Gladly The Cross-Eyed Bear (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
If I was an attorney and I found out my client lied to me, I would dump her (or his) ass immediately. Sorry, dear friends. For a minute I forgot this is a book of fiction as stated on the cover; and I'm not an attorney. But that character, the main character, obviously I didn't like her much. She just rubbed me the wrong way but perhaps that's what McBain wanted. He wanted me to dislike her. That makes for a good book if I have strong feelings about characters, good, bad or ugly. If I was an attorney and I found out my client lied to me, I would dump her (or his) ass immediately. Sorry, dear friends. For a minute I forgot this is a book of fiction as stated on the cover; and I'm not an attorney.But that character, the main character, obviously I didn't like her much. She just rubbed me the wrong way but perhaps that's what McBain wanted. He wanted me to dislike her. That makes for a good book if I have strong feelings about characters, good, bad or ugly. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good read in the Matthew Hope series. I have two more in the 13 book series. It's only my opinion but Matthew Hope seems to be waning a bit. He's getting tired of telling us stories. Again, my opinion of course, authors write great characters and storylines the first few books then everything goes downhill gradually (sometimes it isn't gradual.) I think they probably just get tired of the character they created and want to move on to writing something else. Run out of ideas, maybe. And there are some such as Nero Wolfe, no idea how many books in the series but he's solid through all the ones I've read. McBain is also the author of the 87th Precinct series, a police procedural which has umpteen books in the series. Lordy me, there are characters galore with some shining more than others in the books. Can't see how he could ever get bored with that series.Back to this one, it was ok, as Matthew Hope usually is even with two storylines. Fussing with myself as to whether it's three or four star. I'm settling on 3.5 stars and since GR has no change in their rating system, I round up to four stars although it isn't, in my opinion, a four star book.
What do You think about Gladly The Cross-Eyed Bear (1998)?
"Disjointed" is the first word that this book evokes for me. Story lines that never intersect, unless you count an "oh, by the way, where's so-and-so," the telegraphed ending (I was right about whodunit the first time I met the characters, in spite of numerous limp attempts to point elsewhere), and just, well . . . disjointed. The character development was almost incidental and two-dimensional at best, at several junctures it was difficult to figure out which scene the story had jumped to, the timeline was uncertain, and, by the time the end came I was convinced the author had written himself into a labyrinth and didn't know the way out so he just pulled out the chainsaw and cut himself an exit. I'm not sure why I gave it the second star?
—Renee
