BOOK REVIEW: The MacGuffin by Michael Craft

The MacGuffin is a literary fiction mystery.

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Questover Press (July 17, 2011)
• Language: English

Cooper Brant is an architect, for his father-in-laws energy company, and he finds himself surrounded in mystery.  His father was murdered fifteen years ago for his work in creating a machine that will generate power without the use of fossil fuels.  Cooper was the first person upon the scene and finds himself still a suspect in his father's murder.

Arcie Madeara is the cop hot on his trail, she has reason to believe that Cooper knows more about his fathers death than he lets on and begins to hound Coop, however, as the two draw closer there is more than mystery in the air as the two come to find companionship in one another's company.

Bix Emery is the head of Emery Energy, a no-nonsense cowboy who oozes power and everyone does his bidding.  Bix comes across as a fatherly figure, helping Cooper gain his footing in the company and grooming him to become the President one day.

I would give The MacGuffin a 3.5 stars out of five.  While I enjoyed the read, I was greatly disappointed with the ending wrap-up.  I felt it fell flat and left the reader with an emotionless outcome to a decent mystery build.  I found the dialogue forced in some instances and some of it lacked interest. 

I wasn't overly impressed with Detective Arcie Madera and thought her honing skills of deduction were seriously lacking and have no idea what her overall beauty has to do with this mystery.  It took me about a quarter way through the book before I started to feel the characters and their plight.  It was then that the characters became likeable as each of their personalities began to be separate from one another.

If you like mysteries, then you will enjoy this one, I just like a lot less predictability in my mysteries and this one didn't even leave me guessing.  As the story unfolds the reader is left with a fairly decent murder mystery as you follow each of the characters to their final destinations.

SYNOPSIS:
A cold-case murder fifteen years ago halted promising developments in the quest for clean energy when the rumored prototype of a groundbreaking water engine was stolen or destroyed. Now the race is on to repower America, and Cooper Brant, still grieving that long-ago murder of his father, suddenly finds his family visited by a second violent death, raising the stakes to unearth lost secrets. When Coop discovers how the two crimes are linked, a grim message becomes clear. He’s next.

  **  Reviewed by me...as I see it~!!  **