A review by dapperreads
The General's Daughter, by Nelson DeMille

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

First - immediately I’m thrown in with a couple of MCs who clearly have a history … and it’s written like we should know what that history is. If we should know, then this shouldn’t be book 1 of a series. It should be a continuation of wherever the backstory came from. But alas, this book is almost as old as I am so here we are. The ‘90’s were something else huh? I mean yeah yeah we get the gist - but it reads like there’s a whole story not just “oh we slept together that one time”…so uh…rest of that story??

My next thing is the straight up judgment about what is found in the MURDER VICTIM’s apartment. Sex toys? You’re mad about sex toys? Hunny - come to my house and I’ll scar you for life. At least she had a nice room for it. Chill out with your judgmental selves.

The story itself was pretty good. If we take out the above mentioned “oh no there are sex toys 😱😱😱” that went into their “investigation” it was a typical crime thriller. But a LONG one. And for no real good reason. 

Too much time was spent hashing out the previously mentioned history between the MCs without actually explaining any of it. So we can cut all of that without taking anything away from the story. We can also remove the judgment about lifestyle choices - this book most definitely didn’t age well. There were a few times I noted a rehashing of information we already knew (which yes, that’s criminal justice procedure but it doesn’t need to be in a crime thriller) so if we remove that I think we take this 454 page book down to 275-300 pages and it’s honestly very solid. 

I’ll admit I’m on team don’t use 5 words when one will do, so wordy books with no good reason just automatically lose points for me. I don’t need a higher page/word count when shortening it up would tell the story and even add a faster paced environment. I also prefer my books to be fast paced - so basically what do YOU like out of a book? I do not like this overly wordy format so it isn’t a positive aspect for me. 

So:
The main characters suck - hella judge-y and for no good reason. 
The investigation starts much more concerned with covering up her “lifestyle” than solving her murder. No thanks. 
Super freaking wordy for no reason. 
Weird relationship between the MCs. Also no thanks. 

The story itself (taking out my complaints) was solid. If we break it down, we have a couple military investigators working on the rape and murder of a famous general’s daughter. While I understand wanting to keep the details out of the media, keeping them away from the police to save face felt pretty realistically aggravating. So I can give it that I guess. 

Big CW: rape, murder

I hope the movie is better 🤷‍♀️

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