Excellent writing. Easy flow and development of the plot with engaging and endearing characters. A big shout out to Harlan as he was my very favorite secondary character.

Even though mine will be an unpopular opinion, I have to be honest and admit that this was a difficult story for me to read. I found it depressing. Constantly depressing with very little let-up. Only a few instances of humorous dialogue keeping it from becoming completely dark.

This is Conor's story. A sad, messed-up life, story. Not messed up wholly by circumstance but by his very own actions and reactions many times. I personally found him very hard to like. I believe I was meant to feel sympathetic towards him, but instead I found myself annoyed and even angry at him a lot of the time. His self-reflection blaming his childhood for the mistakes he makes as an adult came across whiny to me. It sounded like his partner had an even worse childhood and yet had overcome it to become a decent and caring man.

There were two critical places in the story where I struggled to understand the developing action. They were glossed over assuming the reader would instinctively undertand what and why things were happening as they were. I needed more detail in both places.

I have to give this novel at least 3 stars because the writing is excellent, the plot original and the characters well fleshed out.