Reviews

Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage

hunterandrew's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Dark, disturbing, decently well-written. Not a book I want to return to. 

qdove's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

liberrydude's review against another edition

5.0

Disturbing but compelling. Once you get past the idea of a book about snuff films and the violence that permeates the Amazon frontier the author seduces you with his masterful fast paced plot. Inspector Silva is in a race to find a girl and to locate an extraordinarily evil woman ( not like the ELO song for sure). It didn't end the way I thought it would either but there is another high body count-no surprise there. Silva is the master of the game. Condescending corrupt senior bureacrats think they're playing him as always but Silva gets the last laugh. These books certainly don't do tourism for Brazil any favors. They depict a society brimming with violence and corruption.

zoegeels's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

nilrups's review against another edition

3.0

I liked the first two in the series better. This one was good. not as good as the other two.

I am looking forward to reading the 4th.

eswee's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.75

Not very special. The writing isn't bad, and it has a relaxing pace, but the overall story wasn't really interesting. This is a typical in-between book for a palet cleansing reading day. And it will soon travel along to someone else. 

usbsticky's review against another edition

4.0

I've been reading this series out of order. I read one book, liked it (can't remember which one now). Then I tried #1, didn't like that and wasn't going to continue. But I had already borrowed this one so I read it anyway and liked it.

Spoilers.
What I liked. The writing was easy to read and follow. The story line is also fairly simple. The chief inspector follows a snuff story. It leads to a major Brazilian politician's grand-daughter. It leads to a provincial town of Manaus where he's given the brush off by the local police chief. But he perseveres and continues to investigate a local under-aged prostitute pimp, the snuff film producer and police. The criminals continues to make major mistakes and chief inspector Silva pounces.

What I didn't like in the plot. I thought Silva should have asked for more help right away from the Feds to prevent the deaths from happening. That bit was a little bit unrealistic.

Apart from all that, the book also details the amount of corruption in Brazil, a major theme in the entire series. I have a feeling that any cagey policeman intent on solving crimes would have mentally worked around all that instead of being surprised by it. But no doubt, it's the author's plot device.

Overall, I like that the setting was well written, the characters were fairly well done. I'm already starting on #2.

karenakie's review against another edition

3.0

Good writing...dark, seedy subject matter.

skinnypenguin's review

4.0

It's sad to think that there is so much abuse of young girls. Brazil seems like such a corrupt place. Glad to see the nasty woman finally got it in the end. Really like the main character.