The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross
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Book Reviews of The Dark Tide
Book Review: Another Good One
Summary: 4 Stars
What can I say but another good one for Andrew Gross. This novel kept me interested and kept me reading. I would definitely recommend this author. I have read all of his books and anxiously await another one.Book Review: Entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this for free on the Kindle but I have to be honest - I really liked it. Nice summer read.Book Review: Would I Pay More than Nothing for It?
Summary: 3 Stars
*Kindle Review*
James Patterson has never written anything worthy of lining a birdcage with, in my humble opinion, and so I am not familiar with anything they've written together. I am, however, very surprised to find out that this author is a supposed professional. The book struck me as being very amatuerish.
The plot hints at depth and intrigue, but then consistently falls short of actually hitting the mark. There were so many times I was close to getting chills, close to getting seriously sucked into the conspiracy and then it was ruined by some easy way out the author took.
When he does decide to pursue mystery he chooses the worst time, like when two characters are completely alone and there's no need for secret codes and double-talk. Well, then, of course, he's full of it! If they're in a public place where anyone could overhear them, then they just blandly lay their plans out in plain talk with no concern at all. It really irked me.
The characters are somewhat wooden and stereotypical. You have your divorced, hard-nosed detective who's married to the job, but ready to find love with the skinny, rich, excersize-obsessed blonde, totally clueless leading lady and then of course you've got your assortment of varfious shadowy, smooth-talking assassins who are supposed to be just efficient enough to be scary, but not efficient enough to ever accomplish much of anything throughout the entire book. There's not one unexpected stereotype in the whole story. He even throws in some Jewish bankers for good measure.
The story is interesting for a free book, but I really don't think I would pay for it, to be honest. The romance is all cheesy, the action is decent, I suppose, though. Once again, for a book that I thought was written by an amatuer author.
On a scale of 1 to 10 the book starts out at a solid 8 and then drops down to somewhere around a 4.5 to 5 by the time you finally reach the middle and, unfortunately, it never recovers. It stays in the 3 through 5 range for the remainder of the book.
Book Review: for those with high belief elasticisty
Summary: 3 Stars
I had a difficult time with this book. The author's general style is engaging enough to keep going, but there are few ways in which characters follow any consistent motivations.
The revealing of the plot is done well *in general*, but suffers from the plot not really being believable.
***** Possible Spoiler Alert *****
I felt there was no reasonable explanation for the actions of 'Charlie' on the whole. Most reasonable parents, faced with the prospect of never seeing their spouse or kids again.... well, there's just not enough motivation in "wanna keep the lifestyle" and "don't want to do 10 yrs in jail". Charles was portrayed as a reasonable and successful person, who just had this one wacky hang-up in that he was cool with faking his own death to his wife and teenage kids. Silly silly silly. The problem is that the whole book is hinged upon Charles eventually having an explanation for why he chose to do what he did, and towards the end, when it's revealed, it's kinda just "umm.. because... (insert stuff we already knew)"
It would've been more believable if Charles wasn't made out to be such a standup good father and spouse, but rather had previously been through rough patches with his family or had drinking problems or something.
Book Review: The edge of the dark tide
Summary: 3 Stars
Part mystery and part romance, Dark Tide would make a great soap opera or mini-series. A thirty-something mother of teenagers from Gold Coast CT, whose husband is a financial advisor with aspirations to become a high flier, becomes a widow when his train is exploded by terrorists. The ace detective, whose wife left him after their little daughter died in an accident that he might have prevented, has merely been going through the paces, his life empty and his guilt debilitating. When the wife, Karen, receives some vaguely discomfiting phone calls from strangers, she starts searching her husband's papers and discovers that he was not completely honest. When her daughter is threatening by a thug, Karen contacts the cop, Ty, and the situation heats up big time. Who can Karen trust? How can she keep her family safe? In this book, her kids are conveniently invited to accompany their grandparents on a lengthy African safari. Phew! But Karen is determined to get to the bottom of things, and boy, is that bottom ever deep. Dialogue like "Rot in hell, you bastard!" and a series of semi-steamy love scenes make this plot just perfect for a television adaptations. Good plane or beach read, just don't look for anything deeper. Just OK.