Official Review: Greenhill by Gary Cann

[MatthewAlexander]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Greenhill" by Gary Cann.]

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In Greenhill by Gary Cann, readers are taken through a mystery with Malcolm Gregson, a man as ordinary as any other. When readers meet Malcolm, he's saying goodbye to his wife of fifteen years, Amanda, after her death. The loss doesn't seem to hit Gregson nearly as hard as one might think, and he goes about his life as he normally would. That is, until, he bumps into a high school crush, Sonia Fox. Sonia takes Gregson on a wild goose chase, asking him to meet her a number of different places and standing him up. That's not the worst of it, though: several other people seem to be trying to meet with Sonia as well, for much more insidious reasons than Gregson himself, and now they all seem to think Gregson is the best way of finding her. Forced into a fast-paced world of crime, lies, and killings, Gregson slowly discovers that there is more to Sonia than he originally thought. In fact, there his more to himself than he originally thought.

As exciting as the concept seems to be, the story itself wasn't at all. Perhaps it was meant to be that way at first, considering Gregson is a simple man: a desk-worker, a coffee-lover, a nine-to-five, a creature of habit. You would think, however, that he'd be just a bit more exciting when brought into the dangerous web Sonia Fox has weaved. And though it is told that his personality changes, that he becomes edgier and more alert, it is not shown.

The way the main character was written (all tell and no show) reflects throughout the rest of the novel. It was so disappointing, because the 'tell' has so much potential for an exciting, vivid story and it fell short. There were too many missed opportunities for suspense, fright, and awe from the reader for it to be acceptable that they were all missed. The story and its potential was right there, but Cann failed to grasp it.

There was nothing wrong with the novel and the writing other than it was flat, though. There were very few grammar or spelling mistakes; so few that I didn't bother to note what exactly they were. At a point, spelling and grammar mistakes become too much but one or two doesn't take too much away from a story. Readers should even come to expect them; even as advanced as technology is today, typos still seep into writing. It happens.

For these reasons, I give Greenhill 2 out of 4 stars. It was a decent book, deserving of no more or less than two stars. Perhaps a hardcore mystery fan would be able to find the suspense in this novel. Perhaps they would get sucked into Malcolm Gregson's world, barely able to pull themselves out until the final sentence. Or perhaps not. Perhaps not even a mystery buff could make much out of this novel which is, as far as I'm concerned, dry, plain, and not what it could have been.

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[Kappy]

Good review. It appears that the author's writing expertise is not nearly as good as his story line.