Review by maraman -- Lemoncella Cocktail by Rene Natan

[maraman]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Lemoncella Cocktail" by Rene Natan.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Lemoncella Cocktail by Rene Natan consists of seventy six parts or scenes. I wouldn’t call them chapters, since they are too short. One can get the impression as if the book had been written with the intention to be filmed. It wouldn’t be difficult to make a screenplay out of it. Although a crime story, it’s not a “whodunit” mystery. The criminals are all presented to the readers. Moreover, the readers have an insight in their intentions and know everything about their whereabouts.

The story is about a search of a girl who is an eyewitness to arms trafficking of her boyfriend. After becoming aware of her presence during the transaction, he wants to get rid of her. He sends his errand boys to find and kill her but they fail in performing the task. Instead of tracking the girlfriend, they mistake her younger sister for her and try to kill her by grabbing and throwing her into the river. Patrick Carter, a young man, passes by, hears her screams and jumps into the river to rescue her. Being strong and fit, he struggles against the river rapids. Although endangering his life, it changes for the better.

Up to this event, Patrick leads an aimless life with little money, no friends, poor lodgings, no family, no girlfriend. After his heroic venture, he meets the girl’s family, i.e. her grandmother and brother who embrace him as their own. He doesn’t like children, calling them nuisance, but he starts spending time with the girl’s ten year old brother, first feeling sorry for him, but later starts enjoying his company. He wants to distance himself from the event, but he gets further involved in the sequence of events. Moreover, he thinks he doesn’t deserve to have a family due to his misfortunate childhood and fears he would be emotionally scarred for life, but he meets a girl – an agent with the Task Force, with whom he cooperates in the process of investigation and they fall in love.

The other characters are not so well developed. You can conclude about them more from their activities than from the description of the author. One of the characters is Andre Des Pres, head of Task Force 101, an inspector dedicated to his work, with a loving family. He gets Patrick engaged into the investigation of the case. Then, there is Jessica, the girls’ grandmother, a tough and energetic old lady, who takes care of the three grandchildren since their parents are away, working up North. Justin, the girls’ brother, a lovable ten year old boy, hungry for love and parents’ attention, attaches himself to Patrick. Oscar, the boyfriend, a villain who is both stupid and corrupt. Arnold, Oscar’s father, who runs some criminal business activities but his son goes much further, undertaking much more dangerous criminal activities. Martha, Arnold’s secretary and lover, who is taken for granted in that relationship and wants to get out but knows it would be difficult to do that because she knows too much about his illegal activities. And also several more characters on both sides.

The events in the story happen sequentially, the narrative runs smoothly, there are no twists and turns to it. It may appear to be boring, but the author has an outstanding talent to elaborate a simple story and make it an easy read. Yet, poor editing seems to be a major downfall of the book. The use of tenses is very problematic (too many uncalled for Past Perfects…); then, there is a misuse of homophones (were – wear), etc. If it weren’t for these serious mistakes, I would rate the book maximum stars. However, I think that 3 out of 4 stars is quite a fair rate in this case.

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Lemoncella Cocktail
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Like maraman's review? Post a comment saying so!

[kdstrack]

The short chapters also made me think the book was written for tv. My thought was a possible soap opera type show. I also agree, there was not much mystery here as everything was revealed up front! Nicely written review!

[maraman]

Thank you, kdstrack. Who knows, we may see a soap opera inspired by the book.

[Antares]

I loved your review. I agree with the majority of it. My only concern/question is the age of the younger brother. Wasn't he 5? I really can't remember if that was stated or something that I inferred.
Thanks again for your honesty review!

[maraman]

Thank you Antares, for the compliments on the review and also for your remark about the age of the boy. You're right, he's five years old. He goes to kindergarten. I just don't know how I made a mistake. Thank you again!

[Jaime Lync]

Great review. I already decided a while back that I'm not reading this but I love to read reviews on it anyways. The editorial issues you mentioned do make this book seem not up to standard.

[maraman]

Thank you, Jaime!

[Rosemary Okoko]

I wish this book had undergone professional editing. I don't enjoy reading books that become difficult to read after a while. Thank you for your review.