Review::Bled White by Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus

Bled White by Tim McBain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Bled White by Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus

This book will go on my love/hate list. You will either love this or hate it. The first book was really good as an introduction but the finishing style of cliffhanger-ish ending begins that love-hate relationship. I'm not certain how many books will be done in all for this series, but I do have some friends who steer clear of any that look to be going past 3 with the pattern described by the plots and endings of the first two books. I had just a bit of trouble because number two had a clear look of starting off where one left off and thus could not stand alone. For me the first could stand alone with it being a rather upended ending that could almost be considered thought provoking. Had the second started more standalone I could come to the same conclusion that the ending of the second could also be considered as a single story with similar upended ending. The problem is that it goes that other route because the beginning depends on you knowing what happened in the previous and this comes close to what I really hate which is those books that have been torn into ten parts to make a serialized set of e-books. Only at least these are long enough to be called novels.

I think that I would have been happier if these had been put into one book instead of split like this. That would make it plenty long and it has that sort of ending that feels more rounded than the first book. Though both endings are quite satisfactory, it doesn't bode well that there is an undefined number ahead. Again the longer more epic novel would have been just right because we could rationalize, 'ok, four hundred some pages and they didn't want to subject the reader to eight hundred: so that's cool.' But this is just me ranting.

As with before the writing is superb. And Jeff Grobnagger is still the same old Jeff he used to be, which might be why someone might feel a bit let down this time. He almost looked like he was ready to make some headway and then he gets kicked back to the curb in this book. He still is naive and this is one thing that really hurts him and the reader can see this and so far there are few if any people he can trust. Yet he too easily trusts at the same time he is paranoid, which makes him his own worst enemy. He has some real issues that keep rearing their heads and he spends so much time on these this time that there are other questions that should come to mind that he completely overlooks.

Telling anyone about these questions would be a spoiler and I think that it would be best to read this story.

Once again this is a great suspense thriller without as much leaning toward the science as the mystical this time, which is fine because the better part of the last was probably the same.

I'm beginning to like the character Ms. Babinaux; though I don't trust her at all and I'll be interested in how things go with her in the next installment.

This is great SSF for fans of Thriller Horror Suspense and who don't mind the serialized nature of the stories. They could ‘almost’ each stand alone, though they are just not strong enough and you'll be eager to go on to the next one when it comes out, so you can hope for some resolution.

J.L. Dobias



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