The Last Alibi - David Ellis
- Ali Mark
- Feb 24, 2016
- 4 min read
Story Line - GREAT - 5
Writing Style - BAD - 2
Characters - ABOVE AVERAGE - 4
Excitement Factor - SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE - 3.5
Believability for type and topics - RARE, BUT TRUE - 4
Entertainment Factor - GOOD - 4
Similarity to other books - MOSTLY NEW - 4
Cover art/dust jacket Art - BOTH OK - 3
Title Relevance - GREAT - 5
Goodreads users gave this book a 4.18. I think it was more deserving of a 3.45.
Published in 2013.
Pages: 465.
Number of books by author: 23 Novels (3 others in Series).
Genre: Fiction.
When Jason Kolarich takes on a new client, he has no idea that this client is going to change his entire life, and everyone around him will be changed, too.
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
Murder Mystery
Law/Legal
Serial Killer
Drug Addiction
Love/Relationships
This book started like most crime novels - with a new case. The story itself, was constantly a cluster-fuck of "What the hell is going on?" And that's what I wanted out of this. This happened to be a random-pick at Barnes & Noble and I knew I was jumping into this blind. But I can only imagine that my complaints wouldn't be unique.
As stated previously, the story itself was just been amazing. I made predictions and thought "This is definitely going to happen," or "Yeah, s/he's involved for sure." And then 50 pages later, I'd have new predictions and my others were sitting in the garbage. I can't remember the last time I read something that was so unpredictable. (Which, ironically enough, I said early on, "This is really predictable." Boy, was I wrong.) I loved not knowing, and also hated not knowing. It's just the art of curiosity that drives me into a book, and I wasn't sure what was happening/going to happen until the last, 30 pages or so.
The characters were well balanced. We had the high-maintenance/needy character, but we also had the broody character. We didn't really see any duplication of the characters because everyone had their own crutch and their own "stand out feature." I think it's hard, when you write characters sometimes to separate who they are from what you want them to display, but Ellis did a really great job of making sure that we were getting our Breakfast Club of personalities. I think because we saw the range of characters, it made a story like this believable. It's not that this was unbelievable (because in some dark, twisted, rare scenario on Criminal Minds, I see this happening), but I think the characters brought out the flaws in the plan. They brought out all these things that we learned about these characters. We were able to move in and out of the characters' pain, which made the plot twists feel realistic.
The writing style made me want to vomit. I really hate when authors write in a choppy manner. Chapters are there for a reason. Usually, it's to separate a moment in time from another moment - to show a separation of a and b. The second reason is to switch between the character speaking (my least favorite outlet, honestly... I prefer a third-party narrator if we're looking at all sides of the sphere). At first, I thought we were rapidly switching between voices, but then I realized this author just really doesn't give a fuck about why he's making a new chapter. There were over 100 chapters. It was so unnecessary, and so annoying. There also was a chapter (this was of normal length for a change) that reflected on a time prior which I thought was unnecessary. I could've had that all wrapped up in a few paragraphs and felt satisfied with the information I had learned. I just really disliked the set up this author used. (I'm not sure if it's enough to keep me from reading his work again, but I'll definitely flip through to see if I'll be just annoyed.) The back and forth between past and present is necessary in a novel, but I wish it would've been done a little better. We were in the past, further into the past, and then in the present, which just became a headache to follow at times.
I think it goes without saying that I was entertained throughout this entire novel. I didn't really fall in or out of excitement so much as I felt some places were a little too repetitive, which made the story drone on and on. I think 465 pages on a book that was probably an 11 x 5 was a few too many pages. I found myself drifting off and having to reread a few paragraphs, but I never completely fell out of the story.
The title was sneaky. I didn't really understand where it was going until the end - but it's a clever title, for sure. The cover art was a bit conceited (the authors' initials on the front cover). Really? Great, you're a best seller, but I find it to be a cocky move by an author and it made me dislike him. I know that sounds somewhat ridiculous, but we're not here to read about you. We're here to read the story which you've written. That's why the story was 465 pages and you're bio was a few sentences. The cover art wasn't that grand, either. Just kind of an average showing. (The title is what really caught my eye.)
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