Erica

Can’t finish it. I have loved every book Greg has ever put out. I have read them all. I, like other readers was absolutely stunned by how this book deviates from the others in the past. I have no issues with any author putting their own political spin on a book. I live in a liberal state and you can agree or disagree but it’s their right to shadow their own work by how they feel. Where I draw the line is where those politics start to actually confuse and extend the story to the point that if you did not know who authored this, you would have never thought it was Greg Isles. I would argue this book would be 1000 pages shorter if his long drawn out explanations of race bating and Maga hating history wasn’t included. I don’t care if it’s in a book but I found myself reading and thinking “why do we keep going on and on a subject that brings nothing to that part of the story.” I literally said out loud to myself “I have no idea why this section or story he is telling for a character is even included.” I found myself putting the book down over and over, just exhausted by the extra writing, not for what it was about, but that it was there at all. The amount of tangents he goes off on to explain to a reader that have no benefit to the story, or that just sensationalizes a point to get across became unbearable to the point that I switched back to another book and haven’t tried to finish it yet for the fear of the exhaustion. That’s the first time in the history of a Greg Isles book that has happened and it saddens me to say it. I preorder the book a year in advance. I wanted to dive into the final chapter but I’m not sure right now I could even dip in a toe. I am hoping this is the only time I’m writing a review. All of his other books, no matter the subject were amazing both in subject and in his writing style. Books that I couldn’t put down and finished in hours or days. This one. Isn’t it. Sorry to say. Good luck to the readers.