Rick Buda

A man is found dead from a propane fire at a construction site. Though it is officially declared an accident, rookie cop Mac MacKurghdy smells a rat. His suspicions lead him through a tangled web of lies and corruption as he tries to get to the bottom of a major environmental threat lurking in the swamps. For a little spice, a supernatural killer also stalks the area. Its relation to the main story is tenous at best, but it makes for a nice bit of drama at the very end.Despite the otherwise interesting premise, I had a lot of trouble getting through this book. To say it was poorly edited is an understatement. The grammar is awkward and often incorrect, as in this sentence from the very first paragraph: "He'd dreamed of; of it, again." Though Buda is far from the first author I've wanted to pelt with copies of Strunk & White, I found myself stopping too often to decipher sentences, disrupting the flow of my reading and distracting me from the story. However, the punctuation flaws and numerous typos are easily fixable, as are the more general writing errors (e.g., needlessly repeated details). Buda shows real promise as a storyteller; I can only hope his next book is more technically sound.… (más)