A review by claudetteb
Fault Line by Barry Eisler
3.0
2 1/2 stars.
Big brother Ben is an assassin for the American army. Younger brother Alex is a scientist/lawyer who lives in his childhood home. A family tragedy some years ago has caused an estrangement, and that haven't communicated for 6 years. Suddenly, Alex finds himself embroiled in murder and mayhem, so of course he calls his big brother, who of course comes immediately to his aid. Actually, the relationship between the brothers was the one thing in this book that rang true and might convince me to read the second in the series, just to see how they're doing.
There are some pretty good plot twists, and if the author had just stuck to the darn story it would have been a much better book. Unfortunately, he felt the need to pad it with a) good vs evil lectures ad infinitum and b) a love interest that added absolutely nothing to the story and in fact detracted in a number of ways
Now, I'm a huge fan of Jack Reacher, Bob Lee Swagger, etc., and I'm sure most people reading this book already accept the "American badass soldier who can do anything" concept. Honest, it doesn't have to be justified in this type of book. As to the love plot, I'm not even sure why that's in there. It adds nothing, as we are getting the girl's pov and know she's not a spy, and can tell early on this is just added to get some sex in the book.
And then we have the ending. Hahahahahaha. Seriously? I'm expected to swallow this? It's insulting, after having devoted my time to the rest of the book, to have this ending. Ugh.
Just. Ugh.
Also, I would much have preferred the epilogue to deal with the two brothers, rather than the girl, who was just very bland throughout.
Big brother Ben is an assassin for the American army. Younger brother Alex is a scientist/lawyer who lives in his childhood home. A family tragedy some years ago has caused an estrangement, and that haven't communicated for 6 years. Suddenly, Alex finds himself embroiled in murder and mayhem, so of course he calls his big brother, who of course comes immediately to his aid. Actually, the relationship between the brothers was the one thing in this book that rang true and might convince me to read the second in the series, just to see how they're doing.
There are some pretty good plot twists, and if the author had just stuck to the darn story it would have been a much better book. Unfortunately, he felt the need to pad it with a) good vs evil lectures ad infinitum and b) a love interest that added absolutely nothing to the story and in fact detracted in a number of ways
Now, I'm a huge fan of Jack Reacher, Bob Lee Swagger, etc., and I'm sure most people reading this book already accept the "American badass soldier who can do anything" concept. Honest, it doesn't have to be justified in this type of book. As to the love plot, I'm not even sure why that's in there. It adds nothing, as we are getting the girl's pov and know she's not a spy, and can tell early on this is just added to get some sex in the book.
And then we have the ending. Hahahahahaha. Seriously? I'm expected to swallow this? It's insulting, after having devoted my time to the rest of the book, to have this ending. Ugh.
Just. Ugh.
Also, I would much have preferred the epilogue to deal with the two brothers, rather than the girl, who was just very bland throughout.