Review: CLEAN

Clean by Alex Hughes
Book 1 of the Mindspace Investigation series
Read by Daniel Thomas May
Genre: crime fiction urban fantasy
Format: ebook/paperback & audiobook

About Clean:

A RUTHLESS KILLER — OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND

I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it — real scary. Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city — and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die.

Source: Info in the About Clean was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543039-clean on 14/04/2013.

Review:

I looked for the main protagonist's name all through out the book but it was never mentioned until the very end. So for a long time he was Mr. Telephathic Protagonist X (TPX) to me. And then at the end he became Adam TPX.

Adam TPX is a flawed hero. He's an addict. I have no problems with flawed heroes. In fact I am a sucker for them. That despite them being flawed they fight for the good against all odds. My kind of read!! What I do not like is stupid heroes and unfortunately Adam TPX has that tendency as well. Not only that, but the plot seems to depend on the characters acting stupid to give the story the twist and dilemma so that the heroes could later on save the world. Not the most sturdy of plots. Or it could be that the story telling quality could not pull off the flawed hero line with a good vibe. Either way, it's not working very well for me. However I also like investigative supernaturals, i.e., Portland Homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt of the GRIMM TV show and Harry Dresden of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. So I really, really like the premise of this book. So I'm going to choke it down to this being the first book in the series and hope like hell that the stupid factor would tone down in subsequent books.

Another thing I like about this book is the narration. Daniel Thomas May reads like a pro! He probably is one. Though I do not agree with some of his interpretation of the book, I still think his reading is professional. Words distinct, no slurring, and diction is perfect. I would listen to Daniel Thomas May again.

At the end of it I did enjoy this book though my patience was surely tried and I have to have breaks from the stupid factor in the book.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 4
Pace = (10 hrs and 8 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Mindspace Investigation series:

Guest Post: Alex Hughes

Index Cards
By Alex Hughes

There hits a point in every novel where I’m sitting on the floor with a massive number of index cards fanning around me. I’m in the process of figuring out where I am with the book and where I have yet to go, and it’s always the hardest and the most rewarding few days of the whole process. Thinking is hard work, and holding an entire three-hundred page novel in your head at once tends to stretch the limits of the brain.

So there I am, on the floor, with each index cards standing in for a scene, a physical marker for a unit of text. I fan them out like a mosaic tiler, I shuffle them up like an expert poker player, and, for hours, I frown and stare and make pen-scratch notes. I turn off my phone. I chase family members away from the room. And I sit, and I think. With any luck at the end of this marathon thinking session the book has said what it is, and what it wants to be, and I walk away with the plans for several weeks or months worth of work. If not, I beat my head against the wall in drafting and come back here, to the floor, sitting with the index cards on the floor until I figure it out.

Life is like this process, I think. We spend a lot of time in mushing mode, maintaining what we have and slowly moving forward on the ideas and projects we’ve already decided on. But we also have to spend time periodically in that little room with index cards, figuring out where we are, what we want, and how to get it. To set a path to somewhere we actually want to go. And if we mess up, or go off the path, we come back to that little room and sit, and think, and think some more.

Or at least I do. There are writers – and people – who seem to have it all figured out in a neat flowchart from the beginning of time. They don’t pull out scenes. They don’t take detours. And they can see the end from the beginning, or their instincts can tell them the whole path without pausing – either way they get it done perfectly the first time. I envy those people, to be honest. I can’t seem to see the thing clearly until I’m all the way in the middle of it. Until I’ve made a few mistakes. But my way works, in the end. I get where I’m going. And some of the detours make the best parts of the book.

So here’s to index cards, and taking stock. Here’s to thinking and doing, messing up and coming back to think again. Here’s to a complicated, nonlinear world filled with complicated, nonlinear people. And here’s to life. It’s way more fun this way.

Clean by Alex Hughes
Genre: urban fantasy

About Clean:

A RUTHLESS KILLER—
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND

I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars.

My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary.

Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city—and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die.

Source: Info in the About Clean was taken from the press kit issued for this book.
Buy Link(s):


About Alex Hughes:

Alex has written since early childhood, and loves great stories in any form including scifi, fantasy, and mystery. Over the years, Alex has lived in many neighborhoods of the sprawling metro Atlanta area. Decatur, the neighborhood on which Clean is centered, was Alex’s college home.

On any given week you can find Alex in the kitchen cooking gourmet Italian food, watching hours of police procedural dramas, and typing madly.

Alex's Link(s):
www.ahugheswriter.com
Facebook.com/ahugheswriter
@ahugheswriter