A review by readwithhugo
City Problems by Steve Goble

3.0

A thing that drives me nuts is when an author writes a book that centers around the main character’s career, but it’s clear that they didn’t consult someone who works that job in real life to avoid factual inaccuracies in the story. There were a handful of examples of this in the book that kept pulling me out of the story. It’s super important to do your research when writing a book, my guy! I also noticed that the dialogue was a bit stilted because the author seemed to shy away from using contractions specifically during conversations between characters (ex: ‘Yep, you are right. It is a logical starting point.’) which made those conversations feel unauthentic and clunky. It’s okay to use contractions in your writing! It’s encouraged, really. Anyway, those were my main gripes with this book; otherwise, I liked it. The writing (that wasn’t dialogue) was solid and the plot moved forward steadily. I liked Ed a lot - he’s so salty while still being funny and kind, despite the ghosts that haunt him. Overall, this was a solid start to a new series - the author is clearly a talented writer, but I think he could benefit from a good editor going forward.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.