© 2006 Madison Park Press, New York
Grippando is one of those authors that I’ve enjoyed since his debut. For several years I got first editions hot off the presses (before the wife and kids came along). Now I’m about four or five novels behind. He’s one of those lawyer-turned-author guys who often writes a good suspense novel or legal thriller.
In Lying with Strangers, he writes about a lawyer-turning-author whose personal life is falling apart all around him. The real focus is actually on the lawyer’s wife, Peyton, who is a promising young doctor who is being stalked by a maniac. During the course of the story, Kevin (the lawyer) has ups and downs as he betrays his marriage vows, accuses Peyton of doing the same, sells his first novel with the promise of greater things to come, and then finds himself fighting for his job at a top Boston law firm because of the similarities between his characters and his colleagues.
While the story has some really good points, and the plot is one that could really catch the reader’s attention, Grippando is off his mark somewhat in this novel. The novel groans on for over four hundred pages, the characters are flat, and the thread is disjointed. The only character that really draws you in is the mysterious stalker, and it’s just the mystery about who it might be that beckons.
Lying with Strangers can’t even be used for a good escape because it won’t hold your interest. I give this novel two sets of reading glasses (for the villain).
—Benjamin Potter, April 10, 2008
Grippando is one of those authors that I’ve enjoyed since his debut. For several years I got first editions hot off the presses (before the wife and kids came along). Now I’m about four or five novels behind. He’s one of those lawyer-turned-author guys who often writes a good suspense novel or legal thriller.
In Lying with Strangers, he writes about a lawyer-turning-author whose personal life is falling apart all around him. The real focus is actually on the lawyer’s wife, Peyton, who is a promising young doctor who is being stalked by a maniac. During the course of the story, Kevin (the lawyer) has ups and downs as he betrays his marriage vows, accuses Peyton of doing the same, sells his first novel with the promise of greater things to come, and then finds himself fighting for his job at a top Boston law firm because of the similarities between his characters and his colleagues.
While the story has some really good points, and the plot is one that could really catch the reader’s attention, Grippando is off his mark somewhat in this novel. The novel groans on for over four hundred pages, the characters are flat, and the thread is disjointed. The only character that really draws you in is the mysterious stalker, and it’s just the mystery about who it might be that beckons.
Lying with Strangers can’t even be used for a good escape because it won’t hold your interest. I give this novel two sets of reading glasses (for the villain).
—Benjamin Potter, April 10, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment