Down to the Wire
David Rosenfelt

Minotaur Books
2010/ ISBN 9780312373948
Thriller/Contemporary
Amazon

Reviewed by L J Roberts

First Sentence: If you’re a corpse, you should get your name in the paper.

Reporter Chris Turley dreams of receiving a Pulitzer, as his father did. He receives a call to meet an unidentified source claiming to have a big story. Rather than meet his contact, an office building explodes across from the site and his saving five victims makes him a hero and puts him, and his story, on the front page. A second call follows and a second major headline. But then there’s a body and Chris realizes he’s being led down a path marked by violence caused by his source.

David Rosenfelt writes a series of light legal mysteries I quite enjoy. He has a wonderful voice using humor based on situation and dialogue which is natural and unforced. I had great hopes when I started this book, but they were quickly dashed.

The plot is formulaic and over-the-top predictable. For a reporter, the character couldn’t write; his news stories were ones no publisher would permit. I kept checking the copyright date to see whether this was something the author had written years ago but was only being released now. No such luck.

There was little enough development of the protagonist’s character and none of the villain’s so I never really cared about them. About half-way through, I no longer cared about the story either, but I pushed on. The sentences are short and with no real flow to the dialogue. The suspense was good except you never once doubted that the good guys would be fine in the end and the bad guys not. I will give credit for a very good twist.

My suggestion is to pass on this book but do try Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series instead.