I was mixed on starting this book. Firstly, it’s not my habit to start in the middle of the series, but I received this one on NetGalley. On the other hand, I’m super interested in investigative reporting and so this seemed right up my alley.

It seemed there were two strands of the story: John’s work life and his home life. At work, John works for Lancaster Standard, which has recently been cutting staff. He’s having trouble with technology, balancing multiple stories, and now has to work on an advice column where all the questions seem downright stupid. On the home front, his son Justin has also been having trouble. Justin’s been coming home with bruises, his grades have been going down, and like every other teenager, he refuses to communicate with his parents.

Plot-wise it didn’t really click with me. I loved the job of investigative reporter, but as the book went on, I started to lose track of all the stories and all the names. It grew confusing, and there were several stories I wasn’t that interested in. I think that there probably needed to be one case that was elevated a LOT more (an immigration story seemed to be pretty important, but it also got lost in everything).

On the home storyline, I was definitely much more interested. I really wanted to know what Justin was dealing with and how his family would help him with it. The climax seemed to take place for this plotline only, and while I enjoyed that, it felt so disconnected from John’s work life I felt like I was reading two books. The transition between work and home stories also seemed very inconsistent and random at times.

Character-wise, Justin was definitely the most intriguing character, though for me it might be because he’s a lot closer to my age and deal with similar problems. In terms of the main character, I felt like character development was definitely there, but there was potential for a lot more. I felt like a lot of homophobic comments that John made were not addressed sufficiently by the end of the story.

The writing style overall was okay. It didn’t stick out but it was pretty easy to understand and get through the book, which was well-edited. Overall, I’m not sure I’d recommend this to anyone interested in just a comtemporary family story, but if you want to read about different reporting cases with a dash of everyday life, then give this a go.

Thanks for my free copy of this book. It started really promisingly but after a while the book became monotonous. Mid life crisis and worrying family issues could have paved the way for an exciting book. However, I found it slow with little to keep my interest. I persevered to the end, which picked up slightly but yet again the narrative became slow and boring

I wasn’t too fussed by this book. It’s focus is on a man going through a midlife crisis. Granted he has a few home issues and his son is troubling, but overall it’s a book about a man about to turn 50.

It comes across as a midlife crisis for the main character who is a journalist at a small town newspaper facing staff layoffs. Meanwhile at home, his oldest son is showing signs of serious problems that he doesn't know how to deal with. It's a little rough, but the overall story of desperation and feeling like a failure most of the time interspersed with fleeting triumphs resounds with me as a human.