A Patriot’s Betrayal by Andrew Clawson

Title: A Patriot’s Betrayal
Author: Andrew Clawson
Available from: Amazon

I was asked by the author to review this book and received a free copy of the book in exchange.

I really had a difficult time deciding whether to rate this book 2/5 or 3/5 and finally went with the lower rating because although the story line is promising, it ultimately falls flat. I had a difficult time reading it all the way to the finish.

My biggest problem with this book is the writing. It is not well written and the readability of the story is negatively impacted. The most prevalent problem is the confusing use of pronoun. Here’s a good example:

In one lightning fast move, Nick whipped his arm upwards at the exposed flesh. Broken glass ripped through his skin, slicing tendon and muscle on impact. The improvised blade cleanly severed his carotid artery.

I read that and wondered if Nick had killed himself. Well, of course he didn’t! But that’s how it reads. The confusing use of pronouns is commonplace throughout the entire book.

I also had a problem with the entire story line. I didn’t find Vogel’s motive for suppressing the historical foundation of his wealth believable, or the lengths he was willing to go to in order to keep it a secret. And if it was so important, why didn’t Vogel, his group and/or his ancestors just hunt down the information themselves and get rid of it, instead of just killing anyone who showed any sign of stumbling on it? They certainly had the financial resources, and it would’ve been cleaner. I just wasn’t buying the motive, which was the basis for the entire story.

The characters also felt one dimensional to me. I never really connected with any of them and by the time they end up in a shoot-out at Mount Vernon, I really didn’t care much.

As a result of all the above, the story never reached the “thriller” level for me. I didn’t stay up late, turning pages and fighting to stay awake because I couldn’t wait to see what happened. I find it difficult to really immerse myself in a book when I’m constantly having to re-read sentences and paragraphs to make sense of the writing.

I really can’t recommend this book. The writing makes it too difficult to read and it falls flat in almost every respect.