“Homicides are usually just messy and emotional, no mystery or matching wits with a mastermind. You’re essentially cleaning up the temper tantrum of a toddler armed with a deadly weapon. But it’s a completely different ball game when the act of taking a life becomes some sick mode of self-expression.”
Summary
Detective Jack from Artificial Crimes Unit has a new case. Somebody is reprogramming androids to do their dirty work for them. And it’s his job to figure out who is behind that.
Writing
The writing style is very light and natural, with many attempts at humour – just not my kind of humour. The chapters are very short and there is a lot of dialogue, which makes this book fast and easy to read.
Characters
Jack is exactly like every cop in every detective/mystery book ever written. He is so cliché it’s almost funny. I would be able to describe to you his entire character before ever opening this novel.
The rest of the characters? They are just as dull. Nobody has any sort of personality. I understand that it’s a short story and there simply isn’t enough room for creating complex characters. But they don’t really have to be that deep. They just need to seem real. Not like Maddie – a female detective who supposedly is really smart and amazing, but her only role is this book is to be Jake’s love interest. Come on. People usually have more interesting traits than a well-sculpted body.
Plot
The idea of someone programming androids to commit murders is really interesting. I just didn’t like the execution. The story is pretty fast paced, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care about it, which made the overall reading experience pretty painful.
And I have never been more surprised by the ending of a book in my life. Not because the ending was good. It’s because it was so abrupt it felt like the story was cut off in the middle. For a moment I thought I had a faulty copy of this novel.
Overall
While I was reading this book, the only thought in my mind was “my father should be reading this, not me”. I feel like it’s something he would enjoy. It felt like a Lee Child’s book but with cyborgs. Not my cup of tea.
I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
You can find this book on Goodreads and Book Depository
LAUREGALIE 