My new template looks like someone drizzled blood over lavender stationary.  I love it.

Anyhow, my first review is more of a pseudo-rant than anything else, since I barely made it past the first three paragraphs, and will be used as a foundation for a definite "You will not see this sort around these parts, ya' hear?"

The book being harassed is R.J. Ellory's Saints of New York.

(Disclaimer: No harm intended to the author or anyone else involved.  This is my own personal opinion, and in no way do I intend for this to reflect on the ability of the author, who has in fact written at least one more book than myself, who has currently written zero.  Kudos to your persistence and ability.  This disclaimer can be used as a blanket notice for all following posts.)

My intention when picking up this book from the library was to use it as a study piece, since I am wandering my way towards writing a Mystery fiction.  I grabbed this along with a couple of other books, some Agatha Christie included, and promptly sat down and began to dissect them.  My first goal was to find a common thread in the first paragraphs of each book.  What does an author determine to be necessary for a successful first sentence?  And so on.

My only issue with this book was how needleesly vulgar it was.  Yes, I get it, we're in the head of a New York investigator, but really?  It's a pet peeve of mine that authors and some readers assume that it's perfectly okay to throw in the wanton use of curses and sexual references, when it does next to nothing to actually add to the story.  While I am not a good example of it myself (see previous mention: no books written), it's my firm belief that each word in the story should add to the story, or at the very least not detract from it.

By throwing a rampant supply of crudeness into the story, you lose readers.  The story may very well be a good one, the MC I could already tell was clearly defined, but I'll never know since I didn't make it past the first three pages.  Now don't get me wrong, I am perfectly aware that it is impossible to please every reader, especially ultra-picky ones like myself, but isn't the aim of writing to share your story with the masses?  How can you do that when the introduction to the story is a bloody psychotic mess in a bathtub?

I suppose most Book Review bloggers give stars or so-many out of ten, but that would be completely reckless in this case since I didn't actually finish the book.  Heck, I barely started it.

N/A out of 10