Alex R. Carver
Author of Where There's a Will
Series
Works by Alex R. Carver
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1978
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, UK
- Occupations
- clerk
shop assistant
Members
Reviews
Statistics
- Works
- 11
- Members
- 50
- Popularity
- #316,248
- Rating
- 2.8
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 17
First off, the good. When an action scene comes along, it's a page turner, with the brawls, chases, and injuries the characters receive being well described. The characters don't magically heal up after a few pages, either, as in some novels and movies. Also, I liked how none of the characters are super-cops; they're sometimes outmatched, and need superior numbers to corral a suspect. You won't see any unbeatable karate moves or impossible feats of marksmanship in this book.
This novel is also decidedly not hard-boiled. The officers are conscientious and kind-hearted, and go about their business with what seems to be a very British efficiency – at least, that's how I see it, being an American myself. You're not going to find much cynicism or bending of rules here – not by the good guys, that is.
The main plot revolves around the kidnapping of a schoolgirl from a wealthy family. This would be important enough by itself, but Nathan Stone, our overworked protagonist, has to deal with several other crimes during the course of the story – and this works against the novel. In general, I prefer the “one major case per novel” style of detective fiction, rather than a series of cases, even if they are interconnected.
One of the pluses of this approach is that the author can then spend time on character development, rather than having his characters run from one crime scene and interview to another – and the characters in this novel do need development. What do they do outside of work? What are their hopes, dreams, fears? We don't really know. Stone has one scene with a family member, and he's working the rest of the time. I actually sympathized more with the Keating family and the kidnappers, instead of the policemen, since we learn more about them, while the officers remain – well, officers.
There are also a lot of chapters in this novel, many of them short, and only serving to convey a minor piece of information to the reader. While I have no problem with an omniscient style, I do think Carver got too carried away here. I think a lot of these chapters could've been combined so they had greater narrative weight. Also, many of the chapters ended abruptly, leaving me confused, since it seemed like a crucial piece of information was about to be revealed.
I think with a lot of manuscript-polishing for subsequent books Carver could have a decent series. However, I can only give this novel three stars.
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