Ratings1
Average rating3
“As sharp and slick as a switchblade—both excellent entertainment and an acute psychological portrait. Add Mark Pryor to your must-read list—I have.” —LEE CHILD, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Dominic is a prosecutor, a musician, and an Englishman living in Texas. He's also a psychopath. His main goal is to hide his condition and lead a seemingly normal life in hopes to pay off his debts and become a full-time musician in Austin's club scene. But on one lousy day his carefully-controlled world starts to shatter: he's demoted at work and accused of stealing a fellow musician's song. He also meets a beautiful woman in a lime green dress--perhaps the biggest threat to his safety of all. At her urging, Dominic hatches a plan to steal a van he knows will be filled with cash. He picks two friends as accomplices, insisting on no guns and no violence. But a security guard catches them in the act and simple theft turns into capital murder. Cracks start to show in the conspiracy and, with no allegiance to anyone but himself, Dominic has to decide whether to stick by his partners in crime, or let his true nature come out to play. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Reviews with the most likes.
I received an ARC of this book for free through a First Reads giveaway.
It took about 150 pages for this book to grab me. When it did, it ended up being pretty interesting, but there's a problem when that takes over half the book to happen. The writing itself is very good, good enough to interest me in reading Mark Pryor's other books. The protagonist is a sociopath, and he's not easy to like, but that's the point. By the end I began to understand him, if not actually like him. I can't say it wasn't a bit of a barrier to my enjoyment, but it definitely added something fresh to the story (though I don't think it was necessary to have him constantly mention how he doesn't get people/has no feelings).
The ending was fairly good, but some of the late-game details felt completely out-of-the-blue. The topic of pedophilia became such a big part of the ending, despite absolutely no foreshadowing beforehand. It felt like a last-ditch effort to "redeem" the main character. "Oh, he had his reasons" sort of thing.
It's not the most original crime book, but it's pretty well-written. I just came away unimpressed.