The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an interesting study of the conditions and complexity of life in parts of Africa at the time of this writing. Berenson layers the chapters throughout the book with narratives of three main characters that really help make this a solid story.

Berenson outdoes himself with dialogue. Most all have a very distinctive voice. He gets the chatty, Valley Girl yapping of a 20-something to a point I could hear her irritating voice in my head. This all helps literally construct extremely strong characters.

Here, again, Berenson gives the reader a strong feel of the setting and the hows and whys of what is happening to help better follow the motivations of the characters. Though, it might also turn off some readers that there is so much background. To some, they may feel it bogs down the story. I’ve complained of such before, except in this case, the reasons why so many characters are doing what they are doing makes little sense without the back stories.

I would suggest reading as much of this book at one time as possible to better follow the overlapping chapters. Peeking at a map is a good idea, too.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 of 10 points.

View all my reviews

==============================================

The Kidnapping: A Free Short Story Preview of The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure why this short story is listed separately from the entire ‘The Night Ranger’ book. Obviously it was edited out from the main book. I agree the short story, or chapter, wasn’t needed. This really can’t be read without reading the whole book it’s derived from.

The chapter is as well written as the rest of the book. It’s got the solid characters and setting as the rest of the book.

Bottom line: Read this after or as just after reading chapter 3 of ‘The Night Ranger’.

View all my reviews