Lush Life -- Take 2

Yes, I finally finished it. Finding free time to read is really hard, it turns out.

Verdict: I'll give this one a middle-of-the-road rating. There were some quirks about the writing that were irritating, but necessary. For example, a lot of sentences that should have ended with question marks ended with periods. Irritating, but necessary because that's the way cops talk a lot. Similarly, there were a lot of incomplete sentences. Two things that really caught my attention:
1) the use of "irregardless" (page 273 of the hardcover format, if anyone's interested) -- Grandma Clara is turning over in her grave;
2) the use of "conversating" (page 385), but again, I guess it's more cop-speak.

I think the character of Eric Cash could have been better developed. There was a lot of potential -- he was present at the scene of the crime and destroyed by the cops at the beginning of the book as their prime suspect. But instead of really going into his psyche, I feel like the author totally wimped out on him as a character. Bummer.

I was intrigued by the author's reference to the Salome veils, but I'm not sure he's ever seen the opera, or understands the sexual undertone of the reference.

Having said all that, however, the story was interesting, and it was fun to read.