Talk About Drivel

DeMille has been one of my favorites for some years. By the Rivers of Babylon may be the best books ever, and I've read it half a dozen times. The John Corey series is awesome.

This thing is just a mess. In the first few paragraphs we find out that our protagonist has an ex-wife who was having an affair with a Mafia dude whom she shot and killed. After 320 pages we have read that event dissected several dozen times, and absolutely nothing else has happened. The protagonist has forgiven his ex-wife for killing the Mafia dude, and apparently for sleeping with him, because they have decided to remarry. I'm not giving anything away, because that was telegraphed from page two or so. The plot is, to say the least, thin.

That's it. We have been subjected to several hundred witty remarks, a few of which were actually modestly funny. The dead Mafia guy's son is lurking, but he merely seems interested in buying the ex-wife's house. I seldom discard a book without finishing it, but...