Review: Promise Me Eternity by Ian Fox

Publisher: Self-published

Pages: N/A

Received: Received from author in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: January 2012

Synopsis:

Dr. Simon Patterson is a successful and well-respected neurosurgeon at Central Hospital in the town of Medford. Married, though without children, he keeps himself so busy that one day is not much different from another. Until, that is, he saves the life of the powerful mobster Carlo Vucci.

At a dinner in honor of Dr. Patterson, Carlo Vucci introduces him to his alluring wife Christine. Simon is entranced by her beauty.

Three weeks later, Christine shows up at the hospital, complaining of terrible headaches. Dr. Patterson offers to help her, but Christine did not come to see him just because of her headaches. A series of shocking events follow that turn Dr. Patterson’s life into a nightmare. Among other things, he finds himself in court being accused of murder in the first degree …

My Review:

I am a huge fan of mysteries and crime novels, so when I saw the synopsis this seemed like my kind of story. Sadly I was not taken with this book. Ian had a good story but this novel was a little too long for the idea behind the story.

I believe there were a few too many characters to be able to concentrate on the story. I found that the chapters were very short and we switched to a new storyline quickly. I felt that a lot of things were cut short to change to another character's story. This is a very long book and it seems that there are many scenes throughout that are not necessary and are added in just so there is more to the story.

I did enjoy Ian's writing, he does a great job writing his descriptions making everything seem very real. But at the same time the descriptions take over a little too much of the story. Ian has a habit of describing everything in the scenes, it makes it seem that the story is being told to me rather than me being able to immerse myself in the story and imagine things myself.

I really enjoyed the first chapter, the way Ian opens the story makes you very interested and curious as to what is going to happen. But from there it takes awhile to understand where the mystery is. I find that it takes Ian awhile to get into the story, and that he loads it more with backstory of all the characters.

I did enjoy that each couple had a strong submissive and strong controlling person. It was interesting to see how different people dealt with that situation. And it was also good to see that in the end everyone technically got what was coming to them in some way. All in all, Ian is a good writer but there does need to be some revising and editing of some scenes that are unnecessary.