Plugged by Eoin Colfer - Book Review

Author: Eoin Colfer

Genre: Thriller

Recommended to: Colfer fans and nobody else

Recommended age group: Adults (author’s recommendation)

Rating: 3/10

Publisher’s write-up:

‘”Once I’ve hair, I’ll be happy”. At least that’s what Irish ex-army sergeant Daniel McEvoy tells himself.

As doorman at a seedy New Jersey casino, dealing with unpleasant customers, a psychotic neighbour and a receding hairline are all part of Dan’s daily grind. Then he has a particularly bad day. Not only does his friend, dodgy doctor Zeb Kronski, mysteriously disappear, but Dan’s sometime-girlfriend, casino hostess Connie, is found with a hole in her head.

Dan’s a hard man with a soft centre and he’s been framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Drawn into a deadly chain of events where a cop-killing female cop becomes his only ally and he makes an enemy of ruthless drug-dealer Mike Madden, Dan discovers that his battle against baldness is the least of his worries.’

Eoin Colfer, the author of the best selling Artemis Fowl series, tried to come out of his adolescence, and when I say adolescence, I mean Eoin Colfer, the author. Although he mainly writes fantasy, he did try to come out of that world on three occasions, them being the work of Half Moon Investigations, Airman and the continuation of the late Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s guide to Galaxy, And Another Thing. However, this is Colfer’s first original work meant for adults and is also his crime debut.

Review

Plugged is a story about an ex-military man who had served the Irish Army Daniel McEvoy and is now just a doorman at a casino in a fictitious New Jersey town, Cloisters. Apparently he has no problems, with only tonsorial concerns, as he looks like a seventy year old due to his baldness; until one day when he picks a fight with a certain influential lawyer. Since then, his colleague and girlfriend, Connie is found dead, his former employer and friend, Doctor Zeb Kronski goes missing, presumably dead, his house is ransacked and the worst part is that he is the prime suspect is Connie's murder case. He is being chased by a very dangerous drug dealer and the certain lawyer whom he had insulted at the casino. The only person on Dan’s side is a female police detective, a sort of ally who’d make you prefer your enemy. But Dan himself is a very dangerous fellow, who has undergone rigid military training but at the same time, has some psychological problems, such as, his missing friend’s personality was in his mind, created out of his imagination and had conversations with him.

While Colfer is to be appreciated for trying to display his versatility and that is probably the only reason for which he needs to be appreciated for, as well. I felt that the plot was bad, to say the least, and the sequence of events occasionally made me wonder whether there was a plot at all. The writing was dull and I guess the author thinks that if he uses a couple of swear words in every page, he has successfully written a novel for adults. When I read a couple of pages from Ian Rankin’s ‘Strip Jack’, I felt, ‘this is the way in which a crime / thriller novel ought to be written. What Colfer has written is absolute nonsense’.

I couldn’t differentiate between the plot and the sub-plot, probably there were two plots but they had one thing in common, both were lousy. I guess this is the first time Colfer has thought of setting his story somewhere outside the British Isles but, it wouldn’t have made a difference whether he had it in US or anywhere else since in any case, it is taking place at a fictitious suburb and I could hardly see anything American in the characters who were in the novel.

The bottom-line is that Plugged is that it is a very silly and childish thriller and just an overpriced novel which I shan’t recommend to anyone and the current thriller writers have need not fear about Colfer at all if this is going to be his standard.

Summary

While some might say that I’m being too harsh on Colfer since this is his first novel for adults, personally, I’ve very high expectations on Eoin Colfer. His Artemis Fowl series was the work that triggered the reading interest in me, who till then had been very sceptical about the particular hobby and it could be said that Astute is there today only because of Colfer. While I read several reviews before reading any novel, I had promised myself that I shall not read any reviews and the review I write for Plugged would be completely my own.

I have very high expectations on the upcoming last Artemis Fowl novel, that is due to come in another three days, 10^th July, 2012 that is. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be as disappointing as Plugged.

I’d give this novel a rating of 3/10 and I could perhaps say that I’m being a little generous while I’m doing so. Nevertheless, I shall not write Colfer off completely as his first Artemis Fowl novel by itself wasn’t all that impressive but he could pick up in the upcoming novels and I hope he manages to lodge a strong comeback in his next thriller novel if at all he decides to write one again.

Have a nice day,

Andy