Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts

Saturday, June 8, 2013

BOOK REVIEW: "The Devil's Laughter" by William W. Johnstone (1992)

SUMMARY: A tedious mess of a book

The hero of the story is a “Marty Stu,” the male version of the stock Mary Sue over-the-top, perfect heroine.  According to the book:  
Link’s problem – if it could be called a problem –was that he could do anything…and do it extremely well.  He just didn't do anything for very long.  He’d been, among other things, a carpenter, a welder, a mechanic, a game warden, a bush pilot, and he’d spent almost eight years with the CIA.  He was also a very good journalist – which he’d set out to be in the first place. 
He is also a book author, vigilante, and an amateur veterinarian.  Naturally, he is a “handsome man in a rugged sort of way.”  That is quite a character introduction. Despite that laundry list of accomplishments, I found the character to be a thundering bore. He is an extremely smug, unlikable, violent, know-it-all. If he has a motto, it seems to be “shoot first and ask questions never.”

It goes without saying that the town of LaGrange, Louisiana needs Link Donovan’s help to investigate a series of grisly murders.  Like Encyclopedia Brown, the police department can’t possibly function without Link’s assistance.

Review continued after the jump.