The Man Who Read A Book

I'm a big fan of Stephen Donaldson, so it's kind of surprising it took me so long to even start reading his detective novels originally published under the name Reed Stephens. The first one is... The Man Who Killed His Brother.

This, being a detective novel, is fill of twists and turns... and yet, I picked who the bad guy would be early on, and surprise, no surprise, it was that person. Girls are going missing and turning up dead, overdosed on heroin and no longer virgins. And yet... it takes a while before people leap to the kidnapping option. Really? I was there straight away. I mean, it was kind of obvious. And not just because this is a detective novel. Perhaps his later works are better?

Character wise, there was a lot here I recognised as Donaldson, with the way the main character 'Brew' has to force himself to act, to the way he reacts to people. Other characters are fairly one-note, it feels like Donaldson needs a longer work to bring characterisation out, or just write a short story and just get in and out (although his short stories can be very hit or miss).

While I have the next two ready to go, but I think I'll read something else to break this up.

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