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canadianbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
This novel was a brainchild by Linda Fairstein who wanted to raise money for the victims' assistance organization Safe Horizon. Each chapter is written by a different author, and despite that it flows fairly well. Not as good as a novel by any of these authors working on their own, but still interesting with a plot that keeps you turning the pages.
The main character is an ex-cop turned private investigator, Pericles (Perry) Christo. Perry struggles to stay in his teenage daughter's life, and resents the way his exit from the force portrayed him as a bad guy when he was really a guy trying to expose corruption. Perry is hired by a wealthy woman, estranged from her daughter who has now gone missing. Perry is hired to find her, but he finds that the people he encounters are all playing some game of their own that he struggles to try and figure out.
An interesting idea for a good cause.
The main character is an ex-cop turned private investigator, Pericles (Perry) Christo. Perry struggles to stay in his teenage daughter's life, and resents the way his exit from the force portrayed him as a bad guy when he was really a guy trying to expose corruption. Perry is hired by a wealthy woman, estranged from her daughter who has now gone missing. Perry is hired to find her, but he finds that the people he encounters are all playing some game of their own that he struggles to try and figure out.
An interesting idea for a good cause.
squidbag's review against another edition
2.0
(This entire review has been edited to remove the word "uneven," which I promised myself I would not use to talk about a book written by 20 goddamn people because, 'duh.')
So, yeah.
A fun little mystery story that never really has a chance to build into anything suspenseful, mostly because of the nature of the beast. 20 mystery authors got together and wrote a story for charity, and so that's a reason to read it, buy it, whatever. I didn't dislike it, but I was never able to take it any more seriously than I would an episode of Law & Order viewed in a hospital waiting area. That said, if you like Law & Order, this could be your thing.
Because each chapter is written by a different author, a couple of things happen: First and foremost is that the internal narrative of the protagonist makes him sound like a psychotic with a memory disorder - he repeats himself a lot, and goes from forgiving and world-weary to a blue-mouthed dynamo in the space of 10 pages at one point. Some threads are never really pulled, and the climax feels like an anticlimax with a twist tacked on; one of the characters is an obvious red herring from the beginning. Positively, though, each chapter is a fresh start and a chance to read something new, and I found a couple of authors I might read again amongst the old favorites.
Fun, but not brilliant.
So, yeah.
A fun little mystery story that never really has a chance to build into anything suspenseful, mostly because of the nature of the beast. 20 mystery authors got together and wrote a story for charity, and so that's a reason to read it, buy it, whatever. I didn't dislike it, but I was never able to take it any more seriously than I would an episode of Law & Order viewed in a hospital waiting area. That said, if you like Law & Order, this could be your thing.
Because each chapter is written by a different author, a couple of things happen: First and foremost is that the internal narrative of the protagonist makes him sound like a psychotic with a memory disorder - he repeats himself a lot, and goes from forgiving and world-weary to a blue-mouthed dynamo in the space of 10 pages at one point. Some threads are never really pulled, and the climax feels like an anticlimax with a twist tacked on; one of the characters is an obvious red herring from the beginning. Positively, though, each chapter is a fresh start and a chance to read something new, and I found a couple of authors I might read again amongst the old favorites.
Fun, but not brilliant.
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