All “Washed” Up
I hadn’t ever read any Alex Kava books before, so perhaps her others are better. “Whitewash”, one of her latest, left a bad taste in my mouth and it wasn’t solely due to all the talk to chicken guts.While the characters were interesting (particularly the old neighbor lady), the plot was fairly flat. The story of a plant turning farm waste and road kill into oil was consistently gross enough to turn my stomach (and I loved the book “The Hot Zone” which is just about as gross as it gets!) and seemed fairly far fetched. There was a political angle that I felt like was going for a “West Wing” type feel but instead ended up feeling like an unwelcome guest that crowded out the good stuff.
If you love a great mystery/suspense novel and aren’t that squeamish, go with “Plum Island” by Nelson DeMille instead. It’s a lot more witty but still has enough action and adventure to keep you turning the pages.
Need another indicator of how UNsuspenseful I found “Whitewash” to be? I put the book down with just the last 10 or 15 pages to go and fell into a nice deep sleep. I didn’t really care to stay up and read for even 20 more minutes to find out if all the bad guys got caught. Not a stunning endorsement for Ms. Kava.