Review by BabylonBP -- White Jaguar by Preben Orman

BabylonBP · Post by **BabylonBP** » 31 May 2020, 08:44

[Following is a volunteer review of "White Jaguar" by Preben Orman.]

2 out of 4 stars

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Preben Ørmen's White Jaguar tells the story of Federale Marco Kante Nayal Espinosa who investigates the murder of the CEO of a high-tech company, Eduardo Garcia. He is led on a wild goose chase trying to figure out who committed the crime. He uncovers secret after secret, all the while trying to keep his own. Marco tries to do this best to follow the clues to their source, while his boss (who was elected into the position) Comisario Rigoberto Gonzales is pressuring him to solve the case quickly. His team consists of a rag tag group, containing a computer/science expert and several police officers. Jesus Vincente Hernandez Campo, or Chuy to his friends, is Nayal’s partner. The latter's quick quibs or the coroner's frank statements, concerning the increasing number of bodies, keep reading interesting.

I believe it is a thrilling whodunnit with fleshed-out characters, great plot twists and a surprising end. As a reader, I can clearly see that Ørmen has put in a lot of work to research and construct the story, which is always a pleasure to read. However, it was not really my cup of tea. I award the book two out of four stars.

I found it hard to get into the story. Both the author's writing style and some long-winded explanations made it hard for me to stay interested in the story. A lot of the technical jibber jabber slowed the story down unnecessarily. For me, it did not contribute to the overall story. After getting to around chapter 20, Nayal and Chuy visit the murder victim’s lab. A lot of time is spent explaining what the function of the research is, and what everything and everyone does. After a while it got to be a little boring and I must admit that I skipped a few passages. However, I acknowledge that some of the extra info is very interesting, such as the “history” lesson on the Kaibil, Guatemalan Special Forces Units and how they trained. Apart from the long explanations, the book was well-written and extremely well-edited.

Secondly, I believe the chapters should have been divided differently. I feel a new chapter should begin when the scene or pace (for example) are going to change. This book had too many chapters, and there was no clear discernible pattern to how the chapters were chosen. While chapters (and chapter titles) are supposed to be helpful, these confused me.

Furthermore, I thought that the storyline was a little cluttered. At some times in the book, too many things were going on at once. While it was very cool that Inspector Nayal is some sort of shaman, I think the story would not have suffered if he was not. The phenomenon is left a bit to the wayside, apart from two brief scenes. As a whole, the story contained too many red herrings. In the search for the killer, the overlapping storylines were meant to distract the reader from the real killer, but they made the story much more difficult to follow as well.

Lastly, I was very put off by the random Spanish words thrown into conversations, as all the words needed to be explained in English. The scene was already set, I was ready to believe the story was set in Mexico, until random Spanish words needed to be translated in English for a character I thought to be a native Spanish-speaker. I found it confusing. It made the dialogue less fluent and more difficult to read.

I would recommend White Jaguar to anyone who is a fan of thrilling detective novels containing a lot of misdirection and smoke and mirrors. It might sometimes be written in a style and way that is a little difficult to understand for younger readers, and therefore, I believe it might be better suited to people who read often or have some experience reading.

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White Jaguar
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moowshiri · Post by **moowshiri** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:45

It sounds like a very boring read. The unexplained Spanish words would put me off too. Thanks for the honest review.

inaramid · Post by **inaramid** » 05 Jun 2020, 07:37

Seems like there's a nice premise in there, though the long-winded narrative and cluttered plot would impact the reading experience. Thanks for the information!

Kanda_theGreat · Post by **Kanda_theGreat** » 09 Jun 2020, 20:16

It's a pity that such a beautiful storyline was poorly executed. I believe this book would rate better with another round of editing.
Thank you for your hoest review.

MeganDJ · Post by **MeganDJ** » 10 Jun 2020, 01:06

Wow, those names are a real mouthful! I can imagine that I will get confused quite quickly, and with the convoluted and cluttered storyline, it just doesn't sound like my cup of tea either. Thank you for the thoughtful review! Happy reading