Cut & Run
Well... What DID I think... I think the problem with this book was a lack of a plan or outline.
Here's my opinion on this book, for what it's worth:
About 8 years ago I ran an RPG group on Myspace, yes I said Myspace, that old dinosaur. All of the members played a character, and there was no group planning or regular story arch that we decided on ahead of time. What happened was one of us would get an idea and we'd just do it, causing everyone else in the group to just react to it. Pretty much like improv for writers. This was loads of fun for us writers to stretch our imaginations and play off someone else, but it would never have translated well into an actual novel. The reason why is we were all just playing it by ear, and books need a purpose.
This book felt like an RPG that someone compiled into a novel without actually rereading it and rewriting it a bit so that it gelled more. There were waaaay too many moments where I could tell that one author was giving hints to the other author about how she thought the opposing character should react. I, as a reader, should not pick up on that! That should be handled outside the pages in the outline.
Character 1: "Why is he reacting like that. I don't understand it at all, I wish he would explain it to me."
Character 2: "He seems like he's confused and doesn't understand my reaction, so I'm going to explain it to him."
That is NOT cohesive at all. In fact, when you're reading it's almost jarring. Subtlety goes a looooong way.
Hey, I could totally be wrong and that's not how the book was written at all. In which case, well I hope I never find out because if so I'll drop it another star. At least how I THOUGHT it was written gives a reason for the fractured feeling.
In addition to that was how the 'case' developed. They definitely had an idea of what drove the bad guy, who it was, and the connection between the victims. It was the way the case unraveled that I just could not believe. First of all, these agents barely worked! Maybe my time with the Troubleshooters has caused me to be a bit more critical, but every time they'd try to go out and actually work something would happen within 10 minutes that would have them 'calling it a day' or 'going to eat something'. I can only imagine what Jules and Sam would say about these two 'FBI Agents' and one an ex-Marine Recon at that!
Also, just because I can't let this review go without mentioning these two moments, can I just draw your attention to the following.
1. There's absolutely no way on earth that I buy Ty as some badass mans mans man, and he's entertaining ladies and having 'wild nights' with effing Mikes Hard Lemonade! Hey, all you men out there... what do you think of this? Do you buy a special forces ex-marine tearing up the hard lemonade in a wild bender of a night? Cause I sure don't.
2. Zane is an ADDICT people... and he readily admits that he craaaaves heroin. But then he was able to use it once to help him through the pain of a gunshot wound because he 'knows what he can handle'. Um, continuity issue right there, prime example. You can not manipulate your own characters hang ups to suit the scene that you are writing. Not, at least, if you don't want people raising their eyebrow and thinking it's full of crap.
Look, bottom line, I was REALLY looking forward to this book. I love Special Forces and PsyCop and I'd heard from MANY that this was as good if not better, and so in the end I was very bummed. I hear it gets better and better, so I will keep reading. If for nothing else than the next book Ty and Zane try to get some R&R and hopefully things will read with a much better rhythm. I really want to like these boys, I promise!
