It was alright. It seemed as if I missed a pre-book to get a handle on Diane Harbaugh, but it seemed that way throughout the book. She makes them cry, grown men. She is also all over the place as she is depicted as a DA at one point, a DEA agent another and she has done some questionable things. She goes off on her own to Mexico from a phone call even though all of the agencies seem to know and know one is trying to help her. She gets help, but who are they really. She went through so much with the Mexican Cartel and then the ending was just blah.

After reading the many scoring low reviews for this book I believe my time will be better used reading another book. The premise sounded really good but there are just too many books out there to spend time reading mediocre books.

This was not my type of book. One of a handful over the past decade I chose not to complete. So my review should be an “ incomplete. “

I enjoyed the writing and the characters but the story was kind of convoluted and difficult to follow at times. Because of that I wouldn't read another book by these authors nor recommend this book.

I like a fast paced thriller, but this wasn’t it. Make Them Cry is a collaboration between Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith about a DEA agent named Diane Harbaugh. The plot didn’t draw me in and I actually stopped reading it, which I rarely do. Maybe it got better?

I am not sure where to begin with this book but I will say I don't think it was for me. I felt like this story was all over the place at times and it was hard to follow. We have three points a view, A DEA agent, an enforcer for a drug cartel and a CIA agent. Diane Harbaugh is the DEA agent and after a dicey situation she up and leaves for Mexico without telling anyone, to deal with a mysterious man asking for her help. While there she runs into CIA agent Ian Carver who helps her out. Also trying to find the DEA agent is Tomas, who is after the man she is there to talk with. What follows is a lot of action that I found hard to keep up with at times, I honestly can't say what the main point of this story was. I also found the characters hard to relate to and understand their motivations throughout the book. Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley for my complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

The writing in this book is good, but it has a rough feel to it. That roughness mirrors the characters, actions, and events that transpire throughout the pages. That’s the best thing I can say about this book. At times, it’s incredibly brutal and violent. That’s not surprising given that it is about drug cartels.

This book offered great atmospheric and environmental descriptions. These descriptions made you feel the setting. But the reading of this book was slow. It dragged and dragged and dragged. One of the things that made reading this book a chore to read was the abundance of Spanish words and phrases with no translations even implied. While I could sometimes figure it out, often I had to look up those words and phrases online. Understanding the Spanish was often important to what was happening in the moment. Having to constantly stop to look up the Spanish really slowed down my reading and grew irritating after a while. I felt that the book should have come with a warning to the reader about that. Something like: Don’t read this book if you don’t have a thorough understanding of Spanish.

Another problem with the book was that it assumes that the reader knows everything the authors do. That’s a big and mistaken assumption on the part of the novelists. If I already knew it all, I probably wouldn’t have bothered reading the book.

I did like the two main characters. I thought they were realistic in the jobs they did. Still, they weren’t enough to save this book for me.

If you enjoy hard-edged brutality and have a good understanding of the Spanish language, you might enjoy this book. If not, I suggest seeing something else.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

Make them Cry was a good first effort by a tandem of authors Henderson and Smith. This book reminds me a little bit of Don Winslow with the DEA agent story line. The writing was crisp and fast paced. If you enjoy books about the cartel and assassins, I believe you should give this book a try. Looking forward to the next installment in this series.

Couldn’t connect with this one. The main character made every possible bad decision at every opportunity, and we never found out enough about her to understand why. The one bad guy sort of makes sense. Sort of. Overall, it just doesn’t feel self contained, like the only reason the book exists is to set up a series.

The story opens with Diane Harbaugh “Hardball” enjoying some quite winter cabin time with her boyfriend when one of her CI’s shows up and ends her quiet in the most startling way.

Following the incident, Diane returns to her work with the DEA and clandestine meetings, car chases and gun fights ensue. There was plenty of action but it seemed to leave little room to develop the plot.

