Title: Cover of Night
Author: Linda Howard
Year published: June 2006
Why did you get this book? I got this book because I liked her previous books such as Now You See Her, After the Night, Dream Man and the John Medina's books.
Do you like the cover? Hmmm... not really. I mean, it's much better than regency covers (no offense to anyone) and it's her new "look" cover. I mean, the last few books all had similar cover, but I didn't like any of them. Worse, this year's cover is glazed and so texture is not even fun to touch :P
Did you enjoy the book? Hmmm... it was okay, not the best. I'll probably go re-read other books of her instead of re-reading this one tho.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Linda Howard was not new to me, I think I started reading her books last summer. For sure, I'll read her next book, but probably going to wait in paperback instead of buying the hardcover
Are you keeping it or passing it on? It's a hardcover, so I'll keep it :P I would probably have kept the paperback too tho, just because I like to have all the books of a particular author.
Anything else? I've read a lot of comments and reviews after finishing the book and majority of ppl agrees that this wasn't LH greatest book. It's still quite good and superior to some other reads, but because it doesn't reach the high standard that LH has set with her previous books. Cover of Night joins Dying to Please and Cry no More - other LH books that I didn't like.
For those who are interested, this is what I've written at the In Death Forum about the book:
***Warning: There are spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk!***
I don't think that Linda Howard has lost her touch, but this book is another disappointment. Last year's book, Killing Time, wasn't great, but at least, it focused on the main characters. If I have to choose one between those two books, it would be without a doubt Killing Time ^_^;
So what happened? One, the storyline was a bit hard to believe... I know that there are many, many small towns in USA and that, they get it probably worst around mountains - as in they are isolated and perhaps, have really bad cell phone connection, but having a bunch of "hired guns" coming into that little town and do what they did, well.... it's hard to believe and get into it. Basically, those "hired guns" took over the little town: blew the bridge, cut electricity and phone lines and shoot at random ppl. So, it's hard to believe, but I don't read fiction because i want it to be realistic... I could have accepted if the motives were good, but they weren't. Even now, I have difficulties to understand why those "hired guns" went through all that trouble.
Then, the author spent way too much time writing about the villains POV and it killed the book. She should have give some developments to the main characters relationship or to the secondary characters. We need some insight of the villain, yes, but not that much. All the author achieved was to make me skip those parts.
The main characters relationship was okay, but... she went to "still mourning her husband" to "I should be nicer to the shy handyman" to "why am I having those thoughts about the handyman" to "yes, I'll marry you." Too fast, no smooth transitions. In addition, the ending was kind of bleh. The way the "hired guns" are dealt with, Jeffrey Layton and everything. It's like, the main characters had nothing to do with resolving the problem at hand.
anyway, it wasn't bad writing. the setting of the book was actually great. I think the downfall was the planning - what to write, what to focus on, what to develop. that's where she missed the turn this time. In Killing Time, the story was a bit bland, but okay. In this book, the ideas were good and suspens could have been awesome, but she didn't focus where she should have.
