Review by Vintage_soul -- Hands Across The Sea

[Vintage_soul]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Hands Across The Sea" by Brian Cook.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The quote by Marcandangel says " There is a story behind every person. There is a reason why they are the way they are. Think about that, and respect them for who they are.", best describes this novel by Brian Cook, Hands Across the Sea. The story follows the rise of a new Sheriff Brendan Callaghan after the former Sheriff resigns due to a sudden illness. It also follows several police officers lives within the Agency as they go through their daily lives on the force and face the obstacles that are often found in the field. Integrity and morale are challenged by corruption, racism and prejudice in the workforce as we see each of the journeys of the characters through it.

I was caught off guard when I first began to read this book. Since it had been categorized in the C/T/M/H genre, I expected your usual crime and mystery storyline but I was surprised to see that It was more of drama than anything else. Genre aside, other factors were quite bothersome as I read it. Firstly, there is no division between the change of scenes and the point of views of the different characters. I would be at a scene where the officers have a meeting and then it would suddenly shift to another character outside of the meeting.

Secondly, the dialogue was frustratingly fluid and I often got confused at which of the characters were speaking. This might not be a problem for some readers, it had almost a movie-like sequence to all the events that took place which in turn made me lose track of the initial story. Despite being slightly annoyed by the book there were some parts that I enjoyed and the messages it brought across.

I like the idea of overcoming adversity despite the odds that were displayed in some of the backstories of the characters such as those of Captain Deluca and Milagra Jimenez and the overall character of Lieutenant Fitzpatrick. They had the odds against them but became successful by fighting it and remaining true to themselves.

As I have mentioned before there were parts that of the book that was quite frustrating to read especially the dialogue and I did not find it very enjoyable as I expected it would be therefore I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I was uncertain whether I should recommend this book to anyone, however it does have positive messages one could take outside of the story. I would recommend the book to readers who enjoy slow-paced police stories.

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Hands Across The Sea
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[MsH2k]

This story sounds like it might make a good TV series, but I can see how it may have been a disappointment as a C/T/M/H novel. Thank you for your honest take!

[Neshboy Aburi]

Apart from the issues you point out about confusion during scene changes and also mixed up character dialogues, I think this book has a otherwise interesting storyline. Hopefully, the publishers will act on the issues you point out here. Thanks for your good review.