Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT NEED TO FIND YOU by @josephsouza3 #Thriller #SundayBlogShare

Today’s Team Review is from Judith, she blogs here http://judithbarrowblog.com/

Judith has been reading Need To Find You by Joseph Souza

 My Review:

 I read NEED TO FIND YOU over two days, impatient each time I needed to put the book down, eager to pick it up again the next time. It has a plot which the I became more absorbed in as the story progresses. It’s a good fast-moving crime thriller; once it gets going. I found the narrative at the start ‘tells’ rather than ‘shows’ the action. However this is a book definitely worth sticking with. This is a tale of paradoxes, deceits and revenge in graphic and, sometimes, staggering in the many twists and turns.

 And I did like the  quotes at the start of each chapter. 

Joseph Souza’s strengths are his characters; brilliantly rounded, so authentic, so complex, that it’s possible to believe they are actually walking the streets. The author doesn’t just present us with good and evil; they are a mixture of  multifarious human traits. I loved even the ones I disliked, purely because of the way they are portrayed.  

I don’t give away spoilers; I will only say this is a book that sweeps you along with ease, yet makes you uneasy because what you perceive as actions that are right or wrong are sometimes erroneous; the author has depicted some of the characters’ traits in such a complex way that good and evil blend together.

 The dialogue is credible, differentiating each character; there is no doubt who’s speaking even if the words take you by surprise. As I say, there is ambiguity between the good and bad.  (Hmm, probably going on too much about this but it is one aspect that kept taking me by surprise)

Couple of things that didn’t quite work for me; the sex scene between two of the characters felt contrived, placed where it was, and every now and then, the graphic violence felt a little melodramatic.

Also, one thing that I felt was missing for me; though the action scenes were good, I sometimes didn’t always get a sense of place.

And, something I often forgot to mention, the cover … I love it,  I like the artwork but most of all I like the metaphor: the clarity of the image on the left and the elusiveness of the imagery on the right to me it sums up the content of the book.

So, in conclusion, I admire the way Joseph Souza juggles the many threads of this fast and steadily paced thriller. And I like the portrayal of the characters. I do need to repeat, it’s slow to start and I was little disappointed with the denouement.  But it is a good read, I like the author’s writing style and I would certainly recommend it.

Buying Links:

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/2961tD0

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/292REER