Much like the first in this series, "Dante's Poison" is an efficiently written straightforward story with the author wasting no time in getting the reader through the plot she's created. From the opening pages, Raimondo quickly sets out her characters on the board, fills in their backgrounds as they pertain to the plot, then starts moving them around as needed. And that's the problem. Nothing happens without a reason. Characters are frequently reacting only to what's just happened and then they're moved to the next plot point.
Raimondo builds straight up from the foundation she sets out in the beginning, not out or some combination of both. A potentially interesting family backstory for the main character is dealt with mainly off screen, if you will, whereas I was hoping to read more about how the character works through reconnecting with his son, and dealing with the fractured relationship with his ex-wife. But that's all firmly outside the path Raimondo has set and so it's isn't really explored, which is a shame because it's those sorts of side trips that start to flesh out a character and the world he or she is living in.
I was thinking of Jo Nesbo's books when reading this one and while they're entirely different approaches, the idea is that there's so much more there than just the case Harry Hole is trying to solve. That's just the top layer, if you will. Underneath there's an ever-evolving world in which the reader is allowed to form a picture in their mind of who Harry is because Nesbo doesn't shy away from building out. As he moves Hole through a story so many other aspects of the character and the environment he's in are introduced and explored. It's like the author is just poking around seeing what's there and how Hole is going to react to it, then Nesbo keeps on writing based on Hole's reaction.
But with Raimondo I find she keeps strictly to the course she's set, and it's one that does not include any side-trips or opportunities the stray off the path she's put her characters on. She's driving the car and the characters are in the backseat, not the other way around. You very definitely feel that everything and everyone that's shown to you from the opening pages is the complete package you need to read the rest of the story. It's like buying a bed in a bag.
She also continues to rely on info-dumping much of the medical and legal information pertinent to the story, as she did with the first book. I didn't mind it so much then because it wasn't dry or dull to read, but I just grew tired of it here. I would have appreciated a lot more effort on the part of the author to try and get that across in ways that weren't so obvious, such as phone conversations where after the first line or two to set up the fact they're on the phone, the author takes over and starts explaining, only coming back to the characters if she needs a "Oh, what does that mean?" type of response to move things along to the next point. In these types of situations you quickly forget the characters are even there at all, to be honest.