Flint

Paul Eddy

I originally picked up Flint after reading a few reviews of the novel that said its first chapter was one of the most brutal the reviewers had ever read. So I went into the first chapter with somewhat diminished expectations; my reading tends to be a bit more extreme than that of most reviewers. I was not disappointed. That said, Eddy's writing in that first chapter has a very likable (to a certain sort of reader) deadpan feel about it when describing the violence; he doesn't get as far into detail as does, say, Peter Sotos in some of the more affecting passages in Parasite, but the journalistic style will definitely throw some people off.

Once you get past the first chapter to the parts of the book reviewers haven't dwelt on, you find yourself with an exceptionally readable, fast-paced thriller. This is straight genre writing, to be sure, but it's genre writing at its best; the main characters are rich and complex, the minor characters are less so but still well-drawn, the action refuses to let up. Perhaps the thing that most impresses me about the book is that during roughly the first two-thirds of its length, you will need to take copious notes if you want to try and keep score of the bouncing timeframe. However, if you don't take notes, you'll still be okay; you never have any idea when the events are taking place, but that becomes a minor annoyance at best (and it's usually a showstopper for me). This is a thriller, and a fast-paced one, where you're more interested in the character development than the timeline, and that is a rare thing indeed.

A fine first effort. I can't wait to read the second book in the series.