A review by trogdor19
Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow

5.0

This is a truly great suspense novel. The plot is tight, interesting, with a great paced storyline. During the information gathering section of the book, action is provided by the daily activities aboard a Coast Guard vessel. The author spent 16 days aboard a Coast Guard ship doing research and it really shows. It reads like she spent 20 years working for the Coast Guard, at least to an outsider.

The writing is professional, well-researched, well-paced and provides great characterizations. For each character that is introduced, the author does a good job of fleshing them out. Even in this large cast of characters, there are very very few left as outlines without details.

The ending was perhaps the most impressive part of this book, because she wraps up all the loose ends by telling where the characters went, but she does not make everything turn out black and white. There are shades of grey, compromises and successes and failures that make it read like a true story instead of a novel.

Normally,I'm more of a romance novel reader, but this book may have made me a suspense-convert. I know it made me a heck of a lot more interested in the heroic everyday duties of the US Coast Guard!

Note on audio book edition: Very professionally read, with discernable voices all done by one actor.