Analysis & Review
Positive!
This story feels very real by taking you away to a small town,
with hunting.
Joe's moral compass is ideal, he is very heroic.
This is expressed in different ways as he is put in different situations.
This is a very interesting part of the story.
There is this whole bit where Joe is thinking that if people had a finite quantity of words to speak in their lifetime,
then their words would be more valueable.
People who say much,
but nothing of value,
would be silent.
In Joe's imagination,
those people ran out of their alloted quantity of words.
Constantly you can feel Joe's need, strain to provide for his family.
Women are flung at him, instead of breaking his vowes,
he acts like they/she is somebody's daughter/wife.
His loyalties are shown in his choices at work and home.
Critically
The plot though it is good, needs a few twists. I wanted more of an Ah-ha! moment. This book should never be in the mysteries section, don't read it for suspense value. After I was about 30 pages in, to around 150, I was just waiting for Joe to figure out what was made obvious to me. This novel left me wanting for a puzzle to put together, there was a satisfaction missing from overcoming that challenge.
Another separate point,
it was difficult to discern the time that the book was set in.
My first clue was about half way in when a woman was wearig jeans,
signaling that society was beyond skirts all the time.
Second clue,
the charachters use land-line phones when the plot really gets going.
The third is that at the end of the book,
a cell phone is offered with a job promotion.
I would have liked there to be a signal earlier in the text.
This is the first book to a whole series,
so the author may as well let the reader know.