Very Bad Men

(Review originally published at Red Adept Reviews.)

Very Bad Men, by Harry Dolan was my inaugural “borrow” from my local library through my Kindle. I ended up buying the book so that my husband could read it at some point. This worked out very well for the author, my husband, and Amazon. Okay, to be honest, I wasn't actually finished reading it by the end of the lending period. It's the curse of switching off between multiple books.

Overall: 4 ?? stars.

Plot/Storyline: 4 1/2 stars

I selected this book because, well, it was one of the ones actually available from the library, and because Ann Arbor caught my attention. While I'm a Minnesotan these days, I'm from Michigan originally. I like reading about places I know, don't you?

And, I enjoyed this novel quite a bit, particularly the character of David Loogan. He gets less time than you might imagine from the description, being only one point of view character. Although, his portions are the only ones told in first person. His voice was consistently amusing.

I've never felt a need to figure out the whole mystery, I want to be surprised. I think that even if I tried to figure out what was what, I wouldn't have seen a few things coming. The author did made me say, “No WAY!” in the best sense possible more than once. And, a few times I said it because a plot twist of point strained credibility, but I forgave since I had a good time, and since the author really did tie up his loose ends.

As you can tell from the description, this is not the first book in the series, but this seemed to stand alone. I imagine I'll read the first one at some point, and the next one as well.

I even enjoyed the title. The people you might assume to be the bad men changes after a while.

Characters: 4 3/4 stars

As mentioned, I enjoyed David Loogan. I also enjoyed Sarah, his girlfriend's daughter, who can probably continue the series when Loogan is old and doddering. Come to think of it, I think the author excelled at characterization. Mysteries tend to be a little more plot-driven, and that's the case here, with some characters being perhaps a little stock. However, even in those cases there were moments of surprise or entertainment.

We know from the beginning that the man killing people is Andrew Lark, but he's not pure villain, and Mr. Dolan reveals his story slowly and imbues him with a strange decency. I doubt the reader will walk away thinking he is the biggest villain of this piece.

There is a female character who I didn't find nearly as charming as did David Loogan, but he might have come around to my side by the end.

Writing Style: 4 3/4 stars

Intelligent, but uncomplicated style. Mr. Dolan comes across as a natural storyteller.

Editing: (No score)

I have to nit-pick. A woman in this book had a missing cat. She described him, a male, as a faded calico. Calicos, as well as Tortoiseshells - dilute would be the term for the faded - are almost always female. The only way a male can have these colors is if he has XXY chromosomes instead of XY and then Roscoe - the kitty in question - would probably be, um, “shooting blanks.” But, I can't quite call it a mistake. And I just put Roscoe's business out on the internet... Of course, if you're reading this and are a female cat, you could have a great night on the town with Roscoe with little worry about “repercussions.”

3.5 stars. I mostly enjoyed Dolan's first work, and was having trouble finding something to read recently. Something reminded me he had another, and there's a lot about his writing I do like, and I felt that way up until about half way through this book. The plot is complex with twists and turns, the descriptions are vivid and real, and it moves a long at a good pace. But all good things in moderation. A little past half way I began to feel overwhelmed. At that point he could have caught the guy, crafted some explanations for loose ends and been done. But then he had to go on making the other half of the family suspect, and nearly every other character that had not been a suspect in the first half. I really liked the book, it's better than average. But just a little too much in some respects to get that 4th star.