Greek Fire (The Unwilling Sleuth)

It took a long time to get this review done, and that is because the book never really grabbed the reader, or got them invested in the story. The parts that I did get excited about were the local parts (Annapolis), but location is not the only thing that makes good stories. If there was more development, more clever writing, I would be interested in seeing the story again. Keep at it!

Greek Fire is a wonderfully suspenseful and convoluted mystery. The action carries the reader from London to Greece to Baltimore. The characters are believable and very likable. This newly edited version is worth a re-read.

I'm afraid I can't add my recommendation for this book. It started off well, the plot seemed interesting with a lot of twists and turns but by the middle of it, I found it got very bogged down. The dialogue feels stilted, and tediously repetitive to the point where I was skipping over pages of it. The book could also have used a tighter editing, I noticed a number of misspellings and wrong or missing words as well. I.e. referring to a dog trained to attack, the order is "Alec, Attach". That's a careless mistake and it's not the only one. When grammar and spelling suffer, it's difficult but when the dialogue got more and more wooden and repetitive, I gave up and it's not often I do that. It's too bad, because the story itself had a lot show more going for it. One star for the story. show less

Greek Fire has a cool plot line: complex, fast-paced, and appealing, the story takes you from early archeological digs in Greece to modern day Europe and Baltimore. Andrew Unger has more than a few secrets and Bill and Marguerite Martin get pulled into an adventure they did not want nor ask for. The story has great potential, but like many self-published works, it was not quite ready for prime time. Despite that, I really enjoyed it.

Some reviewers have noted some spelling and grammar errors, and they were there, but not as bad as some books I have read. The problem, as I see it, is with continuity. On numerous occasions, I had to go back and re-read a paragraph because there was no transition and I had no idea who was speaking or where show more they were. There were also a number of loose ends that needed to be addressed for the reader’s satisfaction. It seemed as if the author either got bored with the plot, or more likely, just wanted to get the writing over with.

NOTE: SPOLIER ALERT – If you are going to read the book and want to be surprised, do not read beyond this point.

I want to address the loose ends. I finished reading and was still not sure who the villains were. That they were a well-organized group that used Silbo to communicate was made clear, and that there was money and power behind the group was both alluded to and openly discussed, but in the end we do not have the satisfaction of knowing. I can go along if the open end was intentional, but I never got the feeling it was. Also, Bill and Marguerite Martin were uprooted, scared, almost killed, dragged to Europe (from Baltimore) for their own protection and with fake passports – yet there was no closure to their part of the story: “Bill and Marguerite could return to their home, back to their life.” Excuse me, I just gave you a number of hours of my life and this is all you give me in return? I wish Gabe Penn would pull the book, give it a proper ending, and re-publish. It has real potential. show less

This is a difficult review to write. I found the story to be interesting and for the most part to be well written. Having said that, the book could use a good edit - the number of typos and grammatical errors are distracting. Additionally, there are places where it is overly repetitive. Repetition as a literary device is useful, but at times it seems as though the author is repeating, not for emphasis, but to keep the continuity of the story - often these are unnecessary and slow the flow of the story and the pace of the reader.

Having said all of that, the story is good and the characters are well developed - Penn has worked out an interesting story of archaeological history that is imaginative and offers plot twists and action to move show more the story forward. The four main characters offer counterpoints to one another and the main protagonist brings a 'James Bond' air to the book. The antagonists, however, remain shadowy and undefined and perhaps a bit more in this area would make the book more readable. Overall, I think the story was good, it moved well and was a good read - editing would help with some of the problems, but it was definitely worth reading. show less

I was excited to receive this book as the plot sounded very exciting and promised lots of action. When I started reading Greek Fire, I found myself having a hard time getting into it. This continued throughout the book. The dialogue was stilted and repetitive. In a nutshell, a couple is drawn into a web of intrigue and are guided by a former spy. Unfortunately, I hated the couple and found them extremely annoying, and was unable to form any attachment to their guide due to a lack of character development. I think this book has a lot of potential, but it needs some serious revision.

I received this book free to read and review from Library Thing. I found this book especially interesting, as I have lived in Maryland and was familiar with many of the locations. The plot is a rather complex one, but manages to come together in the ending. One of the problems I had comes from the repetition of dialogue and ideas throughout the book. This can be good, but not if it detracts from the storyline or slows it down, as it often does here. The author has developed characters that are real and believable. The story’s antagonists, however, were never really defined, and their shadowiness detracted from the overall plot. More work in this area would probably have helped. Also, because the plot is complex, I often found myself a show more bit confused about where I was and what exactly was going on, which a tighter storyline would have helped eliminate. All in all, the author has written an interesting, creative archeological story with a good lot of plot twists and turns to make this a good read, but could use some additional editing to make it even better. I look forward to more from this author. show less