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A review by mojoshivers
The Stolen Ones by Owen Laukkanen
4.0
This was another fine entry in the series. However, it lacked the economic hardship that made the bad guys from the first three books so sympathetic. Nope, no recent college grads attempting to pay off their student debt by kidnapping corrupt bankers, politicians, and executives for ransom. Nope, no recently fired middle manager turning to robbing banks to keep his family afloat.
The villains here were just straight up evil men with no mitigating circumstances and I think the book suffers for it. The author has a real talent for crafting believable characters and makes you understand why they are doing what they are doing, both heroes and villains. When the villains lack that motivation that makes them relatable you just feel like they aren’t as fleshed out. And that makes it hard to feel the tension when they’re matched up against flesh and blood heroes like Stevens and Windermere. It’s like watching a main event tag team wrestle a couple of jobbers.
Hopefully the next book gets back to the winning formula of believable good and bad guys.
The villains here were just straight up evil men with no mitigating circumstances and I think the book suffers for it. The author has a real talent for crafting believable characters and makes you understand why they are doing what they are doing, both heroes and villains. When the villains lack that motivation that makes them relatable you just feel like they aren’t as fleshed out. And that makes it hard to feel the tension when they’re matched up against flesh and blood heroes like Stevens and Windermere. It’s like watching a main event tag team wrestle a couple of jobbers.
Hopefully the next book gets back to the winning formula of believable good and bad guys.