Customer Reviews

Primary Victim

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Primary Victim by Christopher Cihlar
Genre: Crime Fiction, Crime thriller
Rating: 4.5/5

Summary (from back of book): A serial killer whose victims don't die. An innocent man who believes he is guilty. A police officer who may solve the crime but in doing so gives the killer exactly what he wants. A legal defense that challenges the very core ideals of justice.

Primary Victim is a thriller that tests both the psychological breaking point of an individual and the strength of the legal system governing society.

Review:
I'll admit up front that I have a weakness for crime fiction--but this book was amazing. Words escape my mind as I try to explain how blown away I am by this book. I gasped and grinned and nearly cried and laughed at the surprises thrown at me through this stunning debut novel.

The psychological aspect of PRIMARY VICTIM was mainly found in the "Victim," Brice. I won't say what happens to him, but it amazed me as his mind began to twist and change through the course of the story.

The plot: PRIMARY VICTIM was full of twists and turns that I never expected, and it had me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. I couldn't put it down! The viewpoint alternates between the criminal, the police officer, and the (living) victim, and switches back and forth at the most inconvenient places, forcing you to read on.

Characters: All the characters in PRIMARY VICTIM were strongly developed with real personalities. I hate books where people are just to perfect to be real (what I call "happyland syndrome")--this book had the good guys and the bad guys, the the ones you hoped it all worked out for them, and the ones that you wished would be the next to die because they were such jerks (cough Nick cough).

By the end of the book I wasn't sure what Michael (the criminal) was going to pull out of his hat, and was, from the very first page to the very last, impressed with Michael's genius and creativity. At times I actually found myself almost cheering for him, but had to remind myself that he was the bad guy. It was almost hard to see him as the bad guy at times, because of his "work--" Michael considered himself a God in a world that needed one and didn't have one, victimizing the people that he thought needed to be victimized.

Brice and Sarah were such a perfect yet sad couple, and for the sake of keeping the review spoiler-free, I won't say anything... but I thought I was going to cry at one point.
Writing: The writing was the weakest point of this book. The prose itself seemed written in an unfamiliar style, minimizing comas in the sentences, and it made for a harder read. I caught myself occasionally re-reading sentences and paragraphs to understand what had happened. Aside from the prose, the vocabulary was broad enough and the pacing was good.

As of now, PRIMARY VICTIM is unedited, but there is only an occasional grammatical error, formatting error, or typo scattered through the book. However, all in all, it didn't take away from the story.

Content: There was brief mention of sex between husband and wife (example: "they made love," no other details, and the fact that they're married made it that much better), and an occasional foul word from an angry officer, but other than that this book was refreshingly clean. I applaud Christopher for writing a crime thriller with low content--especially compared to some of the other crime thrillers out there. Maybe he can start a revolution. It's true, people--you can have a good book without excessive sex and language!

Recommendation: Ages 14+ to lovers of Crime fiction, thrillers, and psychological thrillers.

Plot/Storyline: 4 1/4 Stars

The plot of this novel was very original, even when compared to other "Serial Killer" books. This serial killer operated completely differently and with unique motivations. The people he killed were completely incidental to his actual crime.

This novel kept me thinking about the ending for a long time after I finished reading. I wondered if it really could happen that way. After awhile, I decided that it was possible, to an extent. Although this decision gave the book plausibility, it made for some frightening extended scenarios.

The storyline faltered with some bad `timing.' One part of the story would be told from one viewpoint, then, after switching to another character, the story would be backed up or fast forwarded. This is not an unusual literary device; however, it did cause some confusion at times and, in other instances, just boredom with duplication and spoiling of suspense.

There was also a little bit too much `thinking' going on. By that, I mean that a few times a chapter would be inserted where nothing actually happened, and the character is just pondering details, motives, and morals. If the "what-ifs" were taken out of these chapters, they would have been left with one or two necessary sentences for forwarding the storyline.

Character Development: 4 1/2 Stars

Brice, the final "victim", and one of the main characters, was very well developed. I could feel his pain and terror at being locked up for a crime he didn't remember committing.

