The Surrogate

So I definitely mixed up books in my head and thought this was a translated work, which might have given reason to the poor writing style. But it's not and it's just bad. The writing is choppy and doesn't flow well. There are far too many unnecessary details that don't add to the story. I couldn't stand any of the characters and could care less if any of them made if out of the story alive. The “romance” was a reminder of why romance doesn't belong in a crime novel. The expectations the female lead had were outrageous and couldn't be explained away by her Italian heritage. Everyone else seemed like stock characters or just plain idiots.

On a positive note, the crime plot is intriguing and it was the only thing that kept me reading to the end. It's unfortunate that the characters took so much away from the book because there was the potential of it being a decent read.