John H. Briant

I enjoyed this book and immediately started looking for others in the series. I know that my star rating doesn't agree with many of the others so let me tell you where I'm coming from. The Adirondack setting plays a big role in this mystery story and I will read and like just about anything (with few exceptions) that is set in my neck of the woods. The setting in this book is absolutely dead on. That author is writing about someplace he knows inside out and backwards.

Other reviews have criticized the writing style. A legit complaint. John H. Briant sounds like a cop. The majority of fiction books sound like they were written by fiction writers who have been heavily edited to fit some generic mold and we are critical of any other style. We are tolerant when doctors sound like doctors or lawyers sound like lawyers only when they are writing non-fiction in their fields. But now that publishers are depending more on spell check and less on human editors and more books are being self-published, we are going to be seeing more authors of fiction who sound like doctors, lawyers, and cops. My plan is to be more tolerant of doctors, lawyers and cops who are trying to tell a good story with a reasonable plot and a likable character and less tolerant of career professional writers who don't.… (mer)

I enjoyed this book and immediately started looking for others in the series. I know that my star rating doesn't agree with many of the others so let me tell you where I'm coming from. The Adirondack setting plays a big role in this mystery story and I will read and like just about anything (with few exceptions) that is set in my neck of the woods. The setting in this book is absolutely dead on. That author is writing about someplace he knows inside out and backwards.

Other reviews have criticized the writing style. A legit complaint. John H. Briant sounds like a cop. The majority of fiction books sound like they were written by fiction writers who have been heavily edited to fit some generic mold and we are critical of any other style. We are tolerant when doctors sound like doctors or lawyers sound like lawyers only when they are writing non-fiction in their fields. But now that publishers are depending more on spell check and less on human editors and more books are being self-published, we are going to be seeing more authors of fiction who sound like doctors, lawyers, and cops. My plan is to be more tolerant of doctors, lawyers and cops who are trying to tell a good story with a reasonable plot and a likable character and less tolerant of career professional writers who don't.… (mer)