Book Review First Force Series by Cindy McDonald

Jack Haliday is on the brink of losing everything:peace of mind and

the secure life he has worked hard for,safety for his wife and

child. 5 years ago Jack went undercover to infiltrate the street

gang know as the Nomands.Even though Gunner has managed to escape

arrest he lives in the shadows waiting for the day to seek out

revenge.

     Let me start by saying I know how diffcult it is to create a

story that readers would be interested in.It takes courage to create

fictious world and hope someone can relate to the story and the

characters in them. Writers work with dilegence to "breathe life

into" these characters.  I did like that the author kept the action

going. However I did have a few problems with the story and I'dlike

this one by one.

     Problem #1:Lack of connection

The main characters felt like stereotypes:The long suffering wife,

the cute adorable curly haired child, and the ultra male cop who

can't show emotion beyond anger.It's something you see play out in a

movie in a novel I expect more physica descriptions of the characters,

behaviors that show their motives,and the thoughts that go on in

their minds as the story unfolds.  Without this I had a hard time

connecting to these characters, with the exception of Rayne she

seemed more real to me than the others.  She was stuggling to regain

identity and peace of mind after a traumatic experience.  This isn't

to say that every character needed to be traumatized to become more

real.I just would've like to  see more complexity in the rest of the

characters.

   Problem#2:Plausibilty

Would a CIA agent tell his cop neighbor that he is a ex- CIA agent

when he is still an active CIA agent? Why not say he's manager at

shoe store or something nowhere near the perimenter of being an

agent.  Let's say I believe this CIA agent does live across the

street ,I find it less plausible  that he would just happen to be

home on the BIG INCIDENT.(I don't want to give away this part of the

story because it's crucial so I will refer to it as THE BIG

INCIDENT)  This same CIA agent just happens to have a safe house

separate from the government and instead of taking Jack and injured

person to a hospital you take them to the safe house , which also

a doctor,Rayne, the CIA agent's niece.  If that's not enough to chew

on one of the female cops in Jack's precint is dating Gunner and

leaking info to Gunner.  I had the toughest time swallowing this

because there wasn't much explanation as to how they got together

and that this precint didn't catch on to it until it was almost too

late.  I felt like I was trying to find something on the bottom of a

murky pond.  Here and there I may catch a glimpse of something and

then I wouldn't.

Problem #3 Tension

I am aware that it is a challenge to let a new audience in things

that happened in a previous series.  That said I felt like the

Flashback scenes were way to long.   This slowed down the tension

that was buiding at first.   This is a smaller complaint because

once you get out of Chapter 1 the tension does pick back up again.

Overall I thought the idea for the premise was good it just wasn't

excuted well.  I would give this book  2 & 1/2 stars.

NOTE: I do not get paid for my opinons of this book or any kind of

monetary compensation