Note: This copy of The Impossible Detective was provided by NetGalley.

Let me preface this review by saying this book left me with mixed feelings. The Impossible Detective by Bob Reiss has a very interesting premise. A young girl is witness to an autonomous vehicle hitting somebody, not once but twice, and then casually driving away. Her pleas fall on deaf ears as that of the imagination of a young kid. When she approaches the famous detective Mark St. Johns, he too is skeptical of the story. That is until the girl’s life comes in danger from mysterious assailants. Like I said, Interesting blurb that had me hooked, but that’s where it all got a bit confusing.

The detective Mark despite being introduced as a very skilled professional, comes across as quite inept at his job and as someone who seems to be riding off the coattails of his more illustrious, and apparently skillful, predecessors. He’s cocksure, and we’re supposed to assume he has every reason to be, though as the book goes on it seems more bluster than anything earned. Add to the fact that there is an incredibly random romantic angle thrown in which bares no purpose to the story or the plot. Was this supposed to help the reader empathise with the detective or was it to humanise this supposed larger than life personality? Whatever the reason, it accompishes neither and was weird, and completely unnecessary to the story.

Ah the story. While it may have started off fairly straightforward, it soon devolves into what can only be described as a convoluted mess. It felt like there was too much thrown into one book where one linear plot may have sufficed. Think someone takes every other conspiracy the world might panic about and throw them all together. There were just so many things happening one after another it felt like watching a Michael Bay movie. It also doesn’t help that with all the buildup the ending was quite abrupt and incredibly underwhelming. The magnitude of the events also unfortunately shine a glaring light on the plot armour that our inept detective seems to possess. Not to mention his complete lack of professionalism or common sense; the latter with regards to people supposedly under his protection. I clearly do not like the main character of this book.

Despite all that, as mentioned, the book reads like an action movie with events happening at a breakneck pace. This made for a quick read, in more or less one sitting, which I suppose is a solid positive aspect of the book. That being said, unfortunately I wouldn’t really recommend this considering how saturated the thriller genre is at the moment and there are just more cohesive stories with much better characters out there. Until next time!

Links:

• Goodreads: The Impossible Detective – Bob Reiss