Dave Garret Essay, Research Paper

Conflict

The conflict in the story begins when Kate McMahan is kidnapped. Her boyfriend Dave must find her. The conflict is person vs. person. Dave must go through many people in order to find Kate. There are people who try to kill Dave, and kill anyone who may be trying to help him. Dave must compete against people in order to find Kate.

Theme

Neil Albert, the author is just writing another mystery in his Dave Garrett mystery series. The theme is mystery. There is no apparent message given. The author is simply trying to grasp you with a well thought out mystery, so in return you would read it all, plus the other books in the series.

Critique

Cruel April was a fairly okay mystery. The beginning of the book was excellent. It started off really quickly and jumped right into the mystery. I enjoy books that get right to the point. Unfortunately when I reached the middle of the book, the pace slowed down and the book began to get boring. I mean, the book jumped right into the plot. There was action, then more action, then some more. But with four or five chapters left, the book slowed down, and got boring. I know longer was reading for pleasure; I was reading to complete an assignment.

If the author had continued to keep up this pace throughout the book, then it would have been an excellent mystery. When it comes to mysteries, you want to continue reading a book because it is interesting, not because you feel obligated to finish reading it. For this reason, I would not recommend the book to very avid mystery lovers. I feel that they would find the book just as boring as I did. Instead I would recommend The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugindides or any book by Dean Koontz.

Summary

On a scale of 1-10, rating the book: Cruel April by Neil Albert, I would give the first half a 10 and the second a 4. This book appeared to have two different parts: Part 1 The In-Depth Mystery, and Part 2 The Boring @$$ Drama. So here I go. I will explain how this book went from oh so good, to oh so bad.

Okay, in the beginning we have a man, Dave Garret. An ex-lawyer turned detective whose girlfriend Kate is suddenly kidnapped. You see Kate is married, but decided to finally leave her husband to come be with Dave. But of course she never made it because someone took her before she even got on her flight. Okay, let me continue. When Dave realizes that Kate didn?t get on the plane, he goes to Florida, where she lives, to find her. When he gets there he talks with eye witnesses? who inform him of Kate?s fate. Now it is up to Dave to find her before its too late! At this point of the book, we are still in the third or fourth chapter. The book got off to quick start, which is always a plus.

While searching for Kate, Dave meets hookers, pimps, drug dealers, and murderers. And it seems like everyone who helps him winds up dead. Someone even tried to set him up for murdering the hooker. It is here that he realizes that he needs help. He calls his old assistant Lisa to come and help him. Lisa comes quickly to him from Pennsylvania to assist.

The book takes a turn for the worst when someone tries to kill Dave. He is in the hospital for days. It is here that the book goes from mystery to drama. Dave feels sorry for himself, he thinks that Kate is dead by now. It is when someone comes to the hospital to kill him again that he realizes that he has to know the truth. The pace picks up a bit, when he follows the people who tried to kill him. When he gets there he finally finds Kate.

Drug smugglers, whom her husband worked for, kidnapped Kate. Kate found out that her husband was involved in drugs and threatened to tell. So they were going to kill her, But Dave saved the day. He killed Kate?s husband and the police arrived before anyone could harm him and Kate. Lisa the trusty assistant called the police.