As far as mystery/thriller stories, I wasn’t overly impressed with the beginning of this one. I’m convinced there must be some Blake reference I don’t understand with character names like Ded and Ickey, which seem beyond ludicrous to me. I also wasn’t overly impressed when the beginning made to frame Ded as Ickey’s killer and then immediately pulled back with a gotcha as it seems he’s going to spend the novel investigating the murder. It just kind of struck me as cheap. Either this book is too highbrow for me, or it’s incredibly trite