Michael's original motivations could have been fleshed out a little more.
While the reader was treated to some scenes and information about his younger years, I just didn't read anything that would cause him to be the way he was. Sure, maybe he was just born that way, but I like my fiction to be a little more `wrapped up'; that's why I read it instead of "True Crime" books.

A detective was the third main character. I felt he was drawn with excellent talent. He was not an overbearing, know-it-all cop, like his horrid partner. He was just a guy trying to raise a family and do his job. He was smart, but no genius, very believable.

Writing Style: 3 3/4 Stars

There was a lot of repetition, sometimes within the same sentence. For example, a character `watched a woman through an open door as she walked through the open door.' That's not a direct quote because my Kindle is too full to do clips, but it's close. There were also some awkward sentences that had to be read more than once for understanding.

The descriptions were vivid. The dialogue was erratic, at times too formal and at others, very realistic. With the exception of some of the timing issues mentioned above, the author did a good job of building suspense for his ending.

Editing/Formatting: 2 Stars

The editing left a lot to be desired. There were missing words, missing and incorrect punctuation, wrong word choices, and instances where it appeared something had been changed, but a piece of the old version remained.

One example: He seemed "to eager too leave."

The formatting was equally bad with line breaks in odd places throughout the book.

Rating: PG-15 for Violence

This was an interesting story. However, as other reviewers have mentioned, there are some MAJOR slip ups in the editing. I won't mention those already mentioned, but I will tell you that another major flaw is when the prosecutor has finished presenting the state's case and she says "The DEFENSE rests." The story itself was entertaining. Implausible, perhaps, but still an original view of the justice system. However, are ANY kindle books edited? I am getting well tired of the kinds of mistakes-----prosecutor resting the defense's case, characters suddenly and mistakenly referred to as other characters-----these aren't hard things to find and correct. So why isn't any one doing that? BEFORE the book hits the market?

Are all e-books like this?

A serial killer who kills in pairs--the first seems single and at random. The second is a life sentence set-up, where a friend, not the initial victim, has been meticulously framed by the original killer. Diabolical. Cihlar has written a taut crime procedural filled with flawed, and at times, unsympathetic characters. But the story is harrowing and well worth one's time and money. Bravo. Can't wait for a follow-up.

Christopher Cihlar's debut novel had me hooked from page one -- the premise is a great one -- a serial killer who kills, and then frames someone else for each murder. His use of different points of view was great, the plot and the dialogue were fantastic, and the ending was out of left field and one of the best parts of the book! I am looking forward to Mr. Cihlar's sophomore effort!

The only possible downside was the editing -- this is a problem that I have seen in many kindle books, as many get published without the benefit of a true editor. While it was distracting in the first, say, 50 pages, either the editing got better after that, or the story became too captivating for me to notice.

This book is a steal at 99 cents -- it is books like this, by little-known or first-time authors, that keep my love affair with the Kindle going strong!

I really enjoyed this!!! Surprise ending, great plot, good characters!! Worth the read for sure!!

Only wish for a happier ending but am sure a sequel is on the way.

I really liked this book. Characters were great. Well-written overall and believable story line. For me, the development of the serial killer was the true strength of the book. This focus was cleverly presented (I was not really rooting for him, but he is a fascinating character!), and I would guess this also opens up the possibility of a series based on the killer. I can only think of a couple books/television shows that do this, e.g., Hannibal, from the Silence of the Lambs series and also Dexter. I also thought the twist at the end was perfect and, scarily enough, realistic. The book could use some work on copy editing, but it doesn't take away from the story or read. I suppose that is the trade off for a .99 cent author-promoted version, but in this case, well worth it I read one of the reviews that said formatting was a problem but it seems to have been fixed. I didnt see any major issues there. I look forward to seeing more from this author.

Awesome book! I read a lot of these type of books and the concept in this book was very original. It did not disappoint me at all. The author made the characters and their reactions to their situation very believable. Highly recommend this book! Can't wait to read more by this author.

Great story - couldn't put it down - read it in a day! Will definitely look for more books from this author in the future!