I love a good crime drama, especially when it is wrapped up in the trappings of literary fiction. I also enjoy complex novels. But it takes a clever writer, and a compelling “voice” to tie together a narrative such as we find in Parabellum. And Greg Hickey for the most part, succeeds.
I received this book for an honest review. All expressed opinions, cynical or otherwise, are my own.
A flawed heroine makes for a good character study. Tragic backstories, ill decisions, they can all work in tandem to make a protagonist believable. Except when they don’t. Since I am in Switzerland now, I think I will quote Paracelsus: “All things are poison…only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” That’s the problem with Red, the protagonist, and this book “The Name of Red,” by Beena Khan . Too much of everything, has made the story a poison pill.
