And I ALSO am suffering from the procrastination caused by overwhelmingsomeness... erm... surely I am so overwhelmed my word needs multiple endings, yes?
BUT, this was such a FABULOUS book and I REALLY DID want to get the review posted, for you, and because I like to post it HERE before I paste it over to Amazon and Goodreads. So without further ado... my review of Harry Dolan's The Last Dead Girl...
[Isn't that title brilliant... my first thought was, you mean there were more before her?]
*cough*
Compelling Mystery, Rich Characters
I loved Harry Dolan's first two books, Bad Things Happen and Very Bad Men--five starts loved them. But I see this one as hand and fist over the others. I'd give it six stars if they let me. I don't want to go back and give the others fours because they are fives in the grand pool of books I've read in recent years, but this one really IS better.
The difference to me is in the connectability to all the characters. Older Loogan (David from the first two books) is reserved and the tone carries to the story telling. Younger David (Daryl David Malone), before his name change that we knew was coming from the first book, has not yet learned the same reserved caution (learned it the hard way, beginning in this book) so I found him easier to know and relate to.
But more than that, Dolan's other characters are rich and shining, even his villains. Yes, villainS. There are more than one or two people doing rotten things. But Harry does a brilliant job of showing them as complex reasons with rationales that may not be good enough for us, but you can see how they justify the actions for them. We get to understand why they do what they do and see a peek at their humanity, however limited.
I finished this in December and probably rank it the top book I read in 2013.
1 comment:
Multiple villains are hard to do Hart, so that's high praise indeed.
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