Detective Tully Jarsdel is not your average cop--he's a history PhD fulfilling his dream to work with the LAPD. And when a body is discovered, so badly burned it's almost impossible to get an ID, Jarsdel's knowledge may be the only thing to crack the case...
I was really interested to read this book. I love the genre and was looking forward to a new series to get into. Unfortunately, and for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I couldn't really get into it as easily as I could James Patterson's Alex Cross, Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles or Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series. In those books, the mysteries are good, but it's the characters who really pulled the weight. And while I appreciated Tully Jarsdel's quirky academic nature (rather than the cliched grizzled cop veteran status), he was also a bit pretentious and condescending at times, which didn't allow me to connect to him in ways I wanted to.
So, while the writing was good and the mystery interesting, I found myself too easily putting this one down in favor of other titles to finish first. But I probably will check out the next in the next in the series, because nothing in here was a deal breaker for me.
On a content related note, some readers may find it a bit graphic. I think it's the nature of the genre--there are only so many ways crimes can be committed and solved. This didn't bother me, but other readers may want to be aware of it.
On a final note, some cover love. This one is eye catching. It's got a nuclear blast vibe going on--the scheme reminds me of those old videos of atomic testing. I don't know if that necessarily matches the theme of the book, but that was my first impression.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this review copy.
I was really interested to read this book. I love the genre and was looking forward to a new series to get into. Unfortunately, and for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I couldn't really get into it as easily as I could James Patterson's Alex Cross, Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles or Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series. In those books, the mysteries are good, but it's the characters who really pulled the weight. And while I appreciated Tully Jarsdel's quirky academic nature (rather than the cliched grizzled cop veteran status), he was also a bit pretentious and condescending at times, which didn't allow me to connect to him in ways I wanted to.
So, while the writing was good and the mystery interesting, I found myself too easily putting this one down in favor of other titles to finish first. But I probably will check out the next in the next in the series, because nothing in here was a deal breaker for me.
On a content related note, some readers may find it a bit graphic. I think it's the nature of the genre--there are only so many ways crimes can be committed and solved. This didn't bother me, but other readers may want to be aware of it.
On a final note, some cover love. This one is eye catching. It's got a nuclear blast vibe going on--the scheme reminds me of those old videos of atomic testing. I don't know if that necessarily matches the theme of the book, but that was my first impression.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this review copy.