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| At least the cover art was good... |
As I began reading I was intrigued by the concept: two women, 20 years apart, explore the same dark mysteries of a very powerful bank. Page by page we learn more about the conspiracies and wrong-doings committed in the name of power and money, but there are some very big pieces of the story missing. Namely, resolution kind of did not happen in a lot of respects.
The only real surprise was finding out that the hints Pulley was dropping not only didn't lead where I thought they would, but actually didn't go anywhere at all. So much potential was wasted for shock value. Why build up so much back story for so many characters and then just.... drop the ball?
That aside, most of the characters were genuinely well written, except for her primary protagonist. Iris Latch is a twenty-something recent college graduate in 1998 who is thrilled to be getting time out of her cubicle to do field work at a local abandoned bank. The setup for this character was fantastic, and I really wanted to like her, but Pulley kept writing things that either did not fit with the character, or were so appallingly off base that I couldn't help being disappointed.
My biggest complaint was that Pulley had a chance at not just one phenomenal female lead, but two. Instead of using that platform, and a character that was poignantly defined as having been the top of her class in engineering school, she chose the boy-crazy bimbo approach. There was so much about Iris that I loved! She smoked too much, drank even more... she was reasonably flawed and very approachable as a character. The line of tolerance, however, was crossed when Pulley decided to write her as a twit whose thought patterns painted her as a dimwit with no common sense. TOP OF HER CLASS, but she has internal dialogue about how she hopes her mentor doesn't realize she has literally no idea what he's talking about (which is appalling given that even I understood what he was saying and I have never stepped foot near engineering school). Her character became very two dimensional and difficult to interact with on the page. Given that she was the primary protagonist, this was beyond disappointing.
Beatrice, a 16 year old in 1978, was far better written. She had a believable amount of naivety and an abundance of reluctant bravery. It became very clear from the get go that she was down on her luck and just trying to keep her head down to get by. Her aunt, who is not who she seems, has groomed Beatrice to take a role at a local bank in town. Through charm and a naive air, Beatrice lands the job. Not long into her position she is befriended by a feisty redhead named Max. Max knows things, too many things. When Max, who has become a sort of keeper of Beatrice, disappears, it is Ramone, a night security guard at the bank, that takes over looking out for Beatrice.
Fast forward a ways into the book, and what you have is a handful of decently written characters (less Iris), and a pretty captivating story. What do you expect to happen? *spoiler* Nothing happens. Sure, there's a big, scary gun fight right at the end, but ultimately there is no resolution to the majority of story arches Pulley introduces. The entire thing was like one huge fireworks display where the fuse went out at the last second. So very much potential, but the end just killed it.
A lot of people liked this book though, and even I would recommend it if there isn't something better on the shelf.
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