A review by toucan
When All the Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

The beginning of the book didn't grab my attention. The whole book was lacking a certain excitement and thrill-of-the-chase that mysteries tend to have, and that you'd expect from a book filled with rape, murder and blackmail. Something about the way the book, and the dialogue in particular, was written was very flat, stiff and unnatural. There were little things like the fact that people and places were often referred to by their full names rather than being shortened over time as one would expect. There were also bigger problems, like everyone articulating exactly what they're thinking, feeling and planning/doing in such a clear and straight forward manner, like the author was afraid to leave the readers with any doubt or subtleties. Overall, the book felt like it was written by an AI - it gave me a slight uncanny valley feeling, and that made it really hard to get lost in the story. 
I think due to the poor writing, the romance was not convincing or enthralling. I also don't think it was balanced well with the mystery -  the author would insert these acts of romance without a realistic lead up to them after chunks of investigation, which made the acts and the relationship feel insincere. I wish the romance was either developed more consistently throughout the story or just left out entirely. 
The mystery itself was fine, but I never got immersed mostly due to the writing. The characters always seemed to know what to do and who to talk to, even when it didn't make sense - for example detective Walsh was 100% believing and cooperative at all times and provided Max updates that he has no reason to give, and

it's not clear how Max came to the conclusion that Nolan was Trey's half-brother

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From what I've read of the other reviews, all of Krentz's books are the same, so I will be giving them a miss.