A review by caseysummer
The Death Factory by Greg Iles

2.0

 

The Death Factory, the 3.5 installment in the Penn Cage series, and honestly, it didn’t do much for me. It’s a novella that feels like a footnote—technically part of the series, but ultimately unnecessary. The writing style stayed consistent with the main books, which I appreciated, but there just wasn’t much substance here. It didn’t deepen my understanding of the characters in any meaningful way or add tension or insight that couldn’t have been folded into one of the main novels. 

I can see how it was meant to set up a plot point for the next book, particularly around the topic of euthanasia. But even that felt like it could’ve been easily included elsewhere without needing an entirely separate work to introduce it. As a standalone reading experience, it just didn’t hold up. 

I gave this one 2 stars. It wasn’t awful, just kind of pointless—and in a series as dense and emotionally complex as this one, that felt like a disappointment.