Henry Perez

The first third or so of this book had me thinking it would be a 5-star read. The premise is interesting, with the decline of the newspaper business, small town politics, and a vigilante killer. I liked Alex's character and was with him in his quest for answers.

At least that's how I felt at the start. Then things started to unravel and severely stretched credibility. Apparently, every cop in the town either hates Alex and wants to see him suffer, or is completely inept. Or both. Alex becomes some sort of superhero, able to survive and conquer most anything. He seems to be the only person able to put the pieces together and no one wants to believe he's onto something. He needs to do the cops' job as well as his own in order to save the world. That's how the second half felt to me. I had to force myself to keep reading and to stop rolling my eyes.

Another issue I had with this book is a stylistic choice of the author. Perez writes in the traditional third person past tense for most of the book, but the killer's parts are written in first person present tense. I am not a fan of the switch in tenses. In general, I do not like first person present tense, and I find the switch in tenses throughout a story jolting. It can feel like two completely different stories when done this way.

Overall, while the plot is interesting and the writing itself is good, I found the story and characters stretched credibility to the point of fantasy.… (mehr)