Bear Creek - Jack Edwardes

Published by Robert Hale Limited: London, England, 2011.
First published 2010.

This is a book I chose solely because it is in the Tasman District Library and the author's last name starts with E. I have never heard of Jack Edwardes before, but it seemed a nice easy way to cross "E" off my Alphabet Soup list (particular after the longer reads for "D" and especially "C"). Having now read a Jack Edwardes book... I'm good. That is probably enough.

Its not a terrible book. It has action. It has adventure. A little bit of a romance. Its most definitely a western. If you want all those things, you will get them.

But... 

The pace of the book felt a little 'off' to me. Each scene seems to be dealt with in the quickest way possible, with many of them seemingly existing simply to set up the next 'shocking' moment. Occasionally this style gets a bit confusing as well - a character will start discussing something before we have even had that element of the scene introduced... for the first few chapters I didn't even have a clear understanding of who the protagonist (Ben Tobin) was, character-wise. In some ways that could be intentional (oooh, mysterious protagonist!), but to be honest, there are some aspects of his character and backstory I only remember reading on the back cover! Is this book a sequel? I don't know. It might explain some things, but even so, its a little hard to follow without knowing I've missed a previous installment.

Also, Tobin seems a little bit too good at surviving unbelievable scenarios. Just a nitpick.

Anyway... if you are still interested in Bear Creek, by all means have a read. Once again, its not terrible.

However, my favourite aspect of the book is just the way it ticks off another letter.

Completed 17 October 2021.



(Alphabet Soup Books)

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