Keith Houghton

I might have gone into this book predisposed to hate it, as the author wrote an introduction about his writing process, and how hard it is to write a novel. I usually find these kind of statements self-serving and of very little use to the reader. It also inserted the author into the book, and I couldn't help but see "the writer" throughout.

Phrases like "azure sky," "bouncing around in my head like popcorn in a microwavable bag," and "selling one-way tickets to dead-end trips," all seemed about the writer being very pleased with his imagery, and very little about telling a story to the reader.

And the story felt like just another trick the author was playing on the reader. When the first "twist" was revealed and then untwisted (perhaps because the author felt it was too obvious), a twist on the twist was revealed that just felt cheap and unearned.… (altro)

I couldn't decide whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. The first half of the book seemed a little hard to follow. I am not sure if I was distracted while reading it, or if the plot just jumped around too much.
The second half of the book was very exciting. Once the action moved to Las Vegas, it seemed to get much better, and I was excited to read more.
When we finally find out the identity of the killer, it is a big WTF moment. It seemed to just come out of the blue. I don't know if that was the author's point, that you never know what is going on with others, and anyone could be a killer.
Overall, it was a pretty good book. Especially since I was able to download it to my kindle for free.… (altro)