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My experience with the book was definitely a positive one. I am not sure how 1-5 star review system is suppose to work here, so I will explain my grading scale: 5 stars- Conan Doyle, Dan Brown, Agatha Christie, early Robert B.Parker, Lames Lee Burke; 4 stars-J.Kellerman,Elizabeth George,Michael Connelly. Based on this scale, I will give "The Chosen Few" a solid 3 star rating.
I liked Max Lovely, he reminded me a little of Robert B. Parker's Spenser, the Boston detective. I found some similarities between Lovely and Spencer:ex-cops, tender heart,steel-hearted sidekicks...
The book itself left me with desire to have author expand his 186 pages to 300. It read more like a very detailed plot or outline, than a completed book.I think the murder of Max's neighbor was a somewhat unlikely event. Professional kills a little old lady to cover up his breaking and entry, not to mention he does not wear anything to protect hes identity, lets a little old lady sneek up on him and kills her like some dumb criminal who is botching his first home robbery. Author says he had no choice - I see many other options.
Next, Max Lovely feeds live guppies to another fish he is stuck with, because friends never picked it up. Brokenhearted from this experience, he can not eat anything made from fish or meat for days. In fact, with his 230 pounds and 6'2 frame he seems to me surviving on crackers and peanut butter. I think at this rate by the end of the book Max should be dead from hunger or barely holding on to 125 pounds. The author wants us to know that Max has a kind heart, the kind of person who could never break a wrist of a mobster or brand him with hot iron, but will easily send his unscrupulous sidekick Ant to do it.
Max's past as a police officer leaves you wanting to know more - why did he not stand up to others on the force and try to change it from inside out.There was no event that pushed him off the force, he still has good relationship with his former colleagues, he just run away from his duties to the public, because he saw other policmen grow tired and complacent on the job.
I have to say that I LOVE the idea of Max's assistant Eliot. He is independently wealthy and seems to help Max out of boredom, to make his own life more exciting. He is shy,good looking, educated and unusual for this kind of story. Throughout the book I wanted to find out more about Eliot, his reasons for pairing up with Max, maybe a story behind it all.I think Max's working relationship with Eliot is interesting and has a lot of unexplored potential.
Ant, on the other hand, is a cliche, used in so many mediocre books that he does not deserve any attention at all.
Jaimee is very close to being a cliche also. She is a bored housewife with money, education and social position. She used to care about the world, she spent a year living somewhere in the jungle with tribal people and still admires them, but now she does not have guts, courage or brains to do anything with her life anymore. Apparently falling in love with her soon to be ex-husband robbed her of it all.She has a 2 year old daughter that she keeps in daycare so she can stay home alone and do what? She serves to connect Max and David,looks sad and beautiful and wears halter tops and mini-shorts in cold weather.At the end of the book she and Max are on the verge of developing a relationship.
I think, I kind of covered some of the "cons" of the book. Now, lets turn to "pros". The author worked on the story and characters, there are parts of the chapters that captivated me. There is no violence for violence's sake, no gore, no attempt for sex scenes to drive the book (actually no sex at all in the book). The plot is a little shaky and the conspiracy of a few friends to eventually rule the country, if not the world, is a little grandiouse for a 186 page detective novel. But at the end, the author makes an effort to write a good book that is plot driven and tries to develop interesting characters to support it - it just falls somewhat short.
And I have to ask, what is with underlining the words as a way to attract attention to them? It looks bad.
I am going to be posting more of my pros and cons about the book, this is all I have time for now.

I had previously read this book so I am going to post my previous review and then add a bit of commentary.


“The Chosen Few” is classic gumshoe fiction. The protagonist, Max Lovely is no superman, he has as many flaws and quirks as you or I, but he has one acute gift that suits him uniquely for the job that he does and he makes maximum use of that gift. The mix of friends, femme fatales and potential bad guys is dizzying but not at all confusing. The ride was nonstop and thrilling. So much so that I finished this book in two days, stopping only in the wee hours of the morning when my body demanded sleep. Furthermore … if you’re a Bostonian, the descriptions of and historical background on the old Boston neighborhoods is just icing on the cake. This one is not just a “must read”, it’s a “must read as soon as possible”!

Some might argue that certain aspects of a story are not believable, but I ask you, 25 years before Columbine who would have thought that students staging a massacre with automatic weapons and bombs in their school was realistic? Who would have thought that a mother would drown her 5 children? Who would have thought a robber would thoroughly plan a bank robbery and then leave his drivers license? All of these things have happened. So long as a story is not completely absurd, like a dog being elected mayor ... oh wait, that happened too. The point is, I want to read and enjoy the story and so long as it is not too far afield, I'm not going to spend time nitpicking reality. That being said I DID find the underlining words for emphasis to be distracting. I'd suggest changing that so that words are emphasized with italics and submitting a new file for the book.

First, let me say that this is my first attempt at discussing/commenting/reviewing a book in this type of group so bear with me as I have never been one to make overly large posts.

I enjoy mysteries and detective novels from my youth and this one tugged from the start. It, as another poster said, reminded me of other detectives but Max stays in a reader's mind as himself even though the tone of the story will occassionally remind a reader of Parker's books with Spenser. Just the feel, not the actual tale.

I found it very interesting, enjoyable to read. Easy to follow which is something I like when I pick up a new author. I hate trying to figure out backstory and such. Max is a wonderful characetr to read and to like. I do think that it's often a cliche for ex-cops to become private investigators but it never fails to prove interesting. Of course, usually when a cop leaves the force there's something vital behind it and that wasn't apparent in Max's case.
Anyway, the story itself was very good and I never lost interest and since I'm mainly an action person that says a lot when a tale with no huge gunfights or the like will hold my attention.
The supporting characters each were either interesting or not. I did like care for Jaimee but I believe she was written to either appeal to certain readers or be put off by her. Max's assistant, Eliot, could have in my opinion a tale to himself as I found myself wanting to know more about him. He was fun to read and left me wanting to know more. Ant has been described as cliched and perhaps he is. However, in my world of reading and writing occassionally I've found that every soft-hearted P.I. or anything needs the stronger willed, stronger-hearted sidekick who will be more inclined to do what the main character won't. I enjoyed his pieces of this book.
So all and all, it's a very enjoyable book to read that I would recommend to anyone who loves detective stories. The only two things I did find irritating and that's me was the underlining of certain words. They maybe should have been put in italics and the length of the book. It really could have been longer without hurting anything.

Sierra, I loved your review! I am so glad we have everyone not just posting a few sentences but reviewing books in depth.

Svetlana,
I would have to agree with your initial statement that you would have wanted this book expanded. WHile the plot was decent, I felt that the characters could have been fleshed out more. I liked Max Lovely but wanted to know more about him. Also, his helpers/sidekicks were very vague and you didn't know that much about them.