The Mystery Starts Here

Okay, I try not to totally trash books because fiction is subjective. What I love, you may hate and vice versa. However, when I come upon a book that is so bad it makes me want to scream, yell and tear my hair out – I have to speak.

“The Betrayers” by James Patrick Hunt is that kind of book. 

I read six pages, SIX pages of this book and quit! Why? There were so many errors I couldn’t believe anyone would bother to publish this book – which is more of a long novella at 57,500 words,  230 pages. The book blurb states that two police officers are gunned down and killed. That’s where the book should have started – it didn’t.

The book starts with two cops pulling over a man for speeding and then leaving the guy OUTSIDE by himself while BOTH cops get into the car to run the guys license for wants and warrants! No, I don’t think so! The driver comes back clean so one cops says “gee too bad – I wanted to get him on something.” Well, duh you pulled him over for speeding – give him a ticket for that! Both cops suspect the guy is high – well, duh, get out your penlight and check his eyes. Search him. Search his car! They are sitting in the car discussing all these weighty measures while…listening some hip-hop on the radio! NO, NO, NO! If you want to write about cops – GO ON A RIDE ALONG! Cops do not listen to the radio ever. They are listening to traffic from the communications center and have to be able to react instantly! By this time I was chewing my fingernails in an effort NOT to pull pages from the book and shred thing into a milion tiny piece.

Then in the book we get a long bunch of crap  about who’s married how many kids he has and the how other one is dating and…..snooze. I’m not ever past page four and the author is hitting me with backstory! Backstory stops the action – you don’t want to do that – EVER. So far in the book – NOTHING exciting has happened. NOTHING!

The two cops let the driver go – without ticking him for some obscure reason, and decide at this point to carry on with their patrol so they tell the Comm center they are at 10-8. When you go back into service, you radio the Comm Center you’re 10-8 – not at 10-8! What does that even mean? Well, as I said, I had to quit reading at page six because I was wearing away the enamel on my teeth.

I won’t even bring up all the redundant words. Jeeze, Hunt, buy a thesaurus and use it! I own four! Also you do NOT make cops sound authentic by having them use the F word over and over and over….I’ve know a lot of cops and most rarely swear. I have to wonder how on Earth this POS got published! The author has NO idea what real law enforcement officers do – that was obvious. He’s clearly never been in a black-and-white or gone on a ride along with cops. You want to hear the really sad part? This is the author’s fourth published book! How does this happen? I know so many excellent writers who have worked hard, done their research and written wonderful books – but they can’t get published. It makes me want to weep.

I gotta tell you – some days it doesn’t pay to chew through the straps. 

I love it when I discover a new author, don’t you? I can’t wait to read another book by the same author and too often I’m disappointed. Not this time. “The Skin Gods” is creepy and fast-paced and I knew, I KNEW who the killer was. I was positive! Gotta ya, I said silently to the author! Well, boogers, he got me – I was wrong.

The book starts when a young man brings a copy of the old movie, “Psycho” to the police. He watched the tape but notice someone had inserted a real murder into the shower scene! Ohhhhh. Who did it and how did he manage to add a real scene to the tape and replace it without anyone knowing? Of course the creep kills again – and we are witnesses. As with the book, “Merciless” we hear the killer’s voice throughout the book and It’s apparent fairly early on that there is more than one bad guy. The cops are the same - only in an early time. I really would like to have read the books in order but it’s not necessary.

As the clues build, so does the tension to a climatic and very surprising end.  Don’t get me wrong – the bad guys and the clues are there all along – but they’re subtle. You have to really be on your toes to solve a Montanari mystery.

If I have one picky it’s that “The Skin Game” takes a while to get going. We have, I think, a bit too much about the detectives and their lives. Might just be me. The cops don’t really get going on solving the crimes until a good third of the way into the book. Montanari has clearly done his homework, both about movies and police procedures and once again has written a good, fast-paced novel.