Brian S

Marginally better than the first in the series. Nice concept, but still, for two pedigreed authors, a very poor outing as far as pacing.

Nice little vignettes. Not as resonating as Every Day, but I liked them.

I laughed pretty much the entire way through this book.

Funny

It's funny, and it moves quickly. Never mind what the hard core Sci-Fi purists say. It's a good story with a Sci-Fi outer coating.

Not the best I've read from Locke, but even a poor story from him is better than 90% of what's out there.

Started off kind of slowly. There were numerous occasions where I skipped portions of text that I call “local flavor.” (You know the bits with local tourist attractions, native foods, pop culture references, etc.) But in the end, I'd read another. I won't hold Harry Potter against the author.

There are a few points where the characters take actions that leave the reader scratching his head asking why. But overall, it was another good novel from Atkins. I'm very much enjoying the Quinn Colson series.

It was good enough, but the series is different from the greatness it used to be. The best books were always about Lucas Davenport. His personal life interfering with his work life. Complications therein.

Now, the books are all about the crimes. You could change Lucas Davenport's name to Bob Roberts, and it wouldn't make one bit of difference to the story. And it's such a shame.

The book started out okay. The second half dragged. The only redeeming quality of the back half was that Lou Mason and Blues were a part of it.

Really slow book. I've been told the others in the series are better, so I'll give the series one more try.

Dreary. But that's no surprise when Detroit's involved as a major part of the story.

It took me a few days to get started, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Coben laid out the clues and twists perfectly to keep me guessing, and more importantly, keep me reading.

I received an advanced uncorrected proof through a goodreads giveaway. This review is based upon that copy. I have ignored errors of formatting, spelling, and punctuation. This is a review purely of the story.

I wish I could offer a more favorable review, but the novel's flaws outweighed its strengths. As an avid reader–over 300 titles in the past year–I've certainly come across my share of great and poor novels. The Ophelia Cut is neither, but I believe it could be made very much better, with some rather heavy editing.

Upon reading the novel's description, my first thought was that this wasn't my usual fair, but I was actually interested by the plight of the avenging father, and the attorney brother-in-law set to defend him. This is a rather large part of the description on the back cover. And yet, it took nearly a quarter of the book to get to the first line of the description.

But... I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me start from the beginning.

The novel starts off, if not strong, at least not horrible in its prologue--centering on Tony Ricci, aka Tony Solaia, vice cop / mob hitman. An awful lot of text is devoted to establishing the lifestyle of this character right up front. Though this is hardly what I'd call riveting, I can deal with it under the assumption that I need to learn about this major character.The problem is, Tony Solaia isn't a major character. He's a bit player in a larger story full of bit players. Solaia is hardly heard from again until the second part of the novel, and even then, his role could have been filled by any nameless character. Of course, as a reader, I don't know any of this until I finish the novel, which I very nearly didn't do.Moving on to Part 1 of the novel, I must admit that this is the point I very nearly gave up reading. Chapter after chapter of dinners, lunches, drinks, midnight snacks... I just did not care. The first eighty to one-hundred pages of the novel should have been edited down to twenty or so. They added absolutely nothing to the story. Almost the entirety of Part 1 could have been skipped, and the novel would read better, in my opinion.The story starts with Brittany meeting Jessup. Everything else needs to go, or be moved to later in the novel. If the novel led with Brittany's encounters with Jessup, I can honestly say my review would have been glowing. Instead, I was forced to slog through page after page, chapter after chapter of events that held no great relevance to the main story, which was Mose's reaction to Brittany's encounters with Jessup, and the subsequent defense.Part 2 at least started to get interesting. Once I got to the point in the story that the back cover actually described, things started picking up. But then, the author went and threw me for a loop. I was honestly confused by the timeline. I couldn't tell when this part was supposed to be taking place in relation to the previous part. Was it immediately after the previous part? Months after? Weeks after? I honestly could not tell. The jumps in time somehow need to be addressed, whether that be through dates in the part breaks, or simply rewriting portions to make it clearer to the reader.Part 3, 4, and 5 were actually fairly riveting. A good mix of "whodunnit" and legal drama, I've got to say it was fairly well done. Again, if the entire novel was like this, it would get a glowing review from me.I kept wondering when this brilliant legal maneuver mentioned in the description would occur. Right up until it did. Then I felt cheated. Perjury isn't a "feat of legal ingenuity." As a strategy, it's lazy at best, desperate at worst. It was so very disappointing, finding out that it was the ace in the hole.

Overall, I'm going to give this novel 1 out of 5 stars. If I didn't feel obligated by receiving the advanced proof to give the novel a good-faith review, I would have stopped reading it by the fourth or fifth chapter. I would have been left wondering, where was the story described on the back cover?

My advice, though it's likely far too late in the publishing process: Lescroat needs to chop most of Part 1 out. Perhaps most of it could be moved to later in the novel, after the story has been established. Particular portions might best fit in the “whodunnit” phase, where the investigation is ongoing. Also, don't lead with Ricci / Solaia. Lead with Brittany and Jessup, the catalyst for the story.

This novel didn't have the same chemistry that the first did. Part of the allure of the first was the interplay between Robie and Julie. Without that, a big portion of the draw was missing.

That said, it was still a decent read.

I liked it enough to hope it becomes a series.

I found myself skipping a lot of Quinn's dialogue, but aside from that, a great read.

Reads like a technical manual instead of a novel for most of it. Found myself skipping large portions of pages just to get somewhere.

Boring.

How could the fifth book in a series about a hitman that I've thoroughly enjoyed up to this point be boring? I'll tell you how: make it about stamp collecting (I'm sorry, philately) instead.

If you're a stamp collector, you'll love this novel. Otherwise, skip it.

Let me preface by saying I really liked the first 3 books in the series. That said, this one was a disappointment. I can't put my finger on exactly what the problem was, but the writing seemed sort of antiseptic, very much like an instruction manual on how Lock went through a day. Lock was supposed to be dealing with grief, but I just didn't feel it. It didn't come across through the pages.

The only thing wrong with this is that there isn't more.

Aside from the fact that I want them to make more, full novels (not these bits and pieces), this would be a 5-star read.

Too short.

This was a really great story. I hope the author writes more about this character. Such an excellent concept.

My least favorite of the Virgil Flowers novels. Sandford seems to be slipping lately.

Nice concept, it's just too bad the authors didn't deign to finish the story.