Thin Air by Lisa Gray (Details)
Book Title: Thin Air
Book Author: Lisa Gray
Series: Jessica Shaw
Date Published: May 1, 2019
Number Of Pages: 284
Achievements: Bestseller: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts
My Rating: ★
Jump to: Thin Air (Summary) | Thin Air (Book Review)
Thin Air (Summary)
Jessica Shaw is a private investigator who finds out that, when she was 3 years old, her mother was murdered and she herself had been considered missing ever since. Launching into her own investigation, she meets journalist Jack Holliday and they begin to work on the mystery together. Every alternate chapter follows Jason Pryce, a homicide detective working a separate case, who has an unknown connection to Jessica’s past.
Thin Air (Book Review)
I really wanted to like Thin Air by Lisa Gray. The online reviews were great and I was so excited to like a new author’s debut novel. Sadly, I couldn’t like it. I actually stopped reading it, but then picked it up again because I couldn’t sleep.
I hate being harsh. I can’t imagine what it takes to write a book and I give Lisa Gray props for completing her first novel. I’m happy for her and for the success her book seems to be getting. As I said, most of the reviews on Amazon and GoodReads are great.
At first, Jessica really has no personality at all. Then, all of a sudden, one-third of the way into the book, she is supposed to be considered a bad-ass. I didn’t buy it even though she did start to say a few almost bad-ass one-liners. She did, however, have more personality than any of the other characters.
And, what’s with everyone in this book constantly smoking and getting drunk all the time. I’m left to wonder if the author believes that cops, journalists, and private investigators walk around with bottles of whiskey all the time.
I didn’t need to be walked through evidence with the constant telling. For example, Detective Pryce and his partner explain to each other how finding out if a car is a rental can help the case. Seriously? These cops are 50 years old. They should already know how car rentals work. Constant situations like these make the characters seem dumb. There was way too much over explaining in this book.
Most chapters were about either Jessica Shaw or Jason Pryce. Every so often, there was a chapter from the victim’s point of view. But, there was nothing in those chapters that wasn’t later found out by the other characters. It added nothing but more pages to the story.
As for character development… what? I don’t think there was much emotion from any of these characters. When Jessica finally finds out some exciting details about her past, her reaction is more of an “Oh, I was wrong about that.” Then she drinks.
Maybe it was just me. The reviews are great. What do you think?
