Nick Santora

There are many things to like in this film (and Ray Stevenson is always great), but it somehow never really gels together enough to get beyond being a bit bland. I don't get properly invested in most of the character arcs, the protagonist's motivation after the accidental killing of a federal agent (which is a good one) is fairly unrelated to the main plot (leaving me emotionally distanced from th goings on), once Jigsaw's face gets hidden in prostethics he gets ironically flat and uninteresting, the humour is fun but too infrequent, etc., etc. The movie would also have been served well with more Soap and Micro, both of whom I greatly enjoyed. It's an OK way to spend two hours, and not a bad film for Marvel or Punisher completists, but the Thomas Jane film is a better movie (if a less faithful adaptation) and Netflix reboot is miles beyond them both.… (more)

Another book that was just okay. I thought the story was good enough once it got going but the writing was a bit off. Too much description and not enough 'telling' of the story. I also think I was thrown off by the jacket cover. It looks like pulp fiction from the 1960's or something. I believe this is a re-issue but they could have put in more effort with the cover art. Maybe I wouldn't have been biased from the beginning in that case!

Even though I was chosen to receive this book as part of the LTER programme, I never received the book. I got the copy I read elsewhere.… (more)

This is a dark and gritty crime fiction novel about a stock market insider trading ring at a powerful New York law firm. A bad boy drug addicted attorney recruits four men who work in the firm's print shop to provide him with access to the insider information. The scheme works well for a while and then the authorities catch on to it. What's worse is that the gangster who lent the attorney the start up capital pressures the group for more money. Things don't tun out well at all. There's a bittersweet ending, after a shootout.
The characters are well drawn although the first half of the book is devoted to introducing them and their back stories. This made it difficult to get into the main story. In the end most of what we learned about the characters was not relevant to the main story.
In the end, it is a "big heist" story without much suspense because the author laid down so many hints that things were not going to work out well for the inside traders. Aside from that, it is a creative play on the "big heist" story and was well plotted.
Note: I received my copy of the book as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer.… (more)

Fifteen Digits - a good story skillfully told. Good character development, interesting characters. Slow at the beginning, I thought the background and build up to the actual crime was over long. That was quickly forgotten after the plot began to move along. The main character's love interest and her part in motivating the action of the plot was the weakest part of the book, in my opinion. The ending was a surprise. although hinted at early in the story. My preference is for a neatly tied up conclusion - maybe happy, maybe not. I'm leaning toward 'unsatisfied' on this one. Glad I read it.… (more)