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DON'T LOOK TWICE
by Andrew Gross
Harper, March 2010
400 pages
$7.99
ISBN: 0061143456


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Detective Ty Hauck is at a convenience store when bullets start flying. He is scared to death that his daughter has been killed; less scared to find out he's the one with the bullets in him. Really confused when the guy who was killed turns out to be carrying a Department of Justice ID.

As Ty looks into whether or not the killing was just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or was the guy really targeted, he begins to find out things that make the case more confusing. Every rock he looks under has something under it, something pointing in yet another direction. The ripples from this rock just keep expanding. And those ripples start making waves in pools that nobody wants investigated.

Gross has coauthored with James Patterson. If he learned anything from Patterson, it is pacing. This novel is built with short chapters packed with action, chapters that keep the plot moving, keep the reader turning pages. His characters are believable, they behave in ways consistent with what we already know about them and with what we've come to expect from people in the kinds of situations into which Gross has placed them. Hauck is an interesting man, certainly not perfect. He has doubts throughout the investigation, doubts about the consequences of lifting up all those rocks, doubts about the difference, if any, this investigation will make in the grand scheme of things. Still, he does his job, and does it well. He's not always happy about it, but it's who he is.

The plotting is at worst adequate; readers well versed in the genre will be able to see some of the twists that Gross throws at us. At best, Gross leads the reader down logical paths that turn out to be incredibly wrong, takes the reader far afield in order to get home, and doesn't give any reason to question why he's going where he's going, or what he intends to do when he gets there. Writing like that is wonderful for readers looking for a fast-paced diversion in a world close to home.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, August 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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