What happens to the Tide at Night

Blurb:

Blast from the Past ...

Blake Sanders thought he left his Midwestern past behind when he went to UW on a basketball scholarship more than 20 years earlier.  But Keely Radcliffe drags it back into the present when she shows up on Blake's stoop one morning to ask for his help.

Back them, Keely's sister was killed in a lab explosion on a university campus in southern Illinois.  Blake's best friend Perry Langford was arrested and convicted of murder for setting the charge, but Langford always maintained his innocence, claiming someone else blew up the building.  Not even Blake knows what really happened, and he was there, a secret he's kept all this time.  Now Langford is out of prison, and he's gunning for all those he holds responsible for his 20-year stint in stir, including Blake.

A week later, Blake's cop friend Charlie invites him to a backyard barbecue at his folks' house. Masked gunmen burst in on the festivities before the two of them even open a beer.  Charlie and Blake manage to hold off the marauders, but Charlie is wounded, and when the smoke clears Charlie's parents have vanished.

Events begin to snowball, putting Blake on the run from both the shooters and Langford, his childhood friend, and Blake realises they're all related.  Soon the FBI and even naval intelligence officer Reyna Chase are on his tail, too..  whoever planted the bomb 20 years ago is cleaning up loose ends, and the prize they're still seeking after all this time - a revolutionary battery design-is with a fortune, even worth selling out one's own country ... and killing for.

Review:

This book is the second in the series and although it can be read as a stand-alone however, this reader felt as though I was missing something with the constant references to Cole.

Initially I found this book was confusing because the first chapter read like it related to a female where in fact the main character is in fact a male (confused you will be!).  What did make a change to other books was that the main character was the only one written in the first person and the remaining characters were rightfully written in the third person.

The main characters and their relationships are detailed and the back story is revealed piece by piece as the lengthy detailed plot calls for it … which is intriguing.  There are many twists and turns before the culprit is revealed.  Intrigue and danger are rife in this novel.

The principal character is not particularly likeable and he is complicated, certainly flawed ad making do working two menial jobs.  He suffers from ADHD which is only mentioned when it impacts on his and the story.

The author has a lovely turn of phrase but at other times was verbose, especially in the description department.  There are also a great many characters which makes this book difficult to follow.  So much so that at about half way through this reader felt as though there was very little happening and yet the story was still going strong.  It seemed to this reader that it was taking ages to get anywhere with this novel. 

Finally, answers to get answered but this reader found the ending rather a let-down after all that hard work.

Full Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review.

I rated this 3 stars on Netgalley and 'it was ok' on Amazon (3 stars) and Goodreads (2 stars).