Mixed feelings. I do think that this novel has a lot of heart. Also the author, a former Olympic swimmer, seriously knows his stuff! Also, some ideas are truly good. And given that this is his first novel, I do see a raw talent here.
Yet I also think that he simply wants it all, which only means to overcomplicate the things. Too much alcohol and drugs, too much (forced) darkness, too much (maybe biased and hidden to him) contempt for the rich and too much (unsubstantiated) understanding for the broken and poor souls. Cold Ukrainians, kinky sexual tensions, dark sexual crimes, bloody and gruesome murders. Too much of all without really showing the emptiness and the darkness. The pseudo noir will not do the work. But the humanity of the main hero and his dominatrix sideckick Cassandra is the saving grace here!

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this one...the writing is promising and I look forward to reading future books by Casey Barrett. But this one felt a little flat. it wasn't as edge of my seat as I had hoped and there seemed to be a lot of excessive details that pulled away from my enjoyment of the story.

Overall the style and premise is good and I look forward to reading more.

The main character, Duck, reminds me of a somewhat degenerate version of Harlan Coben's character, Myron Bolitar. Duck isn't especially likable and yet I found him oddly sympathetic. The author's use of description is excellent - in fact I could easily picture this book as a movie. The descriptions of violence were almost TOO easily pictured - they were cringe-worthy. The characters are all well-defined and well described and the story is compelling with plenty of twists. I'll be very surprised if the author doesn't follow up this book with further adventures of Duck!

I loved the characters, the main plot was in genius. Kept me guessing till the last chapter.

An interesting read for sure. Not as punchy as my usual crime reads but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Great characters and a gripping plot made this an easy read. I’ll definitely read more from this author!