The Definition of Experience by Jim Adameit was recommended to me as a thriller and after reading the description I thought I'd give it a try. I work in a similar industry, I have consulted in the electronics manufacturing space, and the book has a really cool cover. Why not?

Unfortunately, this book proved to me, once again, that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. The premise of the book is great... industrial espionage on a massive scale by a company that produces the circuitry of modern life. As the description of the book intimates, this is a massive industry and I am sure this kind of stuff happens all the time. The problem is that the execution of the story left much to be desired...

<spoiler>
To start with, 90% of the first half of the book could be eliminated without changing much of the overall storyline. It does a fair job of introducing all of the characters, but nothing truly plot-related happens until well past the 50% mark. It does show that the main character, Dan, is a likable guy, his best friend is a bit of a shyster, his boss is an asshole, the executives at his company are corrupt, and that the fired him for no good reason other than to improve profit margins. I almost DNF'd this at around 40% as it just wasn't going anywhere at all.

Once we get beyond the 50% mark, things to improve. Somewhat. We do finally figure out that something shady is going on at the main character's old company and he decides to start pulling at the thread to figure out where it goes. Dan starts to gather some old colleagues around him to bring down his old company. Out of the blue, Dan gets involved in a much larger investigation/scheme that aligns with his goals. The story got a bit discombobulated (or more so) at this point for me.

This mysterious agency/person/group give Dan three days to finish up his investigation. What happens during those three days is so far out of the realm of reality that it completely threw off the story for me. One character has a near-death experience, finds out he has cancer, begins chemo treatments, and decides that he isn't cut out for investigations except for some good ideas that he passes on to Dan. Dan manages to set up the main bad guy with a drug-induced sexcapade (that involves several nurses, payoffs, etc) with a stripper that happens to be the unrequited love/lust interest of bad guy #2. Dan doesn't know anything about the relationships and was just looking for some dirty pictures. But it just happened to be exactly what was needed to get baddie #2 to flip on the main bad guy. This was had to be the fullest (and most productive) three days that anyone has <i>ever</i> had.

Everything gets wrapped up in a neat little bow in the end. Sort of. There were a couple of characters that got their due, but almost everyone got away with it. Pretty unfulfilling.
</spoiler>

I know that the author intends this to be a series. I like the main character and I felt sorry for him at the beginning, but he doesn't really have any real investigative or, really, special skill at all. His ability to resolve the issues was because he was in the right place at the right time and mostly due to other people's work. Hopefully, the author can expand his skillset and make the next stories rely a little less on Deus ex machina to resolve. I hope he also utilizes a fairly heavy-handed editor who can point out some of inconsistencies/improbabilities in his story.

Thanks to Jim Adameit, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the eARC for this book and provide my honest feedback.