A dark redemption by Stav Sherez
A dark redemption was my first book by Stav Sherez it follows DI Jack Carrigan and DS Geneva Miller trying to investigate a Murdered Ugandan student they both discover she was a student in London. I enjoyed this book ( )

I'm remembering why I didn't finish this series years ago. The character types are recycled from his other work. The plot is repetitive and simplistic, additionally its rehashed by multiple characters from their POV.

There is still something that makes me want to finish the series this time around. ( )

Jalkan stumbled back, spitting blood, teeth, and curses and he clawed at his knife-hilt. Keselo's sword, however, came out of its sheath more smoothly and rapidly. The young man put the point of his sword against the bone-thin Trogite's throat. "Drop it, Jalkan," he said quite firmly. "Drop the knife, or I'll kill you right here on the spot." "But this peasant just hit me!" Jalkan screamed. "That's a hanging offense! I'm an officer!" "Not anymore, you aren't," Narasan declared in a flat tone of voice. "I've put up with you for much too long already, and you've just given me something that I've been waiting for. Your army career is finished, Jalkan, and good riddance." "You can't do that!" Jalkan screamed at Narasan. "I paid gold for my commission! Gold!" -from The Treasured One

a bit more intriguing than the previous book. But it seems like the good guys just can’t lose. Even tho, in the real world, I guess that is how things will turn out. Thank God! ( )

This review is for the entire series, because all four books suffer from the same flaws.

Ye gods, this was a pile of rubbish. The Eddingses must have been writing on autopilot, because all the elements from previous series were here, but none of the enjoyment. The one-trick "races", the "precocious" child-goddess, the "warfare" between the "races" whose individual representatives all get along famously, the "clever" plans after a "setback" that always work, the "witty" sardonic sense of captain-obvious-humour that everyone defaults to, ... it goes on. The previous series by this duo had all of these -- but in moderation! They worked because there were different characters, plans and plot devices strewn in between the Eddingses' favourite tropes. Here, the clichés are all that's left, and the text is just filler, inserted to move the readers soullessly from one eddingsian trope to the next. It's as if no prior thought or planning went into this series, and these books are really a first draft with minimal editing.

The trick of following one (set of) character(s) for a couple of chapters before turning to another set is another reason why these books are so godawfully boring! It could have worked as a way of creating tension (it did for Robert Jordan), but the technique is not put to any use -- say, switching between fast-moving and slow-moving storylines, or heightening the tension by cutting between several climaxes. None of this works because the groups reunite every so often, and then the Eddingses treat us to painful sequences where the characters retell everything that happened to them to the others, and it goes on for a couple of pages. And what's worse, they do so in the most annoying way possible: faux-humble and pretend-cool, with only one sense of humour and one voice to go around a fairly large cast. Entire sequences of these books are dull repetition of events that happened two or three chapters ago, where characters stand around congratulating each other on how clever and brave and witty they are.

At this point most other reviewers here have warned you not to buy these books and to spend your time and money on something else. I can only agree with that sentiment, because I couldn't recommend this lazy excuse for a book to anyone. ( )