Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When a book starts out with the main character getting a finger lopped off by a couple of hoods, and proceeds to get weird from there, well, you can consider yourself warned. This isn't your standard thriller, isn't your standard mystery; it isn't a standard anything. It's like a printed version of a carnival fun-house, where everything is off-kilter, shocks and surprises become the norm, and nothing is quite what it appears. And it's unforgivingly addictive. Don't even think about picking it up if you have anything else to do for the day. I won't even try to summarize the plot, because I can't give any detail without giving away some of the surprises. Suffice to say, you'll be seeing the world through "9-finger" Jake's eyes, trying to figure out why his whole world is coming apart. Although he's not an entirely sympathetic fellow, it's awfully hard not to empathize with his plight. None of the characters are fully fleshed out, but I believe that's deliberate, to keep the reader off-balance and guessing. If I was to nit-pick, the one flaw this book has is Jake's behaviour. Given his background as a hard-bitten child of the streets, he can be awfully naïve at times, and tends to get man-handled a lot. I can understand showing some restraint in order to keep his marriage together, but he really does seem overly dainty. Most books tend to have a character or style that reminds me of another character or author. Not this one: it's one of those rare books that's truly innovative and unique. It's absolutely brilliant, easily in the top three of about 100 books I've read in the past year. I'd highly recommend this to just about anybody!