Review of The Date Farm

[Kirstin Kanani]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Date Farm" by Jack Winnick.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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The Date Farm by Jack Winnick is the fourth book that follows FBI agent Lara Edmond and Mossad operative Uri Levin. Despite being part of a series, you can read it independently. While you will better understand the characters if you read the series in its entirety, it's unnecessary to enjoy the story, as any relevant information from past books is summarized in this one. In The Date Farm, the reader follows Lara and Uri as they try to beat the forces that have made attacks on United States soil multiple times.

I enjoyed several things about this book. One of the most enjoyable aspects was how well the different points of view blended to give the reader the best understanding of the book's events. It was nice knowing what everyone's motivations were, and I enjoyed trying to guess how the characters would try to outsmart one another. Despite giving the reader all this information, the author was still able to keep some elements of the plot a surprise.

There were a few things that I disliked. The main thing is the overall repetitiveness of the story. Throughout the book, characters frequently recount something we, as readers, just experienced. These frequent recaps slowed the pace of the novel down. Additionally, it made it feel like a much simpler book where pointing out the obvious is necessary. This was especially at odds with the author's frequent use of overly complex words. The language felt incredibly out of place, almost pretentious, and made the story seem less realistic. In addition, the terms stood out more, making repeated uses glaringly obvious. One of the worst offenders was Winnick's use of the word sumptuous. Winnick used it multiple times in a handful of pages, and they were all used to describe rooms on a yacht. The repetitiveness could be easily fixed by getting more in-depth with the descriptions of the book's setting.

Overall, I rate The Date Farm 3 out of 5 stars. It had some good parts, including some engaging action and little plot twists that I'm sure others will enjoy. However, repeating words and the over-explanation of the action lowered the book's quality. While reading, I also noticed a few minor errors and weird wording that detracted from the book's quality.

I think this book can be enjoyed by people who appreciate contemporary, military espionage-type stories. Readers should also be more mature. There are some descriptions of violence that, while not overly graphic, can be upsetting to some.

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The Date Farm
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