ARC Review 

 

The Melody of Shattered Gold by James Michels 

 

I am privileged to have been chosen to receive and review an advanced copy of The Melody of Shatter Gold by James Michels. This is a mafia/crime thriller that is centered around several different crime families in New York City. 

 

War seems to always be simmering under the surface between the various crime families in NYC. Most often, there is a begrudging peace out of mutual benefit. But all that is going to change with the hasty actions of one underboss trying to move his family to the top of the food chain. 

 

I found this book to be kind of like potato chips. I would start to read and there would be a point where I would look down, realize I had just read 50 pages in what felt like the blink of an eye. Kind of like when you pop open a bag of chips intending to eat a few and the next thing you know, you’re staring at the bottom of the bag. 

I did find the story to be a little predictable. I do read quite a bit of thriller/psychological dramas so that could be why. 

The characters were almost all stereotypical representations of the various ethnicities associated with organized crime. Their actions were also typical of an organized crime themed book or TV show. 

 

One of the interesting things that I ran into with this book was that it is being narrated in the third person but follows many different characters. While this is normally not an issue for me, in the version I read, there are no page breaks or headings to denote that we are now following a different character. I had to be a little more vigilant about my character tracking than normal. 

It is possible that this is a formatting issue in the version I read but I think that some sort of page break or header when changing to a different character that is not already in the scene would be helpful in keeping the storyline straight. 

All the switching between multiple character storylines did make for a fast read. 

 

Something else to watch out for is the number of characters portrayed, many of whom were referred to by nicknames or aliases. For me personally, I think a character list at the beginning of each chapter, divided into the various represented families, would have been helpful in keeping everyone straight. With all the crime families involved and the shifting alliances, it would also be a good way to keep track of everything that was happening. 

 

While being as spoiler free as possible, I felt that the ending was fairly open. It definitely left an opportunity for books to follow. If not, I guess the ending could be seen as leaning more toward a “real life” portrayal. All in all, I wanted to know if there was going to be more in store for the Oro family. 

 

Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️