If there's one thing Pavone knows how to do in spades, it's describe! This novel contains way, way, way too much description of the environment - about 80% completely extraneous. It's one of the more egregious examples I've seen of telling instead of showing.
I mean, what happened to Raymond Chandler or Lawrence Block style? "This happened, and then this happened, and then, surprise!" That's how mysteries should be written.
He is a fantastic plotter. The twists and turns are well created, I'll give him that. He, unfortunately, sets up the plot as if there's going to be some huge reveal and nothing is ever revealed that you haven't heard or seen or read before. There's nothing unique here, therefore why set it up as if there were? These reveals end up being less than important to the plot, too. Bad form.
I was going to read his previous, Edgar-winning novel, but I won't be bothering now.
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