A review by laurapk
Stray Bullets by Robert Rotenberg

2.0

This one stayed away from the quality of the previous novels. The characters which were so vivid only a book ago are becoming cliches and flat. The once exciting plots are now falling into formulaic territory. The only part I found interesting and kept my attention was the trial. The police work was boring and repetitive (if I read about one more detective not able to sleep a wink during the first few days I'll lose it). And the character relationships are starting to go into that annoying pattern of "will they, won't they", because how else are we going to sell future novels? The city of Toronto, once a fully fleshed character in past novels was bland and cold. As was the victim's family. The father seemed so unemotional that I honestly thought he had paid someone to kill his son. There was no clear body language, no heartwrenching animalistic grief. Not even from the mother. We're asked to belive this was a shocking case, but nobody acts like they're in genuine pain. It's all cold. Unemotional. Short. Bland.
Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed with this one