Review: Run for the Money by Jon Gregory
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mellysw
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Review: Run for the Money by Jon Gregory
Meet Travis Black. Mr. Black is a young, successful, ambitious financial advisor. Despite his intelligence, Mr. Black evidently cannot run a competent background check on someone he plans to hand an obscene amount of money over to. Now he has managed to get himself into a bit of a pickle. The money is gone and everyone is looking at him.
Meet Daphne. Last name unknown or unnoticed. Obligatory sexy (I guess) female assistant who decides to hit on her boss right when his world starts falling apart. Of course when he drags her into the mess of his life she is happy to trust him through all sorts of suspicious shenanigans without hardly knowing him at all. Then again she wouldn’t be the first woman to make life-changing decisions based on a guy she barely knows.
Meet Chaz. Last name unknown or unnoticed. This guy is awesome. He has all the answers. He has a lot of money. He has all the big bad help he needs to get the job done. More importantly, he is perfectly happy nurse-maiding a couple bumbling amateurs as they chase an obscene amount of money around. Why would he do such a thing, you ask? It must be money. Right? They are paying him an obscene salary for this amazing assistance? Nope. Mr. Black has Important Contacts (capitalization intended) that know Chaz. Favors are owed, and now the confused Mr. Black has Mr. Badass at his back.
And last of all, meet Reg. His last name doesn’t matter. Reg is a white-collar thief. He is charming, intelligent, way too greedy and otherwise unremarkable. Which is how most real white-collar thief’s are, to be honest. Reg runs away with money Mr. Black has entrusted to him on behalf of innocent clients.
The chase is on when these main characters all come together with a lackluster support cast in Run for the Money by Jon Gregory. The book is a pleasant read. We learn a lot about money laundering. Now that I have read this book I believe I can pick up a second lucrative career of money laundering. Yes, it is THAT detailed.
The first seventy percent of this book is mind-numbingly predictable. By the end of chapter 2 I knew who the bad guy was. Actually by the end of the first page of chapter 2 I knew that. Not long after that I knew who the “save the day” guy was. I’m looking at you, Chaz. I anticipated most of the twists and turns of the book. I anticipated the ending. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Black’s character evolve throughout the book, though it was done a bit awkwardly at times.
Now don’t get me wrong. This is, as I said, a pleasant read. It is not a bad book. This is the type of book I love to read when I am sick and I don’t want to think. No, really. Please don’t make me think. Just give me mild entertainment. Nothing too much, if I have too much entertainment I will heave my guts out. Times like that are perfect for this book.
But then in the last thirty percent of the book things pick up fast. After so long with no surprises, when they come they catch you off guard. These are nice surprises though. Nothing TOO shocking. They aren’t game changers. Just something to make you lift your eyebrows and sit up a bit more. A bit of spice in a bland chicken noodle soup book, so to speak.
I really only have one real complaint about this book. The sex is boring. Sex should not be boring, but this sex is uncomfortably boring. It is as if the author decided he was not permitted to write an American novel without sex so he forced Travis and Daphne together. Neither really seemed interested but for the sake of their creator they obeyed. She flirted briefly. A few days later they did an awkward, uncomfortable spur of the moment sex scene with utterly no romance beforehand. Or during. Or after. Afterwards they dusted themselves off and the story moved on. Only once later did either really show any indication of a romantic or sexual interest – and once again it was awkward and uncomfortable. I would much prefer the sex had never even happened. But then I suppose the American novel police would have written the author a citation for having a novel without sex. Such obscenities cannot be permitted in literature today.
All in all, a good first book. It was a nice read with very few grammatical errors. I have no regrets paying 3.99 for the opportunity to read it. I have no regrets for the day spent between bouts of work reading it. I give this three stars out of four.
Meet Daphne. Last name unknown or unnoticed. Obligatory sexy (I guess) female assistant who decides to hit on her boss right when his world starts falling apart. Of course when he drags her into the mess of his life she is happy to trust him through all sorts of suspicious shenanigans without hardly knowing him at all. Then again she wouldn’t be the first woman to make life-changing decisions based on a guy she barely knows.
Meet Chaz. Last name unknown or unnoticed. This guy is awesome. He has all the answers. He has a lot of money. He has all the big bad help he needs to get the job done. More importantly, he is perfectly happy nurse-maiding a couple bumbling amateurs as they chase an obscene amount of money around. Why would he do such a thing, you ask? It must be money. Right? They are paying him an obscene salary for this amazing assistance? Nope. Mr. Black has Important Contacts (capitalization intended) that know Chaz. Favors are owed, and now the confused Mr. Black has Mr. Badass at his back.
And last of all, meet Reg. His last name doesn’t matter. Reg is a white-collar thief. He is charming, intelligent, way too greedy and otherwise unremarkable. Which is how most real white-collar thief’s are, to be honest. Reg runs away with money Mr. Black has entrusted to him on behalf of innocent clients.
The chase is on when these main characters all come together with a lackluster support cast in Run for the Money by Jon Gregory. The book is a pleasant read. We learn a lot about money laundering. Now that I have read this book I believe I can pick up a second lucrative career of money laundering. Yes, it is THAT detailed.
The first seventy percent of this book is mind-numbingly predictable. By the end of chapter 2 I knew who the bad guy was. Actually by the end of the first page of chapter 2 I knew that. Not long after that I knew who the “save the day” guy was. I’m looking at you, Chaz. I anticipated most of the twists and turns of the book. I anticipated the ending. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Black’s character evolve throughout the book, though it was done a bit awkwardly at times.
Now don’t get me wrong. This is, as I said, a pleasant read. It is not a bad book. This is the type of book I love to read when I am sick and I don’t want to think. No, really. Please don’t make me think. Just give me mild entertainment. Nothing too much, if I have too much entertainment I will heave my guts out. Times like that are perfect for this book.
But then in the last thirty percent of the book things pick up fast. After so long with no surprises, when they come they catch you off guard. These are nice surprises though. Nothing TOO shocking. They aren’t game changers. Just something to make you lift your eyebrows and sit up a bit more. A bit of spice in a bland chicken noodle soup book, so to speak.
I really only have one real complaint about this book. The sex is boring. Sex should not be boring, but this sex is uncomfortably boring. It is as if the author decided he was not permitted to write an American novel without sex so he forced Travis and Daphne together. Neither really seemed interested but for the sake of their creator they obeyed. She flirted briefly. A few days later they did an awkward, uncomfortable spur of the moment sex scene with utterly no romance beforehand. Or during. Or after. Afterwards they dusted themselves off and the story moved on. Only once later did either really show any indication of a romantic or sexual interest – and once again it was awkward and uncomfortable. I would much prefer the sex had never even happened. But then I suppose the American novel police would have written the author a citation for having a novel without sex. Such obscenities cannot be permitted in literature today.
All in all, a good first book. It was a nice read with very few grammatical errors. I have no regrets paying 3.99 for the opportunity to read it. I have no regrets for the day spent between bouts of work reading it. I give this three stars out of four.
