Scan barcode
A review by paulabrandon
The Stolen Ones by Richard Montanari
2.0
A mysterious man by the name of Luther is murdering people who seemingly have no connection. And what does his killings have to do with an old psychiatric asylum? And what does it have to do with another serial killer who has been operating since the 1930s in Estonia? And what does it have to do with a couple of young girls 16 years ago being visited by a mysterious man in his closet? And what does it have to do with a young real estate agent, Rachel? Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano get involved when a recent cold case is given to them in relation to a man with a railroad spike driven into his head.
This book is just all over the place. It's clear the author himself had a timeline of when everything was happening, and why it was happening, but that all gets lost, because he chops it all up and delivers it in little bits of pieces, featuring different characters in different time periods. Basically, I was sitting in the dark for the most of the book until the final quarter finally starts to explain how all the discrete elements fit together, because the author was being delibrately confusing. Even then, it was all a bit muddled, something to do with dream therapy that makes a person think they're somebody else and carries out killings. But why Kross (the ultimate villian) was doing any of this remains frustratingly vague, even once the book is over.
Montanari is a fine writer and this had a few good moments here and there, but it was a struggle to get through, and I can't help but feel it stole ten days of my life that I could have spent reading other more interesting, less deliberately confusing books.
This book is just all over the place. It's clear the author himself had a timeline of when everything was happening, and why it was happening, but that all gets lost, because he chops it all up and delivers it in little bits of pieces, featuring different characters in different time periods. Basically, I was sitting in the dark for the most of the book until the final quarter finally starts to explain how all the discrete elements fit together, because the author was being delibrately confusing. Even then, it was all a bit muddled, something to do with dream therapy that makes a person think they're somebody else and carries out killings. But why Kross (the ultimate villian) was doing any of this remains frustratingly vague, even once the book is over.
Montanari is a fine writer and this had a few good moments here and there, but it was a struggle to get through, and I can't help but feel it stole ten days of my life that I could have spent reading other more interesting, less deliberately confusing books.