Final Crossing by Carter Wilson

Posted June 2, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Thriller / 0 Comments

Title: Final Crossing (Goodreads)
Author: Carter Wilson
Published: Vantage Press, 2012
Pages: 320
Genres: Thriller
My Copy: ARC from Netgalley

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Rudiger is on a twisted mission to bring forth the end of days; he believes murder is the answer. Senatorial Chief of Staff, Jonas Osborne is on a mission to stop him; can Osborne solve the puzzles and prevent these murders? With the help of psychic criminologist, Anne Deneuve this psychological thriller is chilling, disturbing and an edge-of-your-seat read. Final Crossing is a typical cat and mouse game with religious elements featuring heavily in this suspense novel.

This is an interesting and thrilling read but, for me personally, I have some issues with it that really did stop me from enjoying the book as much as I could. For starters the characters; I wanted to like Anne, she had a real attitude towards her but the fact she was a psychic criminologist stopped me. As for the lead protagonist Jonas Osborne, I felt he was a bit too flat and had no real dimension to him, so I never really liked or cared what was happening to him

As for the religious aspects, I really struggled with them. I wasn’t sure what the author, Carter Wilson, was doing with them. In the end, I decided he was just mixing Catholicism with some Judaism and the Westboro church. Nothing seemed to fit right and as this is a debut book from an unknown author, I really didn’t know where to find any background information about him and his knowledge on religion. Then there were the product placements; at one point of the book I thought this whole story was sponsored by RIM with the amount of mentions of BlackBerry. Why not mix it up a little and call it a phone, a cell or something else; unless you were under a sponsorship.

I have to say after my little rant about what I didn’t like about this book, that for a debut author it really wasn’t a bad read. I think Carter Wilson has a future in suspense thrillers and I know it is hard to get published so I won’t hold my issues with the book against him. I’m hoping when he does release another novel he will research it a little more and that I’ll get a chance to read it. While at times I felt this novel was predictable, there were also times that I didn’t see a twist coming and these twists seemed to offset the formulaic style that started to come through in the plot. Final Crossing is a disturbing psychological thriller that will keep you turning the page and at times send chills down your spine.

Monthly Review – May 2012

Posted May 31, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments

What a great month we have had here at Literary Exploration. The site was officially launched on the 1st and we have been releasing a new post every one to two days. I really hope we can keep up this momentum and I’ve been working hard to get more and more content on the site for your enjoyment. You might have noticed some older books being reviewed on the site as well as some new releases and ARCs. I hope you are enjoying the mixture of old and new as well as the different genres because we plan to read books and put up content of all types of books. We are proud to have a guest post up already as well as two books that I’m hoping people will enjoy when they are released in June.

On the forums on Goodreads we have been reading the classic detective novel; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. This was the first time I’ve ever read this book and I’m still trying to work out why it took me so long to read it. Next month we will be reading another classic novel, when we read the Victorian novel; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I hope you can join in the discussions on Goodreads and have your say on what books we will read in the future.

My reading has been going really well this month, from trying out my first book in the popular Harry Hole series, to the laughs of the weird things customers say in bookstores. Highlights for me included the Russian classic Crime and Punishment which may be a massive book; it was just a beautiful crime novel and a real joy to read. Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan which will be released on the 26th of June is an exciting follow up to The Last Werewolf; it’s dark, gritty, over sexed and I highly recommend it. As well as Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell and Drive by James Sallis which are both great crime novels.

May’s Books