I can’t say I expected this to be the best Sandford book I’ve read…and trust me, I’ve read them all (even the art one he did way back when), but I certainly didn’t expect it to the worst. I was wrong. The thing I love most about Sandford (and he is the ONLY author I’ve read every single year for the last 20 plus years) is his dialogue between characters. I absolutely love the relationships he builds between people via dialogue….it doesn’t matter if they are life long friends, or complete strangers. He has a gift for dialogue that I’ve never seen matched.

This book had none of that. Sandford presented us with some characters that could have been phenomenal. There were there. However, the building up of their characters and the thrill of discovering what makes them tick just wasn’t. There actions made them seem flat and uncaring, simply because we weren’t allowed to have insight to them. Sandford simply dropped tantalizing bread crumbs, and we found ourselves excited to finally get to the tasty cake at the end….to reach the end of trail and be met with only an empty package.

The book was bogged down with endless details of things the reader didn’t need to know….yes, we needed to know how grave the situation was at times…and how smart the characters were to overcome any obstacles…but I think Sandford could have spent less time in those details and more with the details of the relationships of the main characters.

I will say that I can see this playing out 50 years from now. I will also say that this novel and how politics played into it gave me very little faith or hope for the human race. The value placed on human life was non existent. As was the care for the tax payers money and the lies and deceit that played into hiding this information from the general public. Yes, that might sound political. It probably is. However, this novel was chock-a-block of politics….

On a side note, and completely unrelated, Sandford has now done a couple of books outside his normal crime thriller genre. I sincerely hope he isn’t bored with it all. As a writer he is completely free to write whatever he chooses. However, I would be totally gutted if he gave up that genre. I can honestly say I find his Pey books better with each new release. He is the ONLY and I stress ONLY writer that has ever managed to keep me so engaged with a character for any amount of time….let alone 20 plus years….

Until next time…

Urania xx

ARC provided by Edelweiss for an honest review

Buy it now Saturn Run by John Sandford