(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
While I haven’t read the first book in this series, I still found this book to be quite easy to read and follow. There was a bit of information dumping, but on the whole, I found the plot to be interesting and engaging. And there were some really good moments of banter between a lot of the characters.
While I did think there were some instances where the romance didn’t exactly fit…and scenes where the romance felt somewhat over the top… I did like seeing Geri and Cooper interact together. And it was really good to see Geri as a strong female character, although I didn’t really like her partner. Aimee had some interesting moments, but I felt she was a fairly stereotypical character. And the attraction between her and Hasan didn’t really feel real.
It was good to see the kind of technology there was in the world, though I would have liked to see more of the pop travel, as I wasn’t sure how it worked. It was interesting to see how androids had become a main fixture in the world, and how the potential use of them in the police force was a political debate.
I did find it a bit disappointing that so many of the male characters came across as sexist. I would have liked to see a bit more variation, even if there would still have been some people with those attitudes.
I did feel it didn’t work so well to have the book keep switching to Crewes’ perspective, as it meant there was very little kept secret and virtually no twists. I think the book would have benefitted from only sticking to one perspective. And I was a little disappointed that there was very little grey in the character of the main villain, especially given that his past indicated he was a good man. It would have been good to see something of what caused him to change in such a drastic way.
I did like seeing Cooper’s relationship with both his brother and the people he had to work with, but I would have liked to see a bit more of both and the latter without being coloured by one of his friends affected by the closest pretty woman.
I did enjoy reading this book and in the future, I would probably read the rest of the books in this series.
Ink of Blood 