Author: mcalexander

Genre: Action

What I liked about this book:

From a technical point of view this piece is well laid out. The spelling and grammar is all solid, and the author seems to have outlined what she wanted to do before she started. Everything fits like a puzzle being put into place, which is important for this sort of cop drama.

It also seems like she had a good idea of what kind of people these were and what she wanted them to be.

What I did NOT like about this book:

Unfortunately all this plotting has resulted in a book that is not only formulaic and predictable, but dry as well. I get lots of fun, well-paced fight scenes that would have been enjoyable to read IF I gave a shit about the people involved. But I don't, because I don't get any glimmers of who Mick and Lizzie are as people.

There are a few scenes where the author tries, through a story about Mick's background and Lizzie's sister, but they come off as formulated and insincere. I realize this is a sequel, but even in a sequel I need to feel for the characters involved. I don't feel for them. Mick is just the worst kind of stock character cop, and Lizzie is bubbly and fun, but flat.

I also had some serious problems with the characterization of Lizzie's sister Cheryl, who has some sort of regressive developmental disorder. The book lays out quite plainly that this happened because she saw her parents killed.

We are well past the point in psychology of blaming upbringing when a child has a regressive form of autism, or another regressive developmental disorder. Pervasive develomental disorders like autism are not caused by a child's experiences or upbringing. There is no evidence that trauma (apart from physical head trauma) causes these kinds of issues. They are not psychiatric, they are neurobiological in nature. This is true even when the child developed normally for a time before regressing.

This sort of characterization is unacceptable. It implicity puts the blame for autistic people on their parents or upbringing, and makes it out like something is wrong with them, and not that they are worthy just as they are.

This entire plot point needs to come out, because we should not be holding up this stereotype of autistic people, no matter how severely affected they may be.

Apart from that, this book just wasn't my cup of tea. It tried a little too hard.

Overall:

Dry and telly, with a lot of infodumping. Tried way too hard.

Rating:

4/10. Lost stars because of Cheryl's characterization.