This isn't the first Matt Royal book I've read, and I enjoyed all the others I read, but this one was disappointing; it didn't measure up to the previous books in the series. The action read like an cheesy 80s movie; the dialogue was very cliche and stilted. It almost sounded like it was written by an over-eager high school freshman in a creative writing class. Every chapter ended with a "But little did we know..." or "But we never made it to..." to build suspense for the coming chapter, I guess. Unfortunately it didn't come. The plot itself was so convoluted as to be unbelievable and predictable. I don't know if this concept just petered out or what, but maybe it's time Matt and friends retired for good.

I didn't realize I already read this one a few months ago (Before I discovered Goodreads!) and I really liked it. I read the early books in the series years ago, and this was sort of a reintroduction. Love Sue Grafton, she consistently top notch, it was like seeing an old friend.

This one didn't hold my attention as had previous books in the series. The plot would have been more effective if the author had not used similar plots in the past. Just an okay book.

Not bad for a first in a series. The only criticisms I have is that the dialogues wavered between the Americans sound slightly English and the Brits sounding slightly American. Also, felt the action at the end was a bit Hollywood, almost as if the editor called for more theatrics to add thrills, but wasn't necessary (IMHO) and was a little contrived and predictable. But all in all an ok book and would appeal to the Da Vinci Code lovers.

I really don't know what to say about this. I love the Alex Delaware series, I have read all of them at least once over the last 20 years. Some are better than others (The Web should be tossed out completely) but most have been a good, decent read. I enjoyed this one too, but it was a little fragmented. Frankly, I liked that it was all tied up at the end without any of the bang-bang-shoot-em-up-car-chase sort of Hollywood ending that most authors go for (and comprise the ending of most of the Alex Delaware books.) Actually, this book lacked a lot of the Hollywood action movie claptrap and focused more on good old fashioned detecting. In general, I enjoy that but this book really didn't have much suspense. Yeah, I wondered whodunit, but I really didn't care.

Spoiler

The pregnant woman, Holly, was annoying and served very little purpose, IMHO. I had to wonder why it was included. There wasn't any need for her character development (or her husband's for that matter) and really served only as a distraction. The truth behind the bones in the backyard was the same thing; not much of a story and really could've been solved in the first 2 chapters. What I really didn't like was the turn from Alex becoming the Sherlock and Milo becoming the Watson. Yeah, I know Alex is the main character, but to demote Milo from being the capable sidekick to a face rubbing lackey really disappointed me. The whole Brangelina/TomKat storyline didn't do much for me either. Too contrived and unfulfilling. Made me wonder if Kellerman is angling for a movie deal or smarting from losing a movie deal. Hmm.

All in all not the worst in the series and worth a read, but not the best. If I were new to the Alex Delaware series and read this one first, it might've put me off to reading the earlier books, which were much better.