Then the bottom really falls out: The sister he hasn’t seen in years shows up, needing help. Turns out Donne’s Alzheimer’s-stricken mother has begun hinting at long-buried family secrets from her hospital bed, suggesting a sinister–even murderous–past. Meanwhile, Donne’s relatives are suddenly being greeted by blackmail, car bombs, and bullets to the back of the skull. Can Donne solve a case generations old to save his family or will the past finally catch up?

Reviews for Dave White’s books have proclaimed that he is bringing the P.I. Genre back with some fresh ideas and for the most part its true. While other great crime novelists like Leonard and Stark stay relatively close to their comfort zone White allows new slang and mannerisms that befit his generation to find their place in an age old genre. At times I will admit that his portrayal of certain characters in his novel do seem generic but as a Middle School Teacher White would probably be more up on the terminologies of the younger age as portrayed in the pages of the novel. The question is though does it belong? I personally had a hard time grasping that aspect of the novel.

The tale spun in this novel jumps back and forth between 1938 to the present fluidly and it stays mostly in focus until you reach the end of the novel where character intertwining becomes somewhat complex. It won’t be easy to describe why without giving key plot points away but certain relationships between the generations just don’t add up to me. I also found that a majority of the characters in the novel were very one dimensional. There was hardly any character progression and most of the characters were derived from cliché. Jackson Donne especially reminded me of the action film cops who get tossed in and out of unbelievable events and yet keep on going. While the characters aren’t much to look at the story at least contains a few twists and turns I hadn’t been expecting among its very dry plot. This cannot be a book I would describe as one you would not be able to put down. One that you feel the need to finish yes, but definitely not one that will keep your interest the entire time.

-AJ Garcia has been a writer for Shakefire.com since 2007.

Talk About This Article on our MESSAGE BOARDS or submit your COMMENTS below: