Stephanie Jane reviewed Road To Nowhere by Patrick Girard Lawlor
An enigmatic hero
3 stars
Quite why our unnamed drifter decides he must help Mary-Louise, when he has presumably passed by many other needy people during his years on the road, isn't explained. Neither is where he gets the money for his frequent purchases of new shirts. Fusilli has gone all out to create a darkly mysterious hero, but has made him so enigmatic that I was unable to get a grip on who this man actually is. Consequently, I found it difficult to empathise or even care about much of his self-imposed mission. This is a shame because otherwise the story is pretty good. The trio of female characters are interesting and more real than is usual for hardboiled crime fiction, and I liked the washed-up British ex-spy and the indestructible Carlos.
Fusilli keeps a fast pace throughout and keeping track of detail is important, so I was often irritated by his habit of …
Quite why our unnamed drifter decides he must help Mary-Louise, when he has presumably passed by many other needy people during his years on the road, isn't explained. Neither is where he gets the money for his frequent purchases of new shirts. Fusilli has gone all out to create a darkly mysterious hero, but has made him so enigmatic that I was unable to get a grip on who this man actually is. Consequently, I found it difficult to empathise or even care about much of his self-imposed mission. This is a shame because otherwise the story is pretty good. The trio of female characters are interesting and more real than is usual for hardboiled crime fiction, and I liked the washed-up British ex-spy and the indestructible Carlos.
Fusilli keeps a fast pace throughout and keeping track of detail is important, so I was often irritated by his habit of having whole paragraphs refer to an anonymous 'him' and not identifying which character was the focus. Sometimes 'him' is our hobo hero, but sometimes it isn't and I didn't want to keep jumping back through my audiobook to relisten to sections. With such a sparse writing style, clarity is vital. However, overall Road To Nowhere is entertaining and, at just under six hours, doesn't overstay its welcome. Lawlor does a good job of the narration once his female voices settle down, and his voice is well suited to the book's atmosphere.