A review by left_coast_justin
The Middleman by Olen Steinhauer
4.0
Not what I expected, in a good way. And because the structure of the story is one of its delights, I really can't review this in a normal way without spoiling, so instead I'll just list a few likes and dislikes.
The likeable characters were truly likeable and the unlikeable characters were truly despicable. And then there were a couple of central characters who you end up liking despite yourself. This is pretty important to the enjoyment of the story and a mark of Steinhauer's writing skill.
There was a lot going on, but I was never confused (which does not mean I knew what was coming next) and the characters were easily distinguishable.
My timing was rather unfortunate, in that a lot of the book dealt with police dealing with protestors in an unacceptably violent manner. Except in this book, they got in trouble for it, which was nice, I guess.
After reading such an enjoyable book, I was disappointed by the ending. The motivation for setting all this stuff in motion just struck me as insufficient. But never mind, it was one of his better books, all in all.
The likeable characters were truly likeable and the unlikeable characters were truly despicable. And then there were a couple of central characters who you end up liking despite yourself. This is pretty important to the enjoyment of the story and a mark of Steinhauer's writing skill.
There was a lot going on, but I was never confused (which does not mean I knew what was coming next) and the characters were easily distinguishable.
My timing was rather unfortunate, in that a lot of the book dealt with police dealing with protestors in an unacceptably violent manner. Except in this book, they got in trouble for it, which was nice, I guess.
After reading such an enjoyable book, I was disappointed by the ending. The motivation for setting all this stuff in motion just struck me as insufficient. But never mind, it was one of his better books, all in all.