REALJimBob

Having just read Lee Child's Echo Burning, Bob Quinn's Talisa Creek felt very familiar. Both set in the same location - a small farm in Texas. Both feature Armadillos. Both feature abused wives. Both feature very nasty land owners. While Echo Burning had Jack Reacher as it's protagonist, Talisa Creek starts our introduction to Drummond "Drum" Chase. Drum is an English journalist who travels to Talisa Creek to find his estranged brother - John. The comparison is interesting though, as Quinn appears to be trying to step into the same mould as Child with this thriller.

As a debut, self-published, novel I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting. The spate of self-publishing recently appears to have led to a large increase in the number of books being published - and the quality isn't always that even. Editing (or lack thereof) is a regular complaint, and this book is no different. Too many typos and malformed sentences; sections that probably confuse the reader more than adding anything to the story - the introduction for example. That said, Talisa Creek is a solid entrance for a new author, Quinn redeems himself with some solidly interesting characters and a suspenseful plot that keeps you guessing to the end - I genuinely feared that it might not come good in the end...