Colombia Crackdown by Chet Cunningham
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The beginning of this book is pretty clunky. After the location shifts from Miami to South America, the story is more coherent and pretty good.

This book is part of my Florida fiction collection and i only have and have read #3 in the series. Coming into #3 did feel like I was missing a lot that had happened before. Much is explained except for the actual motivation The Avenger has. The character is written to proclaim his reason to avenge, but not his actual reasoning. I know it sounds a bit nit picky. But when so much else is described, why not explain why the main character is doing what he is doing?

The first half of the book is clunky in much that is written. There’s a whole matter involving boats that is contrived and has a resolution that doesn’t add up when other law enforcement would be responding. That is a main problem with the Miami part – the police seem to either be missing or very delayed in response.

When the book heads to South America, the writing is far more crisp. The very detailed description of processing cocaine is very well done. The lady character in Miami that is mishandled in writing, is suddenly well crafted into the story, though it is a bit obvious what is going on. The action is all too pat, but resolves itself nicely to an ending and a clue to #4 in the series.

I should note: This book was not in the Goodreads date base. Neither are any others in the series. Plenty of “Cunningham”‘s books are in this system. Did these sell so poorly and so few circulated to not be here?

The Florida part: Miami is merely a back drop. The author seems not to know Biscayne Bay very well. Funny how there is writing of a Polish deli in Downtown Miami. in the nearly 30 years since this book Downtown Miami at that time is pretty much entirely gone.

To sum up: the book is over all poorly written. The characters are mildly well handled. The setting is poorly described. The first half of the plot is poor, while the second half is far better. So….

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

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