Although Diane is the main character, the book doesn’t really focus on her and she is absent for quite a bit of the story. Diane is one tough customer as she would need to be as a former lawyer turned DEA agent, but her character ends up flat and pretty unlikeable.

Written as a gritty procedural, it contains a lot of action, which will appeal to many but this just wasn’t the right book for me.

This book opened in a really promising. The atmosphere starts out so calm that you keep expecting SOMETHING. When it comes, it is exciting, but a little confusing. When we move on to find out who Diane really is. And I think that is when it started to be less promising and less exciting. It seemed too unlikeable and too unfeeling. Her special talent is making the bad guys cry. I love action packed stories, but I wish this one had am little more humanity in it.

Thanks to Ecco/Harper Collins Publishers and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my review.

I loved the opening scenes in the cabin and thought Make Them Cry started out on a great note but it all went downhill after that for me. I disliked the main character and thought the story just fell flat. It also seemed a little unbelievable.

Diane Harbaugh is a DEA agent, she receives a call from an anonymous person in Mexico asking her to travel down, alone to meet. He turns out to be the high ranking member of a cartel.

Not for me sadly. This book started out alright but the further I got in, the more I lost interest. Diane was ok but I didn’t connect with any of the others.

Thank you to HarperCollins publishers for this advanced copy.

Sorry, but this thriller neither thrills nor holds interest. The problem for me with was the lead character: I understood she was supposed to be this hard-charging, tough prosecutor type, risking all to make it in a male-dominated world. As a retired attorney in that same situation, I could relate to to the concept. Alas, the character is self-centered, and stupid beyond words. Never would she have made it in the actual legal professional, let alone in the high-stakes world of criminals and CI's that she is supposed to inhabit. Sorry, The author needs a lot more depth and substance to his characters and his plot before I will bite again.

MAKE THEM CRY by Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith was unfortunately not for me. The writing is fine and there’s a lot of action which is good but the book is boring and so many parts had me rolling my eyes. The main character, Diane, didn’t even feature in more than half of the book and her background and motivations were too outstretched. Her romances were careless and throw away. She’s not a likeable character. The inclusion of the transcripts didn’t lend anything to the story. At the end I was just happy it was finally finished.

Disappointing read from the first page. The story failed to develop and the characters were flat. There have been many excellent novels written about drug cartels but somehow this one failed to toe the mark. I had hoped the story would get better as the novel progressed but had still difficulty engaging several pages on. Not sure if this is being geared for a TV series so this might work better as a script in development.

Disclosure: I received a free copy courtesy of NetGalley.
When I first read the description of this book I have to admit I was somewhat indifferent about it. I am not a fan of this particular genre but went into reading it with an open mind. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. It was a slow start and took a while for Oscar's suicide to connect to the primary storyline. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the twists in Carver's character and the gradual realization that Diane reached at the end. This book did not disappoint.

I rate this book average as I had a hard time following what was happening to whom in several parts of the novel. The writing style went back and forth with the characters and their stories.

The storyline of this book is entertaining, although at times a little confusing. I attribute this to 1) a little too much spanish which was not translated, and 2) a little too much of what I assume may be slang associated with the criminal drug element.

The idea that the "good guys" are all so rotten that the "bad guys" don't seem so bad by contrast is novel. Everyone from the DEA, the FBI, the CIA etc. seems to be crooked and only out for themselves. By contrast, the renegade military types who make up the Concern seem to be pragmatic about using the bad to forward the cause of good.

The characters were interesting; however, with fewer characters, maybe they could have been developed in a little more depth. For instance, the BF Bronwyn really seems extraneous. The DEA boss, Dufresne is described as her "work crush", but then Diane repeatedly denies anything ever happened between them. So what's the point? The Travis Moman character is never really explained. Just why did Gustavo make his approach to Diane through him?

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and would probably read another by these authors.

Make them cry describes the way Diane "Hardball" Harbough interacts with her CI's and peers. A tough no nonsense agent that plays by her own rules. An enjoyable book once the charactors develop