DNF ARC REVIEW: A Line In The Sand – by Kevin Powers

Title: A Line In The Sand
Author: Kevin Powers
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: May 16th 2023
Publisher: Sceptre
Finished reading: August 15th 2023
Pages: 369
DNF at 29% (107 pages)

“Now his world was divorced from the irrelevance of area, of distance. Its chief feature was its emptiness.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Sceptre in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

WARNING: get ready to board the unpopular opinion train again!!

Right… I didn’t expect this to happen to be honest. On paper, A Line In The Sand seemed to be a perfect fit for me. I always love a good detective/crime thriller, and an international angle is always a bonus. There was just something about the blurb that sounded fascinating, and I was looking forward to what seemed like an exhilarating and action-packed read. Imagine my surprise when I ended up making the difficult decision to DNF for the sixth time this year instead… Oh yes, it’s easy to say that this book and me didn’t get along.

I know that my reading mood has been particularly fickle lately, but I don’t think that is the main issue here. I mean, this is basically one of my favorite genres, and I do like my thrillers on the dark and action-packed side… Like I said, A Line In The Sand should have been a perfect match, but somehow a match made in heaven quickly turned out to be a match from hell. This has nothing to do with the premise itself, and everything with how the story was executed… I’m having a hard time pinpointing the exact problem, but it had a lot to do with the plot structure, overdose of characters and writing style itself.

A Line In The Sand uses a multiple POV structure; while I like having a variety of POVs, in this case there are SO many different POVs and characters that I struggled to keep them apart. Add the fact that there is no real development for most of them, and it was a true chore to try and keep track of everybody and figure how they relate to the rest of the story. There are quite a few cliches involved as well, and the whole ‘all-good’ or ‘all-bad’ stereotype seem to be applying to all of them. It’s such a shame, because a smaller and more developed cast could have highly improved this story.

My main issue was probably with the writing style itself though. I can’t put my finger exactly on the why, but there was just something about the writing style and tone that I found extremely off putting. It felt like the story was trying too hard, and the dialogues were simply cringeworthy. I simply couldn’t stay focused on what was happening, and I caught myself starting to skimread time after time after time… Never a good sign of course. Add in the fact that the plot started to sound more and more over the top, and I was just not ready to keep suspending my belief and torture myself with a prose that was just about as fun to read as a trip to the dentist. After that ridiculous scene in the motel, I decided to just throw in the towel and save myself the trouble… Especially since I’ve seen in other reviews that things only get more over the top.

I do have to say that know that I’m in the minority, because most people do seem to love this book… But I can definitely say now that there is just something about Kevin Power‘s writing style that simply isn’t for me. It’s a true shame, because the premise of A Line In The Sand did sound right up my alley.