In general I liked the protagonist - at first - but then she gradually began to annoy me. She's a strong woman. She practices martial arts, she can shoot a gun, she runs and works out, she's independent, she has good taste, she likes to garden, she's neat and clean and organized, she can escape being tied up, drugged, and locked in the trunk of a car by a serial killer, she's told by a female FBI agent that she'd make an excellent agent, and basically she's an all around intimidatingly efficient alpha female. She's is without a doubt, the great heroine of the book. And she accomplishes this all without being Barbie doll perfect or gorgeous. But still, I think she turns out to be a New York Times Bestsellers List caricature of what a strong female character should be like.
The one thing I could not fault was the dog-training. The protagonist could easily have been a female version of Cesar Milan, Dog Whisperer.
The writing is slick and glossy, and I was taken in by this when I first started reading the book. There aren't any really obvious problems with the writing until you start to realize that it's the unidimensional characterizations and the really simple plot which are the true underlying faults. Then the book starts to taste like the Fruit Loops that the protagonist likes to eat for breakfast -- all white sugar and no nutritional substance boxed in cardboard.
The protagonist captures the second maniacal killer (in training by the first), hands him over to the police, and accepts the wedding proposal of the hunky man at the end of the story. Too pat for me. Don't you just hate such a cliched happy ending?
She doesn't really grow or change at all during the entire novel. She's too strong, too independent, just "too, too, too" to be believable, or to have any sympathy or empathy for her. She's like an unassailable mountain.
The two villains aren't scary to me. To me they are just too flattened out and simple.
Her boyfriend/fiancee isn't really all that complicated either. He's good for sex, making furniture, and using his fists on the face of the would-be killer at the end.
There isn't an ounce of supernatural mystique or danger to the story at all. It seems I am hardwired
to need an element of "otherness" to my stories.
Owl Pellets for this one!
Ah well, on to the next novel - which IS a proper dark urban fantasy novel set in Boston with a nitty gritty tough heroine who while dangerous, isn't unassailable, and there's lots and lots of magick in it. It's called Wild Hunt. (And no it's not the one by Jane Yolen - who is another one of my fave authors).
The only thing that The Search and the Wild Hunt have in common is the basic theme of "Sniff Rover, go find!" Both have dogs (or hounds) which chase down and find things by scent. I hope that's not giving away too much.
By the way, (totally random factoid inserted here), I attended my first Belly Dance class last night. Woo Hoo for me! Fun Wow!
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