Book Review: Crashed by Timothy Hallinan (Junior Bender #1)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Characters and humor

Cons: Slow plot and some contents

The Bottom Line:

I tried something new

But I just didn't enjoy

But works for others

Crashed Proves to be too Slow and Outside My Comfort Zone

Every so often, I hear about a series outside my normal reading preferences that really intrigues me.  Such was the case with the Junior Bender series.  He’s a professional burglar, and he finds himself in some sticky situations that involved the rich and famous in Hollywood, his stomping grounds.  It sounded like it could be fun, so I decided to try Crashed, the first in the series.

It seems like a normal job for Junior.  He just has to slip into a house while the owners are on vacation and take one painting without aggravating the aggressive dogs in the backyard.  But soon, as a result, he finds himself blackmailed into helping a mobster that wants to go straight.  Does he really want to help?  How can he get himself out of this predicament without getting hurt?

Now I will be perfectly clear upfront – I fully realize part of the problem with this book was me.  It’s not my normal light and cozy diet.  While some times I find those books to be fun, this one wasn’t.  It was too dark for my tastes, and the language and other content turned me off.

However, I also found the book very slow.  Or I should say the first 250 pages.  There were passages that really didn’t seem to advance the story in any meaningful way.  I would find myself skimming, trying to get to a place where the action picked up again.

When I reached the final 100 pages, the story did pick up, and I became more involved in the story.  Junior resolved the problems he was facing in some quite ingenious ways, and I couldn’t help but like him.

He wasn’t the only character I came to care for.  There were several others along the way that I liked and was rooting to see reach positive outcomes.  Part of the time where the plot was slow was spent developing these characters, so it did pay off.  I just wish there had been a bit more balance to the two.

There is some humor through the book, and I always enjoyed that.  Junior has a great wit, and some of the other characters made cracks that had me grinning if not laughing.

So Crashed wasn’t a complete loss.  But it wasn’t the great book I’d been hoping to read.  I’m glad I gave the author a chance, but I’ll be passing on further installments in the series.