Review by rhendel -- The Date Farm by Jack Winnick

rhendel · Post by **rhendel** » 01 Jun 2020, 21:27

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

2 out of 4 stars

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The Date Farm by Jack Winnick is the fourth book in the Lara and Uri series. In this installment, Agents Lara and Uri are called into action after a horrific mass shooting at a Los Angeles mall. Shortly after starting the investigation, another terrorist attack on New York City occurs. When both Lara and Uri are captured by the terrorists, they find themselves simultaneously struggling to survive and trying to prevent an even bigger terrorist plot against the United States.

Overall, I consider this an average book. I’ve read two other books in this series that I loved, but this just didn’t live up to the standard I had come to expect. While the general storyline was compelling, and there were a few unexpected twists, I found this book to be much more predictable than the others. It felt like there was too much packed into the story which caused a lot of the issues to be resolved too quickly and easily. For instance, many of the challenges faced by Lara and Uri throughout their investigation concluded in the span of only a few pages. While these could have been suspenseful and impactful moments that allowed me to become more invested in what was at stake, they instead seemed like only minor speed bumps.

One thing I didn’t enjoy about this book was the lack of character development. I'm glad I had read other books in the series so that I had a strong foundation of who the main characters were. If I had been reading this as a standalone book, I don't think I would have been able to connect to most of the characters. At one point two new characters, named Miles and Mike, are introduced. Both characters only appear with each other for the majority of the book, so it was hard for me to keep them straight. Towards the end of the story, it became very important to know the difference between Miles and Mike, so I had to go back and re-read several chapters. Knowing how vital it was to be able to differentiate between the two, I’m not sure why the author didn’t just give them names that weren’t so easily confused.

As with the other books in this series, The Date Farm features a lot of detail on military operations. I’m sure some readers would really enjoy this aspect, however, as someone who’s not interested in the minutia of military vehicles or technology, I found myself skimming through a lot of those descriptions. I appreciate how knowledgeable the author is, but I wish he had spent less time writing about those specific military details and instead devoted more time to character development.

Overall, I rate The Date Farm 2 out of 4 stars. While the overarching storyline was compelling, I didn’t enjoy how most of the plot points were resolved so quickly. I wish there had been more character development so I felt more invested in the characters and their outcomes. I did not find any typos in the book, so it seems professionally edited. I would not recommend this as a standalone book, but readers who are invested in the Lara and Uri series would likely enjoy reading this installment. Since the book is centered around religious terrorism, there are details of violence and derogatory language that some may offensive.

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The Date Farm
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