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Originally Posted by BenG
I've been on a crime spree lately, reading Donald Westlake, Richard Stark, Carl Hiaasen and Eric Ambler and this book suffers by comparison. But I wouldn't be adverse to reading another, maybe later book. What's your favorite in the series?
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I get this. The mystery element wasn't all that captivating, but in a way, that heightened the sense of reality. I thought the dialogue enhanced this feeling, fairly staccato and frequently going over the same ground. That's how conversations go and that's how investigations run. The necessary info dumps were pretty organic as well.
That said, I wish Strabenow hadn't gone for the trope where the confessed murderer is left with a gun. That one worked in the Golden Age; I don't think it works now. For one thing, it's tired; for another, it's too easy and there are real-life consequences for that sort of behavior now, most especially in the context of an official investigation. I'd have preferred to have seen Kate have to deal with the fallout, emotional and otherwise, of an arrest and trial.