Review: Envy the Night

Envy the Night by Michael Koryta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was Koryta's first published stand alone, following three of his Lincoln Perry books, and I wonder if it was actually written before those successful books. The writing is dragged out and the action sequences are repetitive. Too many characters are given POV chapters that add pages but not depth to the story. Why three stars then? Even at his weakest story telling, Koryta is a master at sense of place. This time it is "Up North" aka the Northwoods of Wisconsin, and he gets it very, very right.



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Review: Niceville

Niceville by Carsten Stroud

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Decent sense of place, a couple well developed characters and three distinct plots that never ever come together. They cross each other only through brushes of characters, and that makes for three under developed stories that have weak and/or no endings. Rarely when I finish a book do I have such a feeling of being lead astray by an author (it's my choice to stay until the bitter end) but this was one of those times. Three good stories, wasted!



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