A Smudge of Gray

My mother always said that if you can’t say anything nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all. I was therefore tempted not to write this review, because there’s not a lot to praise about A Smudge of Grey. Beyond a single plot twist which is clumsily signaled from the very beginning, there is little original here. While few writers in this genre introduce us to deeply nuanced personalities, the characters are barely two-dimensional. The action advances in obvious and heavy-handed lurches.

Most troubling, though, is the writing itself. The book reads like a rough first draft, at best. Vocabulary is clumsy, grammar often mangled, sentence construction is stilted, and gratuitous adjectives sprout up like weeds. These pages are filled show more with overwrought and ungraceful awkwardness, reminiscent of a middle school term paper written by a reluctant student facing a minimum word count. A skilled and stern copy editor could have done this book, and its readers, a lot of good.

I can’t recommend A Smudge of Grey. Much as it would pain my mother, I’m not able to come up with anything nice to say. show less

"A Smudge of Gray" is a solid psychological thriller from Jonathan Sturak that features crisp writing and well-developed characters. Sturak creates a plot that spotlights two vastly different family men; one, a severely-stressed detective who feels he's losing touch with his family because of his commitment to his job, and the other, a charming, nattily-dressed businessman with a perfect wife and kids - who just happens to be a contract killer.

Sturak does a wonderful job changing perspective from one main character to the other without confusing or losing his readers. He finds a plausible way to bring these men together without one's true knowledge of the other's vocation and/or stresses with life and family. It all works so well during show more the first half of the book as important plot points flow evenly from one scene to the next.

Though the story is riveting and believable, some of the scenes in the last half of the book appear (to this reviewer anyway) to be unnecessary to the plot and primarily filler material. My other criticism lies with an ending that I felt was a little tough to accept. I don't feel that I can go into much detail without revealing the grand finale, so let me suffice to say that I felt "A Smudge of Gray" was such a strong book that it deserved a more realistic conclusion than the author concocted.

Most readers will be able to move away from my last point (and maybe I am being a little too critical here) and find a novel that is hard to put down with characters that they can relate to. I look forward to reading another one of Sturak's books. In some respects, his writing reminds me of a younger Thomas Harris. There's no question that based on what I've read in "A Smudge of Gray", he is an author with promise. show less

I received A Smudge of Gray from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.

Det. Brian Boise is on the hunt for a killer. His number one clue is a smudge of gray found at each crime scene. Trevor Malloy is a perfect father and husband. But he has a secret life outside the house.
The 1st half of the story was slow and bored me. But once the 2 main characters interact, it picks up the pace. Then comes to an unexpected end.
Mr. Sturak is a great storyteller. The characters come to life and you begin to feel for them. Brian with his family problems and need to succeed. Trevor with his evil nature. When the final fight comes, you are totally ready for it yet unprepared at the same time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an incredible fast read with a great story and intriguing characters. I particularly liked the writing style used by Mr. Sturak. It is the story of a murderer trying to lead an ordinary life and a police detective trying to find the murderer but facing his own demons. The ending is amazing. The only thing that I found a bit troublesome was the author was a bit loose with the legal aspects of the investigation but this was very minor and in the end you could probably even explain it away. I will definitely look for more of his work!

I won this as a LT Member Giveaway. The synopsis sounded good and the story itself is good despite the use of a tired plot device as twist at the end. This twist makes sense in the case of one character but not the other.
The biggest problem with the book is the lack of editing or proofreading. There are grammar, spelling and continuity errors throughout. Distracting. I have found this common in alot of the member giveaways.
This was a quick read and I did enjoy the story itself.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this review, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

For those who don't know, whenever I finish reading a book I plan on reviewing, I actually wait two or three weeks before writing that review, because hindsight and contemplation almost always tends to bring out nuances in my write-up that wouldn't have otherwise existed; but every so often I'll sit down to write that review and realize that I have completely forgotten everything about that book in just those two to three weeks, always a bad sign because it doesn't designate a bad book but merely a bland, generic one. And so it is with Jonathan show more Sturak's A Smudge of Gray, which I want to reiterate is not terrible at all, a competently written crime thriller about a cop and the criminal he's trying to catch, both of them genial middle-aged fathers whose lives sometimes accidentally intersect in interesting ways (both their sons are in the same basketball league, for example), even while both of them remain oblivious to the fact that the other is the subject of their antagonism. And that's what makes reviews like these so painful, because I hate having to pan novels that aren't actually that bad; but in a world that now sees the release of 50,000 new novels at Amazon every single year, it's becoming of greater and greater importance to an artist now to ask themselves not just whether their own book is well done, but whether it has even a chance of standing out amongst those other 49,999 books it's directly competing against in just that year alone. And the simple fact is that this one doesn't, no more than a random April 1993 episode of Law & Order does when compared to every other episode of Law & Order ever made; and that's a shame, because Sturak is a decent writer and I'd love to see him do something a lot more memorable than this. A middle-of-the-road score for a middle-of-the-road book, it comes with only a limited recommendation, to diehard crime fans who find themselves burning through a book a day and don't mind that many of them are only mediocre.

Out of 10: 7.5 show less

I was honoured to receive a review copy of this book from the author, as part of the Author Giveaway feature program here on LibraryThing.com, and while somewhat out of my usual genre I had a thoroughly fun read. Enticing even, considering the pace of events and the intrinstic relations between the various characters and events. Characters which at first glance are in opposition to each other, while each has both a darker side to his life, and both very human sides as well. Imagine it as a life not filled with colour, nor is it a case of black or white in everything. I do think the title was aptly chosen, both story and people navigate through layers of grey - and their choices do smudge what we as readers often expect from our show more imaginary characters in terms of environment or behaviour.

There are two main characters, Trevor and Brian which we find throughout the story in parts that - in my experience - are quite well placed against each other, without upsetting either pace or structure of the story. I liked the writing, at times it felt like it was subtly adjusted depending on which character was the main actor of a scene or event, something which I tend to appreciate.

It's an enjoyable read, and while there are one or two little things which could appear somewhat strange to the avid reader they do fall in place. It is however a solid case of watching the signs, and interpreting them. The author does give clues, but not as visibly so as we perhaps have come to expect from other books, other writing. This is something which I like, it gives me a further layer to get in to when reading the book again, as I must admit, I too missed a few clues and found myself quite stunned at the ending.

It's a book worth reading, you don't have to be worried really about catching every detail, though there is a lot of eye for it and it will immerse you deeper into the story. It's a fun read, but it may give a punch you didn't see coming at the end. In a good way.

In a way, I wish this book would at some point find a comic adaptation. As the author paints impressions in our mind with words, I find myself curious how the collaboration of that art, with the art of a visual artist would turn out. show less