Monthly Archives: June 2020

The Goodbye Man by Jeffrey Deaver

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51tPE6OT3wL  More like goodbye Mr. Deaver…    **

Just when I thought Deaver was back to his excellent writing mode, here comes The Goodbye Man. I was looking forward to another great read and sadly was disappointed.

The style he chose of giving us a scene and then going back and describing how it was set up was good, maybe a bit over used but it worked. My problem is that Deaver wrote this as if his readers are not capable of remembering what he has written. Time and again he explains something that we have read not that long ago and don’t need reminding.

My biggest complaint is not so much the writing as the editing. It seems that popular authors are not being edited well, not only here but I have seen it in, for example, the most recent Dean Koontz book. Either publishers are getting lazy, have hired incompetent editors, or are not bothering if the author is popular. In any case, when it happens it derails this reader from enjoying the book.

This one gets two stars. Not sure if I will buy another Deaver novel.

Fair Warning by Michael Connelly

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GUEST_1060cffa-3a48-446b-b94b-fada4cc4d72eFair warning, not that good……  **

The Poet is the best book by Connelly. Much like The Stand by King or Intensity by Koontz, it represents the time when he wrote at his best, caring more about the story than the market.  The one redeeming aspect to Fair Warning is that Connelly brings back some of the characters from The Poet.

Having said that, I did expect this book to be at least half as good. I was disappointed. Within the first twenty-eight pages there was a plot flaw that told me not only was it poorly edited, but that Connelly had phoned this one in.  The main character, Jack, falls into the TSTL category and was at best irritating beyond belief.  The antagonist, Shrike, began as an intelligent serial killer but ended as a joke. The few bright spots were the times Rachel, from The Poet, appeared and even those were dimly lit. The ending stretched the believability factor too far.

I have read all of Connelly’s books and this was a let down. This one gets two stars.