Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Interesting story concept, but the story was flat and plodding. I am a book person, and usually think that books are better than the movie version of a book. The later often seems to lose the subtlety, the nuances of the book, the careful character development. This is the first time I've ever read a book and thought while reading it that the (non-existent) movie version might be better. Slow, flat and plodding were the words that kept circling in my head as I was reading. The story concept is interesting: an important bank mysteriously closes overnight. The bank and the high rise building it was in are untouched for years, until an engineering firm is asked to survey the building in connection with a possible purchase. The book tracks dual time periods: the story of an employee (a 16 year old secretary) in the months before the closing and, years later, a fresh out of school engineer assigned by her employer to survey the building. The most interesting aspect of the story is that, when the bank closed, the doors were locked without warning, but desks, files, personal notes, personnel files, bank records and safe deposit boxes, fixtures were left intact, and 24 hour on sight security maintained. When I was about 1/3 into the story it seemed that n.o.t.h.i.n.g. . w.a.s. . h.a.p..p.e..n..i..n..g., so I checked other reviews to see if this story improved, if the pace picked up. Reading the early reviews, I was sure I was reading a different book. Thrilling? Edge of the seat? Even using a broadly generous interpretation of these concepts, there are only one or two scenes I can envision describing this way, and they come at the last 10-15% of the book. The vast majority of the story is narrative, told through the musings of two main characters. For example, in most instances, we don't read about the secretary's workday, we read about her thinking about her workday or thinking about the personalities of the people she works with, or wondering where her friend is, or wondering about the significance of papers she sees. There are parts of the story involving dialog between characters, but many of these parts (not all) are filler and don't really advance the story. For example, the engineer meets her boss at the building and explains to him some of the work she has done, but (from the reader perspective) this is merely retelling what the engineer already mused about in the previous pages: she went to the eighth floor, to the room on the left; it was dusty; she made some measurements; she went to the next room; she saw papers on the floor; she wondered why the papers were left behind; she made some measurements; she looked at some of the papers; she wondered what the papers meant; she decided to take some of the papers with her to look at later; she went to the next room; she made some measurements. . . . There is also dialog with a co-worker she sleeps with, who otherwise has no role in the development of the story. The engineer character is not very interesting and what little development there is leaves a blurry and inconsistent picture. She is in her first job, describes herself as a perfectionist and straight A student, but routinely shows up to work late, sometimes wearing clothes she slept in, often drinks too much and does almost nothing in the course of the story except go to work (where she is in an abandoned building by herself), go to a bar (again by herself) and go home. The thing is, none of this behavior is relevant-it doesn't advance the story and if it were changed the course of the story would not be impacted. This isn't one of those books where the grammer or writing style are cringingly painful, and there was enough substance to the scene details that I formed a picture of the bank and various locations within it. Another reviewer commented that this was a story in need of an editor. I second that thought.