Concrete Underground

Concrete Underground

By Moxie Mezcal

“An idealistic journalist sets out to expose corruption among the city's elite and soon finds himself immersed in a conspiracy of murder, blackmail, espionage, and human trafficking. Pitted against the enigmatic CEO of one of the world's largest tech companies, he must play a deadly game that threatens to unearth its players' darkest secrets. CONCRETE UNDERGROUND is postmodern pulp fiction - a gritty, labyrinthine murder mystery about identity and alienation in the digital age”. (Amazon.com Product Description)

Near the end of the book a character states her opinion of mysteries. “They always try to trick you, deliberately throwing extraneous plot lines just to confuse and misguide you, withholding important information until the last chapter, using vague and misleading descriptions so you don’t notice something that should be plain as day.” I can only assume that Mezcal was trying to be funny because this was the blueprint for his entire book. Confusing at points, melodramatic, and never enough information to make a good guess at what’s going on. The ending is, well, literally unforeseeable.

So that was the critique but, everything else aside, I couldn’t put this book down. The writing ticked me off at points and I wanted to slap most of the characters, however the plot was really enthralling. I turned every page because I really wanted to see what was on the next one and isn’t that what we look for in a good book?

Added Note:

The author begins each chapter with a playlist. I would assume that these playlists reflect the tone that the author wants the chapter to feel like. I both enjoyed and disliked the playlist for a variety of reasons. The great thing about books is that they have a life of their own and once they leave the author's hands he no longer has control over the words. As readers we insert our own experiences, images, and sounds into what we read. The playlists did not reflect the tone that I read the book with, so it was more of a hindrance to the story than a help. On the up side, some of the songs were not bad and by bands, like Neutral Milk Hotel and Throbbing Gristle, who I may never have come across otherwise.

Free for Kindle at Amazon.com