Readers' Muse: Divided Within by John Guillen : Review and Book Tour

Divided Within

John Guillen, author

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Publication Date: October 29, 2013

BOOK SYNOPSIS

Houston area private eye Andrew Banks is hired by sixteen-year-old Mercedes Vega to figure out what's dividing her parents. As soon as he meets the rest of the Vega family he realizes that the situation is only one step away from becoming dire. He puts the safety of the family over everything else until the case hits much too close to home. It becomes a race against a wealthy restaurant owner that ultimately becomes deadly.

REVIEW

Divided within is a first person narrative of Andrew Banks, a private detective who had just started business. Along with his girlfriend Sydney, Andrew realises his long term aim of being a private eye. But in his very first case, a teenage girl comes to him with a story of mild abuse and discord between her parents. Andrew offers to help without understanding the depth of the problem involved. Once he meets the parents, Banks realises that it is a web of deception and deceit involving a drug cartel.

From there, the story takes a deadly turn with men and weapons. Professional killers are hired to kill the interfering detective and his girlfriend. It is a race against time as Banks seeks the help of police personnel to help him get through. How he finds out the final link and how he comes out of the scene with professional killers ready to ruin his life forms the rest of the story.

The story is fairly straightforward. No over the top scenes or adrenaline rushes. There is no actual space for twists and turns, unfortunately making the story predictable. The characters are superficially written with no grey areas and hidden characters. Good is good and bad is bad. The overall book is sort of a compilation of events related to one case. But in its own way, the book does become un-put-down-able after the initial few pages. Where the author falters is in the description of the story line. Sometimes, certain things need to be hidden behind curtains for the benefit of the reader. And the author must attempt to pique the curiosity in his next ventures, and we would be pleased to read them.

Verdict: Go for it if you like light detective fiction. For hardcore fans, this might just leave you feeling lacking.

Rating : 3.7/5

AUTHOR BIO

John Guillen has had a love of books for as long as he can remember. As a grade school student he would browse the tables of the semi-annual book fairs at his school and convince his parents to buy as many books as he could. This passion would reemerge years later as a high school teen. He'd read books by the best crime authors of the day long before completing the required school work.

John knew early on in college that he wanted to become a writer and immediately began work on his debut novel, Divided Within, less than two weeks after graduating from the University of Houston Downtown in May 2013.

When he's not writing or reading a new novel, he enjoys listening to country music and staying up to date on current news stories.