A deadly serial killer that goes by the name Uncle Sam is on the loose terrorizing the city. By day he's a regular working man, but by night he transforms into a vicious killer that preys on single women. Everything is fine until Detective Anthony Stone begins to stick his nose in Uncle Sam's business. Uncle Sam then captures Anthony Stone's family and gives the detective 48 hours to either kill himself or watch his loved ones die...
The choice is his.
Just when Anthony Stone's life is calming down, he's forced to make a decision that will change his life as well as all the lives around him forever.
Blurb taken from Goodreads.
Where do I even start?✼
It's lucky I can muster the strength to give it a single star.
Rating: ✫
SPOILER ALERT
The Story
Let's start with the idea behind the story. There wasn't much that impressed me in this book, but the idea was surprisingly good! A serial killer with an ulterior motive (which wasn't immediately revealed to the reader), who gets his kicks from playing cat and mouse with the detective who wronged him. Throw in the idea that said detective gets given the ultimate ultimatum, that he needs to die in 48 hours or lose his loved ones, and you've got some great ideas for a really good story.
It's a shame that the idea was ruined by a terrible structure, a lack of characters, and, above all else, abysmal writing.
I suppose I can't complain too much, as I downloaded the e-book for free onto my Kindle. But I did expect the spelling and grammar to be right, at least. It was actually painful to read, and I only forced myself through the whole thing because it was short enough to justify it. That, combined with the really poorly constructed sentences made it incredibly difficult to even read, let alone enjoy. It was a real struggle to even make it through some of the paragraphs! Surely if you're going to publish your work you would get somebody to proof-read it for you! It completely shocked me how poor the writing was.
There were also more general issues with the story. The structure was poor, rushed, and therefore there was no plot development at all. If you're going to include the element of the ulterior motive for the character of the killer, then you've really got to explain it or there's just no point. The same goes for the plot point that meant that Detective Anthony Stone was required to die within 48 hours if his loved ones were to be released - this had absolutely no significance on the story whatsoever! What was the point?! If you're going to name your novel after a plot point, then you should probably mention it a few times within the story to keep it a relevant factor! Although, the characters were so poorly developed that the detective probably cared as little about his girlfriend as I did - remind me of her relevance in this story again?
The Verdict
The whole thing was painful, and I can honestly say I wish I'd never bothered to read it. I downloaded the book because it had some potential, but that potential was very quickly destroyed within just a few pages. The way the story is constructed is so poor that it doesn't hold much of your attention, and what little attention you can manage to keep on it just suffers again from the appalling writing.
I'll be swiftly deleting this one from my library.
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