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Title: Not what I expected
Review: This was a disappointment. The opening sequence involving the bread store robbery was an excellent 'hook.' However, fluctations from past to present tense in the narrative, often times within the same paragraph, jarred the reading flow. It was distracting.In fairness, as the author is first a journalist, the stylistic conventions of the Associated Press Style Manual concerning timeless facts, and the use of present and past tense may have weighed on his writing. Nevertheless, in good writing, the reader glides from sequence to sequence caught up in the story, unmindful of transitions.As for the characterizations, they were derivative, unoriginally evoking the psuedo hard-bitten prosecutorial cliches better found in gumshoe novels or TV's "Law and Order." Chief Deputy D.A., O'Mara, for instance, is the prototypical "ball-breaker" D.A.
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