I was a little torn about how to rate this one. I feel like I need to explain it a bit.
For me, a four star rating is a good book. Five is something I reserve for the absolute best, something that I know I'll go back to and read again someday. But, four is good. Three stars, well, that's for books that aren't really all that good, but aren't something that I actually DISLIKED. Less than that, and it's a book that I really didn't care for.
This should have been a solid four star book. The writing was generally okay. Not spectacular, but I would call it "well-written". However, the editing on this was just terrible. I mean, it is not an exaggeration to say that there was at least one typo (usually several) on every page.
Bob Mayer is a professional. He's got 60 or more books under his belt, both traditionally published and indie. He knows the business and he knows how to do it right. So what the heck is going on here?
I've tried and tried to come up with a rational reason for why this book is so riddled with errors. They range from incorrect spelling to grammatical errors, oddball punctuation, repeated words and phrases - the whole gamut of things a beta reader would find, much less an actual editor. And, again, these were errors that appeared on every page of the book, each one breaking the immersion and taking me out of the story while my brain worked out what he was trying to say instead of what he actually had on the page.
In the end, while I enjoyed the story well enough, I had to decide how I was going to rate this one. I'm still convinced that Bob Mayer, who can score blurbs from the likes of W.E.B. Griffin*, Stephen Coonts, and Terry Brooks, is not the sort to leave a book in such a poorly done state.
However, after giving it careful thought, I came to the conclusion that whatever the reason for the errors in this book, ultimately it is up to Mr. Mayer to make sure that his final product reaches the reader in a polished state. I remain convinced that there's got to be a good reason for it - but that doesn't excuse an author not checking to make sure his book is the best it can be.
Typos happen. I'm a writer, and I know all too well how hard it is to stamp them all out. It's almost impossible to get them all out of a novel-length work. Hell, there's probably at least a few in this review! But the errors in this book were so numerous, it's mind-boggling to imagine there being a first draft in this state, much less a finished release.
I won't let this stop me from trying more of Mr. Mayer's work, but I can't help but wonder what the heck happened to this book.
*An amusing footnote: The errors continued beyond the story into the "also by this author" part, where a blurb from W.E.B. Griffin featured his name spelled incorrectly.