欧宝娱乐

Okay, let me preface this with saying it鈥檚 the fourth in the series and I haven鈥檛 read the first three (Library doesn鈥檛 have them and neither did the book club). Often with mysteries though, that鈥檚 not entirely necessary. This started out as a good mystery, really it did. It suffered from having the blandest characters ever, like almost no character details exist. All I know is Alex Benedict (these are Alex Benedict mysteries even though it鈥檚 told first person from his female partner鈥�) likes antiques (though you only see that twice in almost 500 pages) and Chase Kolpath, our narrator is a star pilot. Literally that鈥檚 about all you get in the way of character development.

Still, I would have rated this higher than I did if the thing didn鈥檛 fall apart mid-way. The last 150 pages were slow, dull and so unnecessarily drawn out. It starts out with Vicki Greene, a worlds famous horror writer sending Alex a cryptic message needing his help and that 鈥榤y god, they鈥檙e all dead.鈥� When Alex and Chase look into it they find out Vicki has advanced him 2 million dollars and she has had her mind completely erased. Basically Vicki is dead and is someone totally new now.

Most people, including Chase, would have either taken the money and not bothered or returned the money to the family since the client is 鈥榙ead.鈥� (And since I am coming in mid series I have NO idea why anyone would ask this sort of help from an antiquities dealer) Alex decides to investigate, leading him and Chase out to Salud Afar, the last place Vicki had been, a planet way out there with no stars in the sky but one. It鈥檚 a place known for its ghost stories, a natural for a horror writer.

As they follow in her footsteps, Chase and Alex honestly have no idea why the author was compelled to erase her existence. Finally, as they poke through the history behind the ghost stories, the answer reveals itself, ending up with Chase and Alex both captured by the government and in line for mind blocks of their own. Escaping, they do contact some other authorities with their findings鈥nd that鈥檚 when you realize there鈥檚 over 150 pages left to go and the mystery is solved. You鈥檙e then in for politics for the remaining third of the book. I hate politics and to me this just fell apart here.

But it fell apart for reasons beyond the politics. I just don鈥檛 understand the whole motive of Vicki Greene. Without giving anything away, let鈥檚 put it this way, Alex and Chase get the solution underway with ONE call to the press. Um what? Everyone is lauding Vicki鈥檚 self sacrifice to bring this mystery to light but when you look at it, it makes no sense. There was no guarantee Alex would take the case in the first place. We鈥檙e not sure if the gov. took away vital parts of Vicki鈥檚 memory (but you assume they did but not enough to keep her from understanding something was bad and getting Alex involved) But honestly think of it this way. Greene is the J.K. Rowling of her day. Who would get the press and the people motivated to help more? Rowling or an antiques dealer (and for the love of pete, antiques never even come into this)? The whole plot hinges on the idea of someone like Rowling killing herself in hopes someone might notice and investigate what she wants them to investigate鈥h鈥hat? Instead of heroic sacrifice I saw stupidity in abundance. I don鈥檛 get the accolades for this one. It鈥檚 just not that good.