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A review by dtaylorbooks
Devil's Bridge by Linda Fairstein
3.0
This is book #17 in this series and for the record, I haven’t read any of the others. The book is a stand-alone; I wasn’t lost in any of the plot or anything. But I think it would have had more meaning if I were more familiar with the world Fairstein created.
As it stands it’s a decent enough story. I really wasn’t that riveted by it. That probably had more to do with the characters than anything else and their incredible overuse of each others’ names. That’s just a writing pet peeve of mine. I think it’s used for emphasis, but used too much it just becomes downright unnatural. People don’t use each others’ names that much in normal conversation. It was constant here and it kept drawing me out of the story.
On top of that I thought Mike was a bit of a choad. I get the appeal of the uber-masculine cop with a heart of gold (please, I watch SVU, thanks), but Mike was too gruff and insistent for me. I just didn’t find him appealing on the page. As a result I ended up glazing over a lot in the story. I didn’t find myself invested like I probably should have been and I found myself reading just to get through the pages.
From a plot standpoint it was interesting, but I was hoping to get something from Alex’s point of view while she was in custody. Not a peep. Once she’s off the page, about a quarter of the way into the book, it’s all Mike. And I didn’t get a huge sense of immediacy looking through his eyes. Or I should say the immediacy felt forced, and his interactions with people didn’t feel genuine.
Overall I didn’t connect with DEVIL’S BRIDGE. I wouldn’t be opposed to starting the series from the beginning. I wasn’t that turned off by it. But I’m not going to run out and start buying up copies either. Eventually, maybe.
2.5
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
As it stands it’s a decent enough story. I really wasn’t that riveted by it. That probably had more to do with the characters than anything else and their incredible overuse of each others’ names. That’s just a writing pet peeve of mine. I think it’s used for emphasis, but used too much it just becomes downright unnatural. People don’t use each others’ names that much in normal conversation. It was constant here and it kept drawing me out of the story.
On top of that I thought Mike was a bit of a choad. I get the appeal of the uber-masculine cop with a heart of gold (please, I watch SVU, thanks), but Mike was too gruff and insistent for me. I just didn’t find him appealing on the page. As a result I ended up glazing over a lot in the story. I didn’t find myself invested like I probably should have been and I found myself reading just to get through the pages.
From a plot standpoint it was interesting, but I was hoping to get something from Alex’s point of view while she was in custody. Not a peep. Once she’s off the page, about a quarter of the way into the book, it’s all Mike. And I didn’t get a huge sense of immediacy looking through his eyes. Or I should say the immediacy felt forced, and his interactions with people didn’t feel genuine.
Overall I didn’t connect with DEVIL’S BRIDGE. I wouldn’t be opposed to starting the series from the beginning. I wasn’t that turned off by it. But I’m not going to run out and start buying up copies either. Eventually, maybe.
2.5
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.