DNF @ 42%

This wasn't bad. I just didn't find myself compelled by / invested enough in this story, and at almost the halfway mark that doesn't bode well for a mystery. Maybe I'd have felt differently if I'd read the first two books before this and had formed an attachment to the detective? But who can say.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 

The premise was interesting, but the writing was too juvenile to stomach. The characters - all of them - were cartoons. If you want me to suspend my disbelief enough to go along with a story where a high school science teacher saves the planet from sure destruction, at least have the decency to write like you care about the English language. 

 A couple things:

- This book does not know what time period it's set in. Phones (landlines) and taxis exist, but the grand prize for The Hunt is a whopping $75. Best I can guess it's probably set in the 80s (or the fantasty equivalent) ? But the dialogue veers from EXTREMELY modern to old-fashioned, sometimes within the span of sentences, and I got pissed off trying to paint my own damn picture.

- I could not give two licks about the main characters. I found Wes to be slightly more tolerable in the beginning, but that was changing fast. Maggie has as much personality as a off-brand cereal box. 

- I need us, as a society, to collectively look inwards and reevaluate our definition of "Slow-burn". It took a whole 5 chapters before our MCs were getting their breaths stolen by the sight of one-another. Blegh.

- I'm sorry to say I found the writing clumsy and awkward instead of lyrical and lush, like everyone was insisting it was. And oh GOD the exposition. So much telling. All the time. Constantly. 

TL;DR: I wanted to like this, but it's chock-full of too many things I hate. I'm sure this will work for some people, this just wasn't for me.