“I’m getting ahead of myself. I must start at the beginning and let events speak for themselves. I mustn't color them, twist them, or tell any lies.”

At the core, truly solid premise. It’s like those pictures of golf balls or baseballs cut in half: layers and layers of …whatever shrouding this interesting pit of cork or, …whatever, right in the middle. Except, you need some of those layers to be equally interesting to keep the whole thing together. The issue here was all of that supporting, stick-together subplot was just so wildly unbelievable. No, their administration wouldn’t let them do that. Not in a million years. No, those conversations just wouldn’t happen like that. No, no, no. There simply wasn’t enough tension to justify this being the “Thriller of the Year” of 2019. Certainly psychological, but not astoundingly suspenseful.

I will say it’s extremely readable, which is a litmus test of success all on its own. But I won’t write home about it. Also, I liked the ending just fine, it was the getting there that didn’t meet my expectations.

2.5/5 Disbelief outweighed potential.