Rating: 2.75 stars out of 5
Forced into early retirement from his career as a SWAT officer for the city of Detroit, James Deacon knew that when he failed it would be a fall of epic proportions. He’s been living life by the tips of his fingers for over twenty years, and his new gig organizing a group of misfit military types into a functioning team—including his reluctant ex-fiancée—won’t return him to stable ground anytime soon.
Trevor Barrow has been on the move for the last seven years—hitting the road when relationships became too real or too much work. He’s home now, working in the hazardous world of bike messengers in the Motor City, and the only one of his eight siblings who knows he’s returned is his sister Cat. It’s not as if reconnecting with them matters anyway, because it’s likely he’ll be gone again soon.
Both men are lugging some heavy baggage, but when they chance upon each other in a dive bar it’s hard to deny their flaws are more like symbiotic quirks. Trevor’s backpedaling instincts and Deacon’s dance-dance party past may just be intersecting at a time when things are about to get explosive in Detroit.
I didn’t like this book. I found myself wanting to end it multiple times throughout reading it. I gave these ratings based on the basic level of relationship between Deacon and Trevor. The entire book felt disjointed to me. It was weird, and not believable. I didn’t buy into the corporate espionage angle one bit or that a 16 yr old boy would get emancipated from his mother and for 7 years was able to travel to 93 countries. What did he do to gain money, shelter, protection, and knowledge? I can’t believe that would have unless he had a fairy godmother out here protecting him and supplying him with endless funds. Then after being gone from home from 7 years, he’s able to return and start up a bike messenger service. Really, because it’s that simple? Trevor talks about these friends he’s got, and how he’s able to live in an upscale apartment building and have his own company at 23. He never once talked about formal education, any type of training. The one relationship he held dear to his heart the author decided to make a muck out of it. I didn’t like it, I felt it was too easy to place the blame and take away the only faith and trust in someone.
Deacon character’s threw me off a lot, whereas with Trevor I understood why he was closed off. Deacon’s character seemed unauthentic throughout the entire book unless they were in some sort of physical state. The story seemed to be told out of sequence. They kept referencing the Audra Price incident as his reasoning from getting fired from his job of 20 years? What did he do that was so wrong? From my understanding of what was said in the book was whispering in Miss Price ear about what she did; it felt like a gimmick and not realistic. The crux of the story was basically Deacon working for “The Dictator”, this wsapowerful man in Detroit who owned lots real estate and businesses. Why does one need an paramilitary/ swat team to deliver correspondences all over the city? The corporate espionage plot was so unrealistic for me. I felt like the author spent way to much time on it, and it didn’t solve, answer or satisfy me with the story.
The only plus for me was Continue reading “A Mika Review: Damaged Package by S.A. McAuley”
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