Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This was a difficult read for me. I expected a spy novel to have lots of action and intrigue, but I found myself plowing through this novel just to get to the end. First let tell you what I thought was really great about this novel. The author has the ability to put you in a place and make you believe you are really there. Her scene setting is exceptional. I too claim the title as an author and I can honestly tell you her ability surpasses my own in that respect. I also like her characterization and the seamless flow of her prose. So why did I give the novel only two stars? Plot and story telling. I write fantasy and even with my imagination, I could not believe the story. MI6 recruits a farmer who was a talented musician but his wayward brother got the family in trouble. The brother is now involved in laundering money for gun running terrorist. So Conner McBride goes to spy school and is supposed to be the best ever to come out of this school. However despite the many times the writer reminds us of this, her character proves the exact opposite. He bumbles his way through every situation and doesn't accomplish anything. This guy doesn't even have the common sense not to steal from the mob when other options were available. He exposes himself to unnecessary risks ...somehow gets pulled by every stray wind that comes his way. I would think a master spy should be able to control the situations and be ready with a second third and even four contingency plan to accomplish his mission. When all is said and done he only manages alienate himself from every town and backwater in India. I at one time thought this might be a spy spoof novel, but I didn't find anything funny enough to carry this long and drawn out story in that direction. Another problem I found was on many occasions the author bypassed the action scenes only to tell us about them after the fact. This made the read frustrating, because I would look forward to the tension of a great scene only to be disappointed time and again. The only tense place I found was at the climax around chapters 35 or 36, but by that time I was ready for the story to end. The story just goes on and on and on, finally ending at chapter 42 with more unbelievable stuff that allows this bumbling idiot to get out of all the problems he created for himself. If you ask me everything would have been better if he stayed on the farm and left the spying to a real professional. I think this author has a lot of pure talent, but she needs to go back and write the scenes she bypassed and then cut about 65 percent of the unrelated minutia that makes this so long. She also needs to read other spy novels to get a perspective on what is believable and what is not in this environment. I found no significant spelling or grammatical issues so Kudos to the author on those points.