Dolan, Harry: Very Bad Men

  Amazon  

I really enjoyed Harry Dolan's debut novel, Bad Things Happen, so I was looking forward to reading its follow-up. Perhaps my mistake was that I didn't read it. I listened to it, which is probably not the optimum medium for me. It took me, literally, months to get through. Largely this is because I don't have the time to listen to audiobooks all that often. In part, though, it's because the book is long—at 432 pages, I would argue, over-long. The story felt very bloated to me. I note that it weighs in at 80 pages longer than its predecessor: those 80 pages, and perhaps as many more again, should have been cut. The story itself is okay, if nothing exciting: a bunch of modern-day murders that are somehow connected to an old bank heist and a politician's campaign; a serial killer with an aversion to adverbs. But when the serial killer part of the story is tied up there's STILL, I don't know, maybe a hundred pages left to get through. Perhaps Dolan can bring the magic of the first book back with a third installment in the series, but I'm not sure I'll have the stomach for giving it a go when it comes out.