Book Review - The Budapest Connection by Dr. Henry C. Lee and Jerry Labriola, MD
Category Book Reviews
I ran out of recreational reading material awhile back, so I picked this up from the library based on the synopsis and cover... The Budapest Connection by Dr. Henry C. Lee & Jerry Labriola, MD. What I hoped for was a medical/forensic thriller, but what I got was something that never did grab ahold of my interest...
The main character, Dr. Henry Liu, is a forensic scientist who heads up a small international crime-solving group called GIFT - Global Interactive Forensics Team. This group has regular day jobs, but they are also available to head anywhere in the world on a private jet and consult on high-profile, difficult, or sensitive cases. GIFT has been called in to a crime scene here involving three dead girls on a waterfront pier. The nude bodies are arranged in a triangle, with one guy glued open and the other glued shut. Liu reluctantly takes the lead on the case, since it's relatively close to where he lives. The arrangement of the bodies suggest a Triad killing, and other clues link it to a Mafia matter. A chance request from a Hungarian official to consult on a crime also touches on this case, and it means that there are Eastern European elements in play. In all likelihood the case involves trafficking in young women ("white slavery"), and there are some people who would prefer that Liu just ignore everything he's seen and let things alone. But of course, that's not going to happen, regardless of how many brushes with death he has...
Having never read any of Lee and Labriola's other works of non-fiction, I came into this with no preconceptions. After a short time, I figured I must have stepped into the middle of a series as there was a lot of background I didn't seem to have on the characters. Only after finishing the book did I find out this was a first fictional effort by the two, which makes this even harder to understand. Other than the Liu character, everyone else was just filler with no depth. One of the team members is making overt sexual advances towards Lui (for what reason I don't know), but he's turning her down (again, not quite sure why). Lui travels with a bodyguard and driver during the day, but I must have missed why. The ending is a bit strange, and I never quite had a firm grasp of who the players were and why they were part of the international crime group. All in all, I was turning pages, but without much enthusiasm...
This could have the makings of a decent series, but the character development needs to improve dramatically (in my opinion). I'd like to care about and understand the characters, but in this story I certainly didn't...
I ran out of recreational reading material awhile back, so I picked this up from the library based on the synopsis and cover... The Budapest Connection by Dr. Henry C. Lee & Jerry Labriola, MD. What I hoped for was a medical/forensic thriller, but what I got was something that never did grab ahold of my interest...
The main character, Dr. Henry Liu, is a forensic scientist who heads up a small international crime-solving group called GIFT - Global Interactive Forensics Team. This group has regular day jobs, but they are also available to head anywhere in the world on a private jet and consult on high-profile, difficult, or sensitive cases. GIFT has been called in to a crime scene here involving three dead girls on a waterfront pier. The nude bodies are arranged in a triangle, with one guy glued open and the other glued shut. Liu reluctantly takes the lead on the case, since it's relatively close to where he lives. The arrangement of the bodies suggest a Triad killing, and other clues link it to a Mafia matter. A chance request from a Hungarian official to consult on a crime also touches on this case, and it means that there are Eastern European elements in play. In all likelihood the case involves trafficking in young women ("white slavery"), and there are some people who would prefer that Liu just ignore everything he's seen and let things alone. But of course, that's not going to happen, regardless of how many brushes with death he has...
Having never read any of Lee and Labriola's other works of non-fiction, I came into this with no preconceptions. After a short time, I figured I must have stepped into the middle of a series as there was a lot of background I didn't seem to have on the characters. Only after finishing the book did I find out this was a first fictional effort by the two, which makes this even harder to understand. Other than the Liu character, everyone else was just filler with no depth. One of the team members is making overt sexual advances towards Lui (for what reason I don't know), but he's turning her down (again, not quite sure why). Lui travels with a bodyguard and driver during the day, but I must have missed why. The ending is a bit strange, and I never quite had a firm grasp of who the players were and why they were part of the international crime group. All in all, I was turning pages, but without much enthusiasm...
This could have the makings of a decent series, but the character development needs to improve dramatically (in my opinion). I'd like to care about and understand the characters, but in this story I certainly didn't...
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Comments
I quite agree with you. Picked this up as it quite glared out from the shelf. But a good 50 pages into it there is no thrill or excitement in the way these folks function.
Abrupt references to matters that do not fit into the context during many occasions, character devt is bad.
Posted by Joel At 18:58:32 On 11/11/2012 | - Website - |