Lots of great historical and cultural details about Haiti in the early 90s, but it never really hit a stride for me. By the time it felt like the plot had started, it was ending. I wouldn't say that nothing happened in this book, it's more like not much happened to the characters in this book, while an awful lot was going on around them. If that was the whole point, I guess I missed it. ( )

DEVIL MAKES THREE by Ben Fountain
I very much disliked this book. It was too long by at least 100 pages. It was too disjointed as time, place, and characters jumped from page to page, even paragraph to paragraph with not even a line break to give the reader a clue to the jump. There was too much incomprehensible talk among the characters about Haitian politics and too many untranslated French words, phrases and sentences for this German speaking American. I knew little about Haitian politics before I read this book and I am still in the dark. I often felt I needed to stop reading and consult Wikipedia’s version of Haitian history.
Parts of the book were interesting and well written. One blurb writer called this book “a fast, riveting read. A gripping thriller…” he must have read a different book. This book was a struggle to get through the first hundred pages before the characters and plot started to become clear. I would have enjoyed a 300 page book of Matt and Alix’s treasure hunting adventures much more.
I found Audrey/Shelly simply too confusing to like or dislike or to follow her part in the story. Matt had an interesting ethical dilemma. Alix apparently had no problems in the ethical field at all. His sister chose and was in that way my favorite character.
4 stars for the writing: 3 stars for the plot and length. ( )