This one sat on my TBR pile for years before I read it and while I found the story pretty interesting, I wasn't interested beyond that and I doubt that this plot will stay with me very long.

The writing was competent in a narrative way, but there was little to no character development to make the story matter to the reader. In the first page we find out that the main character is getting out of prison and we are grudgingly furnished some details but nothing else. The circumstances leading up to him going to prison in the first place is a major issue for several of the characters that create key conflict points in the story, but we get nothing. In fact this is true for several major plot lines. Filling in this detail is what takes a narrative and makes it into a story. Every character has a backstory and I think you need it for them to really come alive.

That's my gripe. Some folks may disagree. ( )