Symphony Of Blood - Adam Pepper - A Daydreamer's Thoughts

Author: Adam Pepper

Publisher: self-published

Published: July 22^nd 2011

Pages: 227 (e-book)

Summary: (From Goodreads)

Hank Mondale, a rough-around-the-edges P.I. with a small drinking problem and a large gambling problem, needs a break. With his landlord threatening eviction and his bookie threatening worse, things look bleak. Until real estate mogul Thomas Blake calls with an incredible story: a monster is trying to kill his daughter.

Hank figures she’s probably some whacked-out spoiled brat, but desperate, Hank takes the case to track down the supposed monster. It seems that people around Mackenzie Blake are disappearing. It’s obviously no coincidence. Was Hank hired to unwittingly aid a wealthy murderess? Or is there really someone…or some thing, trying to kill Mackenzie Blake?

A symphony plays that only It can hear. But there will be a special performance, just for her.

TWO STARS OUT OF FIVE **

This is a book that I didn’t wholly dislike but there were too many moments during the novel that just really didn’t interest me. It started out fairly well, if you can ignore the basic and coincidental set up, and the first person narrative was well-written and easy to follow and understand. Then started the second chapter and while I thought it was an interesting practice to switch POV and it wasn’t confusing, I did find myself tuning out during this chapter. It was slow and boring and was just repeating details we had already found out and therefore didn’t really need to read again. I found myself trying to rush through this section of the book to get back to the first person narrative again which is slightly depressing.

What this novel then failed to achieve was a good ending. It seemed like it was leading somewhere but when I realised it only had a few pages left, I wondered how it would all go down. It turns out it wasn’t as action packed as it promised and then, instead of really tying up any leads, the main character is seen a time after the incident just having dinner with family and friends. It looks like the ending was leading into another book in the series but it didn’t do so very effectively and I, for one, am not particularly interested enough to pick up the next book if, and when, it arrives. This is extremely unfortunate.

While it is interesting to read the book in Hank’s perspective, it also leaves a lot of the details hanging open and just left untouched. Such as the fact that his actual name appears to be Henry as this is what his mother calls him but it is never explained and is something we’re just supposed to know. While this isn’t a particular problem, it would have been nice to have been told why he now goes by the name of Hank as it would have helped to flesh out his character a bit. More on from this is the fact that there are very few good qualities about Hank. He drinks, couldn’t get into the cop business, neglects his (single?) mother, refuses to fire a secretary that he can’t pay and has gambling problem and debts up to his ears. It is hard to sympathise with him as a main protagonist which is disappointing.

Unfortunately, this lack of sympathy carries on when we get the second POV and once again, it is difficult to truly feel sorry for the creature (monster?) that devours humans for energy. There isn’t a true ‘animal’ connection to this creature that we’re supposed to feel through the character of Mackenzie. But this could also be because Mackenzie herself seems very flat and unbelievable. She changes her mood in a second and becomes a shrill character and honestly, there is no way that I believe her to be a nineteen year old girl. Not even for one second. Which is, you know, a little concerning as that is how old she is supposed to be.

The novel itself was fairly well written and if the characters had a bit of a better fleshing out and background and reality to them, then maybe this novel could have been a bit more successful for me but as it stands, it just simply didn’t hit the right spots. It was interesting to read a book with a changing POV and narrative tense but unfortunately, it just didn’t achieve it with gold flying stars. I may still be slightly curious to have a small peak at the next book at the series but if the characters are still not enjoyable to read then it will probably be one that I will never finish.

I received this novel for review from the Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Fanatics group on Goodreads. (R2R)

Faye