Friday, 10 January 2014

Second Watch by J. A. Jance

We left the P-2 level of the parking lot at Belltown Terrace ten minutes later than we should have.

The characters storm out down the street and are followed by a description of Seattle and the street they are on, which suggests nothing more than a more concentrated effort of reading Google Earth. This prologue is about a man going into surgery and ends with him praying that when he wakes up the first thing he will see is his wife, waiting for him.

Chapter 1:

Except she wasn't.

This continues the prologue making me wonder if the prologue should be called chapter 1 and chapter 1 should be called chapter 2; however, relabeling one's chapters is a pain in the butt, so may be better to leave it as it is. Does it matter? Not in this case.

The man wakes up in recovery - so this counts as a bed opening, but acceptable as it's in a hospital and after an operation and not merely some lazy character lying about in bed at home wondering how to start the novel.

There is some conflict in chapter 1 with the wife missing and the man being a little confused at first about what is going on, but there's no need to drag that out for several pages interspersed with back story.

First thing said:

"Are you okay?"

Verdict: Fail

Sincerely,
Rudy Globird

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