Linda Henderson asked David Putnam:

I am also a Don Winslow fan. Surprised at your DNF. Why?

David Putnam As I said the writing it top notch, without a doubt he is one of the masters of our time.
I think though, for me it is the structure. I read to be dropped into the Fictive Dream and it wasn't here. For several reasons. The biggest one is that he didn't pat the head of the dog, didn't endear me to any of the characters. There were some very tender scenes with the husband and wife who I think were supposed to be the leads. But there were too many shifts away from them which moved the book more to "telling," vs. character.
The Force the reader is buried waist-deep in that main character, we knew everything about him, and most importantly the MAR was absolutely correct.
In the new on the MAR (motivation, action, reaction) was disrupted too often causing speed bumps that tossed me out of the story.
Also, there was a large MAR, motivation for the cause of the main conflict. It happened so fast and seemed insignificant. If we had known the girl a little more I would've been on board. But she is tossed in, abused and the story takes off. So in this case the MAR is skewed in multiple ways. First the motivation for what happened was light, not enough depth, the action happened too fast and the reaction did not in anyway equate with the first two, motivation and action. This leaning toward the reaction leaves too much room for mellow drama.
I could go on if you like I have more.
And as you can tell based on my answer that the book might not have worked for me because of my editorial eye toward the craft of the story.
Please do give the book a whirl and let me know what you think.
d.

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