John H. Cunningham (1)

Buck Reilly is living in Key West after his company collapsed and he had to file for bankruptcy. Used to living a life of adventure, he is now running a small charter and salvage service and just trying to make ends meet.

Honestly, I felt that the beginning of the novel was a little choppy and rushed. It probably would have been nice to get to know Buck a little better before the adventure started. I just found it a little confusing to have Buck's personal life story interspersed with the complex plot. There was a LOT of Cuban/American history introduced in this novel. Personally, I found all the different plot points (and characters introduced) to be a little too complex for me, but others might enjoy this writing style. I did appreciate all of the research done for this book and how vividly the atmosphere was described.

The book does pick up halfway through. There is a lot of excitement and a little romance. In fact, from about halfway through the novel to the conclusion, there is a pretty non-stop build up that leads to a thrilling climax. I thought Cunningham did a great job of building the suspense.

Buck Reilly may be an extremely flawed protagonist, but he's definitely charming and likeable. I liked all of his friends (and how every character was quite well developed). A good start to the series - I predict Cunningham will only get better.… (más)

Reviewed by JoAnne
Ebook provided by publicist

This turned out to be a fast moving action novel that started out very slowly and was hard to get into initially. Cunningham gave lots of background info while setting the stage in Key West and introducing all the bad guys (along with their nicknames) who were chasing after Buck. This was interspersed with some of Buck's life story of why he was in Key West in the first place. This bogged down the story line when trying to keep the plot and characters straight. Add in the Santeros (those believing in Santeria) and Palo Mayomebe, it's dark side, and it was made a little more difficult. Once you got past all the scene setting the action worked its magic and drew you into the story. There was lots of conflict and some romance which held my interest and kept reeling me in. Then the ending of the story was climatic which made it all worthwhile. I ended up enjoying this book, when I didn't think I would, and look forward to reading others in the series that John Cunningham is planning to write. I would hope that in future books Buck will get into the story/action a lot quicker and therefore grab my interest from the start of the story instead of about 50 pages into the book.… (más)