I was really liking this book up to about the last 10 pages. Although the dust jacket reviews talk only about the post-9/11 world in which it is set, to me, all that was only a back drop. People cope as Homeland Security, local police, the FBI and who knows who else become more and more visible. If its security checks to get on a ferry (which I've experienced) or Homeland Security home movies to frighten the wits out of every one, you eventually cope. I felt that the story was more about the characters. Frustrated free-lance author Lucy who finally gets a plum assignment but can't really believe that the author she is to write about, August Venags is real. Lucy's friend and neighbor the actor Tad whose left-wing fantasies seem to be getting the better of him. Lucy's 11-year old daughter Alida (the best character) who copes with 6th grade, her mother's attitudes and algebra homework by trying to add it all up. August Venags the professor who hits it big with his memoir of Nazi prison camps as a child. I really liked the development of all the characters.

But as I neared the end of the book I started to get concerned about how the author was going to end the story. I read a lot of science fiction and I've gotten good at predicting when a novel is the first part of a new series. Generally the plot has too many loose ends. Will Lucy finish (or even start) the article? Will Tad go crazy? Will Finn get arrested? Will Mr. Lee tear down the apartment building? And on and on.

One other reviewer thought the book was setting up for a sequel. My problem with a sequel was that this didn't seem like a story that needed a sequel to finish. And certainly not every loose end needs to be tied up. But the author chose an ending so jarring and so from-out-of-nowhere that he might just as well as have had Martians attack or the sun go nova.

I felt cheated. And there won't be a sequel. The ending made all the questions and loose ends irrelevant. ( )

Boring. ( )

I did not really enjoy this. I found the ending contrived, I did not discover for myself what, in fact, was the reason for the book. I am sure I have read better books by this author. ( )

This is a dark tale of post 9/11 Seattle which I initially thought was dystopian but appears to be in the present with hopefully an exaggerated level of government surveillance. The book was entertaining but not great. The ending was abrupt and I was puzzled why the story just ended. Upon reflection , I can see why the author thought that certain issues had been resolved, but it certainly did not feel that way when I ran out of pages.
Still, it is worth reading. ( )

Don't Waste Your Time: Recycled cardboard characters, a plot worthy of bad TV, and that's the good stuff. I don't begrudge this intelligent essayist and reporter a shot at some big bucks, but jeez Louise, a paperback orginal and a quick sale to Hollywood would do just fine. It seems that the abrubt ending bothered some readers and reviewers. Quite so if the question is plotting. Even skimming the last third of the book, I was delighted, but not surprised that it took an act of God to put reader and writer alike out of our collective misery.