melsbookshelf

The dust jacket also notes that Cornwell originally created At Risk as a 15-part series for New York Times Magazine. Well, all I can really say after reading the book is that it shows. I've never read Cornwell before but I can't say that this book made me want to read her again; however, I know that many of her other novels are highly rated so I'll probably give one of those a try. This book was just not an easy read. The writing felt choppy and I found myself having to reread passages every now and then to make sure I was understanding things correctly. If I hadn't known better I would have thought this was the author's first book, it seemed so poorly written. The mystery actually wasn't really that difficult to figure out, either, which was disappointing. I like to find myself pondering many possibilities, not coming to a conclusion relatively quickly. Some of the characters were pretty likeable--Detective Garano and his grandmother, "Nana," to name a couple. And you loved to hate Garano's boss, Monique Lamont. None of them were particularly well-developed, though. That, coupled with a weak plot make this a book that I can't recommend to anyone.