems it is up to Preston to take young Evans under his wing and show him the ABC's of police work, while simultaneously looking like a GQ model, comforting all the rich people in town, making amends with (and surreptitiously leering at) his sister, navigating an amicable break up with his girlfriend (amicable in large part due to how fabulous 'Press' is), and finally, getting the upper hand in an ongoing feud with the big, bad meany Motor Pool officer in charge (insert dramatic music here).Does this sound tedious?  If so, imagine slogging through this mire the entire first half of the book.That's as far as I got.  I deleted this from my device at 54% as I surmised that a great deal more of the text would likely deal with the author's worship of her protagonist rather than the exploration of who committed the crime and why.  I sensed there would likely be some silly wrap up of the mystery with...you guessed it!...'Press' coming out the hero.  No thanks, I'll pass.