A thoroughly disappointing effort, that sadly fails to live up to its own introductory publicity – full of plot holes and risible characters.

The POV protagonist is made out to be this steely, hard wired tough guy, yet still manages to be captured and kidnapped by a bunch of teenagers. And let’s not forget the ex-military local detective, who manages to dispel his previous attested dedication to law & order sufficiently enough, to act as a sniper back up for our ‘hero’.

Apart from the ludicrous action, the ARC was littered with ‘bro ken w ords’ and other similar formatting issues. And while I do understand that this was an uncorrected proof, my love and understanding of written English, made it very difficult to cope with these aspects, along with the general bad grammar.

I received an ARC of Brendan DuBois’s “The Negotiator” from Netgalley.
I was at first disappointed to realize that this book is written from the first-person POV, which historically has not been my favourite reading style. It quickly became apparent, however, that this POV works really well for The Negotiator.
This is a fast-moving tale, full of twists and turns, about a man who concerns himself with “the stuff that takes place in the shadows”. He is a man who goes into shady places on the very edge of the law, in fact, often on the dark side of the law, to broker agreements between two parties. Some of those parties are only slightly grey, and some are very dark indeed. The Negotiator always seeks to reach agreements with his “customers” using his clever powers of persuasion, but at times, those powers of persuasion just don’t work, and negotiations can go very, very wrong. That is when weapons appear and people are apt to die. The Negotiator tells of one such job gone wrong.
The tale meanders around several small New England towns as The Negotiator seeks revenge for the death of a colleague and tries to keep both himself and others alive, whilst feeling no compunction at all in bringing death to those in his way. The book is a mixture of suspense and humour, (I laughed out loud several times), compassion and cruelty. The plot line is solid, the writing is clever and flows nicely. We meet some really interesting characters, but are never quite sure if those characters are exactly who they say they are.
It is also a book that had me in and out of Google checking on several interesting historical and geographical facts. That is always a bonus for me.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting read. The Negotiator himself is a fascinating character. I’d like to know so much more about him and his back story. This is the first of Mr. DuBois’s novels I have read. I will be seeking out more.

This is a quick read, not to be savored but skimmed. The eponymous protagonist has carved out a role as a go-between whose clients want to buy and sell items privately for a variety of reasons, most of them illegal. He's a smartass with a superiority complex, almost a central casting call when you're looking for someone like Bull on the tv show, or Tony, his predecessor on NCIS. The dialogue is occasionally snappy, but getting to the final page feels like it takes forever and makes you realize you just wanted a chunk of time you'll never get back again.

A very engaging tale of a man who has built his own life in the 'grey' areas. This is where there is good and bad, and he finds a way to make a good living staying on the outskirts of either.
A man who uses aliases when needed, always watching his back, keeping a keen eye on those he associates with to sell what one person has to the person that wants it.
This is an excellent story, as the one person he works with is killed during a 'meeting', leaving him to figure out what happened and to avenge his friends' death. He travels smart, using people he can,to collect the information he needs. But, is he using them, or is it the other way around...
There are Agency workers, police officers and regular folks, with the author mixing things up so you keep turning the pages through the twists.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story and look forward to more from this author.
I received an ARC of this story from Netgalley, the author Brendan DuBois, and publisher Midnight Ink,all of which I thank and am happy to give my thoughts to you.