Book Notices | Out of the Black by John Rector / Split Second by Douglas E. Richards

John Rector, Out of the Black

Amazon   Desperation and an iffy scheme lead inevitably to worse problems for widowed father Matt Caine, the protagonist of John Rector's Out of the Black. Caine never really grew on me as a character, but the book is a decent page-turner. It's fast and holds your interest, even if it's ultimately forgettable. That's fine with me: it serves it's purpose. What I found hard to forgive, though, was the stupidity of the people involved in the kidnapping plot that starts things rolling. As far as I could tell, they made no effort to conceal their identities from their victim, whom they intended to release rather than kill. Everyone knows you don't use your names and you don't show your faces if you intend to release your hostage. I like my criminals a little smarter.

Douglas E. Richards, Split Second

Amazon   I had a somewhat mixed reaction to Douglas Richard's Split Second. On the one hand, the writing sometimes struck me as subpar, particularly because of some stilted dialogue. But that said, I really enjoyed the story, which continued to surprise me to the very end of the book. I'm not up on all the various ways the subject of time travel has been treated in fiction, but Richards' take on it seemed to me, at least, to be novel. Certainly the ramifications of time travel as it's envisioned in this book are interesting and even thought provoking. I also liked the characters, even if their conversations sometimes seemed forced. In the end, I'll take story over dialogue: I'd definitely read another by the author.