One Cold Night [Kindle Edition]

First of all I have to say that I nearly gave this 4 stars but for me it didn't quite stretch to that. In all fairness though, the fact that I enjoyed it but did not love it might just be due to me preferring Scandinavian crime novels.

Still the good price tempted me to pick this up and I cannot say that I was disappointed, I did finish it in one day so it is definitely a gripping read. However I found some of the characters (Lupe and Bruno especially) a bit annoying at first, although I think that was probably the writer's intention. Not sure why though. It did get better as the book went on.

The reason I have decided to only give this three stars instead of four was mostly that it was just a bit to typically American for my taste, which was especially apparent in the far too long and completely unnecessary, epilogue. Pages and pages just to confirm that everybody was happy now and had forgiven everybody else and they lived happily ever after etc....

Still it is a good read and well-written so if you generally enjoy American crime fiction I think you might well love this!

When I realised that life stories needed telling within the same night as the search, I didnt think I'd stay interested. But I was wrong. Bite size pieces kept the pace for me. I was intrigued throughout but if I'm honest, the circumstances of the connection between the mystery man (men) bit far fetched. I enjoyed the writing immensely and the insight into life, love, romance and pathos at the end.

I haven't read any Katia Lief books before but the preview pages on this looked good.

I found it fairly well paced (except for a couple of places). The time constraint of the story, which is set over 24 hours, lends itself to sharp prose and by and large that worked OK. The plot is relatively simple, but there were some surprises, twists and turns. The dialogue was also OK, but just a little irritating sometimes and didn't always add to the storyline. Character development was fairly superficial. I felt there were opportunities to flesh out individuals and it would have added to the reading experience and plot.

It's an easy read; I finished the book in a little over a day of reading on and off. And at the end, I was left feeling that I neither fully enjoyed the book, nor intensely disliked it. I can't put my finger on the reason for this ambivalence; it's very much a what you see is what you get book. Certainly not bad enough to put me off the author and I will try another one by her. We shouldn't judge the value of a book based on the cost, but I don't regret spending a few pence to try out someone new. I'm not usually one to sit on the fence, but this is an average read.