Saturday, August 24, 2013

Books read in 2013: No. 42 -- Altered States

by Paul J. Newell

Started: August 20
Finished: August 24

Notes: Sometimes you pick up a book or e-book but don't get to it until much later, and then you can't even remember why you purchased it in the first place. That is my situation here. However, the blurb sounds interesting, about a man apparently with a talent to tell when others are lying, and some skills at manipulating people. He fakes his own death when troubles build, but then has to come back to his old life.

Mini review: Though I felt this one started a bit rough, it turned into a damned good book. It did a couple of things I personally don't enjoy, using some flashback storytelling and switching between first and third person a handful of times, but it more than made up for it. This one even kept me up reading all night to finish it, and a novel hasn't done that to me in a long, long time. The base plot isn't overly complicated, but the main character has a somewhat complicated past, and it all comes together in the end. The author also did something a little tricky with his ending, though I won't give away the details here. Let's just say it was an interesting technical twist on the e-book format.

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

Sounds like a rocky start turned out well. That's about the best you can hope for.