Official Review: "Hill Country" by R Thomas Brown
Posted: 18 Mar 2013, 07:44
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Hill Country" by R Thomas Brown.]
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‘Hill Country’ by R Thomas Brown sits in the crime thriller genre. The story starts with Gabriel Hill stumbling home after a drinking session to find a maimed corpse on his porch; the corpse of a man who that afternoon provided Hill with a humiliating beating. From that point on the reader is carried along as Hill encounters thugs, sadists and questionable women while he tries to figure out what is going on, what it has to do with him and how to prove that, contrary to evidence, it wasn’t him killing and maiming a variety of humans and animals. Oh, except maybe that once.....
It is plain to see what Brown is trying to achieve with his main character; a tough, rough talking, hard drinking loner who has a soft spot at his core. An intelligent man who can be a bit of an ass but really is just a likeable rogue. The problem is it is a character that has been written over and over again (think Mike Hammer, Travis McGee, Edward Fitzgerald) and frankly in a much better way. The author’s writing style of short, sharp, non-descriptive sentences and brisk dialogue tries to make for a fast-paced delivery but in reality leaves the novel with a plot and a few clichéd characters but not much else. Where is the back story on Hill? The reader knows more about, and is frankly more sympathetic to, Gabriel Hill’s dead brother Mike than we are Gabe himself.
One thing ‘Hill Country’ does have is plot. The story line is well thought out and flows from start to finish without any floundering in the middle or that all too familiar oh-no-I’ve-been-writing-too-long-how-am-I-going-to-end-this feeling. And that start is a cracker, “It was bad enough getting beat up by a pedophile.”
I rated ‘Hill Country’ as 2 out of 4 stars; it did provide some entertainment but can’t compete with some of the others that have gone before it.
***
Buy "Hill Country" on Amazon
Buy "Hill Country" on Barnes and Noble
Share This Review
It is plain to see what Brown is trying to achieve with his main character; a tough, rough talking, hard drinking loner who has a soft spot at his core. An intelligent man who can be a bit of an ass but really is just a likeable rogue. The problem is it is a character that has been written over and over again (think Mike Hammer, Travis McGee, Edward Fitzgerald) and frankly in a much better way. The author’s writing style of short, sharp, non-descriptive sentences and brisk dialogue tries to make for a fast-paced delivery but in reality leaves the novel with a plot and a few clichéd characters but not much else. Where is the back story on Hill? The reader knows more about, and is frankly more sympathetic to, Gabriel Hill’s dead brother Mike than we are Gabe himself.
One thing ‘Hill Country’ does have is plot. The story line is well thought out and flows from start to finish without any floundering in the middle or that all too familiar oh-no-I’ve-been-writing-too-long-how-am-I-going-to-end-this feeling. And that start is a cracker, “It was bad enough getting beat up by a pedophile.”
I rated ‘Hill Country’ as 2 out of 4 stars; it did provide some entertainment but can’t compete with some of the others that have gone before it.
***
Buy "Hill Country" on Amazon
Buy "Hill Country" on Barnes and Noble