Review: The Memory Key by Conor Fitzgerald

[miko]

The Memory Key is the fourth in a mystery series featuring Commissario Alec Blume, an Italian detective.

I've enjoyed two of the others in the series (I think I missed the third), but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this one in particular. The mystery could have been interesting, but I was so distracted with how terribly he treats his girlfriend and how his life was unraveling but he was too stupid or disconnected to care that I barely could see the plot of the mystery at all. The only interesting twist was identified early on. The author apparently wanted it this way (so much focus on the things going wrong in his life), but it's definitely not what I wanted from a police procedural.

It wasn't so bad that I put it down... but I've walked away with a dislike for the character that I didn't have before. If the Italian police system thing interests you, though, probably The Fatal Touch (#2, which I read first) is the book to try. I'm going to put #3 on my list for later, once I get the bad feelings that this one left out of my brain.