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A review by dunnadam
The Burning Plain by Michael Nava
4.0
I haven't given a book in this series yet five stars and I really wanted it to be this one. It's not that I'm not enjoying the series, I am, it may be the best series I've read, but each individual volume seems to be not as good as the whole. It's still very good, just not perfect.
In this latest very good installment, the longest by far at 395 pages, Rios himself is involved in the murder and must clear his name to get out of it. The book starts very well, vividly depicting the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, I've been there and this book brought back my visit in crisp detail I appreciated. The plot keeps you guessing and races along, but I really like Rios' investigator, Freeman Vidor. In this book he appears only once, his name is mentioned on page 284, and that's it. When you have a cast of elaborately drawn characters to pull from, not using them seems wasteful.
I remember while reading the book thinking the plot was teetering on the edge of being too much, and then the book went on for another 100 pages. There's a lot woven in to an already overly complex plot and keeping track of who's who or the 35 dead ends faced in trying to catch them grows slightly tiresome.
Overall I still really enjoy the series and look forward to the final book.
I noticed two errors:
- on page 310 "Ode asked through a mouthful of pastrami" should be Odell.
- on page 323 "Florentino It was the same..." should have a period between the sentences.
In this latest very good installment, the longest by far at 395 pages, Rios himself is involved in the murder and must clear his name to get out of it. The book starts very well, vividly depicting the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, I've been there and this book brought back my visit in crisp detail I appreciated. The plot keeps you guessing and races along, but I really like Rios' investigator, Freeman Vidor. In this book he appears only once, his name is mentioned on page 284, and that's it. When you have a cast of elaborately drawn characters to pull from, not using them seems wasteful.
I remember while reading the book thinking the plot was teetering on the edge of being too much, and then the book went on for another 100 pages. There's a lot woven in to an already overly complex plot and keeping track of who's who or the 35 dead ends faced in trying to catch them grows slightly tiresome.
Overall I still really enjoy the series and look forward to the final book.
I noticed two errors:
- on page 310 "Ode asked through a mouthful of pastrami" should be Odell.
- on page 323 "Florentino It was the same..." should have a period between the sentences.