Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start off by saying that while I didn't like this book at all, I did end up reading all of it in one sitting. It may have been a very frustrating read but it was read. This was very clearly written in three months and then never read again. There's even a "twist" at the end that I hope to God they don't think is a twist. I'm just glad I didn't spend any money on this one. The book centers around multiple murders in London, the stupid people who commit those crimes, and the poor policemen tasked with solving them. Much of the scenes are unnecessary and are only there to shock and scandalize, the main one being the scene of a prostitute having sex. This is one of the first scenes in the book and seems there just to pander to those who want a gritty read. There was a torture scene that was barely explained (someone else wants it to happen! Why? Who cares!) and most of the gruesome murders were described in great detail for no reason. Welcome to this violent novel, very much not suitable for children as was so graciously stated in the description. Thanks for the intentional warning that was placed only to garner more readers! The poor plot wasn't even the worst part. It contained multiple typos, tenses magically changed, and several commas were missing which made the sentences quite stilted. The dialogue was awkward and at times made no sense. The writing style involved switching from character to character from page to page, explaining only a brief action that character was taking at that time. In the beginning, I found it to be an interesting way to go about things but then I realized it was going to happen for the entire approximately 80,000 words (thanks again, description!). This was very annoying as the second you got into the action, you were thrown into another person's boring situation. It feel like the authors stopped writing when they couldn't think of anywhere to go with the story and covered it up by changing perspectives. There was either no editor or the editor was very sloppy. Some characters were randomly reexplained and reintroduced while others you were forced to remember on your own. Some abbreviations were defined while others weren't. If I had to read one more explanation of fingerprinting, I wouldn't have finished the book. The characters themselves had no redeeming qualities and I didn't care about reading the terrible holes they had dug for themselves. Every problem they had (spoiler alert), could be magically solved by killing someone. It was like watching a horror movie: I had no one to root for but the murderers and I didn't care to root for them. Toward the end of the book, the dialogue got noticeably more sloppy, racist, and stereotypical. The Indian boyfriend (and illegal resident) barely spoke English. The Italian suspect had an Italian accent! The man with a Scottish last name had a Scottish accent! The worst one was the homosexual man questioned near the finale. He's dressed flamboyantly! He has a lisp! He calls people silly and has a nickname for his boyfriend! He is wearing a monogrammed bathrobe! At that point it was just offensive and disgusting. This book is good for a summer read as long as you're willing to excuse half of this lazy book. I'd recommend skipping it. There are a lot of crime novels out there that are better written, more coherent, and at this point, cheaper.