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Mayhawke (97 KP) rated Elevator Pitch in Books

Jun 28, 2019

Plot, writing style (0 more)

The reveal wasn't the biggest surprise, the characters aren't the most in-depth (0 more)

A nice return to U.S. crime fiction

Crime fiction is my thing. It's what I read most of, most of the time.

Over a decade ago I stopped reading crime fiction from the U.S. because I found what seemed to be a an unpleasant dwelling on the suffering of victims; a voyeurism which I found uncomfortable, and highly unpleasant. It was as though American crime writers were incapable of exploring the darkness of humanity, or giving clarity to events without relishing the pain and terror that must have been experienced by those on the receiving end of them.

Of course this was never true of all U.S. crime fiction, but I couldn't be asked to keep searching for the other kind. It was easier to just stay away from it all.

So, this is the first American crime novel I have read in nearly fifteen years.

What a joy it was. Barclay sets out a gripping thriller, an excellently plotted story which will educate you just a bit more than is comfortable on the ease of hacking lift controls in the technical age, whilst carefully leading you up and down the garden path a couple of times. The reading style is comfortable, the exposition is well paced. Eventually you arrive at a satisfying, and prompt conclusion. Barclay avoids the temptation to draw out the end like a cheerleader pulling gum, something that only works in Golden Era crime, and I always feel is out of place in otherwise fast-paced books of a more recent age.

Against this the characters have a slightly superficial feel, as though they have only been given the complexity they need for the book, and the denouement was not a huge surprise, though it was batted back and forth between two potential subjects nicely. But these really are minor complaints I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely be going back and reading some more of Linwood's books on the basis of this one.