This is the worst book I’ve read in years.  I’m not sure it even warrants taking the time to write about it, but here goes.

I was in O’Hare Airport after a family-centric one night visit to Chicago, and facing a 2 hour wait to board and a 2.5 hour flight.  I had already finished one of the books I had brought with me, and I wasn’t particularly excited about the other one I had in my bag, so off to Barbara’s Bookstore in Terminal 3.  Amazingly, though the bookstore was well stocked, nothing caught my eye, so on to Hudson News where I noticed this book by Peter Heller.

I had found the other two books I had read by him, “The River” and “The Guide” to be gripping tales of suspense and violence, so figured this would be the best way to pass the time.  Major mistake. This book had a ridiculous plot–Maine secedes from the US after one of the secessionists assassinates the President and 2000 Marines are sent into the Kennebec valley to quell the civil war.  The book also suffers from one-dimensional characters and the needless introduction of two plot elements solely to flesh out the silly story line—one abandoned five year old and one overly sexualized mother who had seduced the main character several years ago.  The whole thing was silly and overly written with an abundance of adjectives and adverbs.  I’d quote one of those ‘purple passages’ but don’t want to take the time.

In searching for book reviews to determine if I was off base in my opinion of the book, I noted that it had not been reviewed by the New York Times, the Guardian, the WSJ, or any of the other major sources I look to for book reviews.  Two reviews, one by a newspaper in Seattle and one in Denver, praised the book, so there you are.

Next time I’m in an airport and find myself having already finished the book(s) that I had brought, I’ll be more discerning and probably go for the non-fiction aisle or just watch a dumb movie.