{"id":21367,"date":"2025-11-28T19:47:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T00:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21367"},"modified":"2025-11-28T19:47:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T00:47:36","slug":"no-safe-place-by-michael-ledwidge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21367","title":{"rendered":"‘No Safe Place,’ by Michael Ledwidge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Michael Ledwidge<\/strong> is a successful thriller writer who has collaborated several times with James Patterson. So he knows the formula for keeping readers turning pages. No Safe Place<\/a>, book 3 in a series about retired police detective Michael Gannon, makes that very plain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s possible to overdo the formula, at least in this reader\u2019s view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Gannon didn\u2019t want to retire as a New York cop, but he\u2019s doing his best to enjoy his free time. He especially enjoys fishing, which is what brought him back to his New England home town. To make things even more perfect, he\u2019s run into a girl he had a crush on in high school, now divorced and available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s before the bar where they\u2019re meeting is invaded by armed men, in search of the mayor\u2019s wife, who has decided to inform on her husband\u2019s illegal activities. Only she can\u2019t guess how very illegal those activities are, or how many powerful people are up to their elbows in the racket. Michael and the others would have no chance against them, except that Michael has a few tricks \u2013 and weapons \u2013 in his kit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writing in No Safe Place<\/em> wasn\u2019t bad in itself \u2013 the spelling and grammar were okay. But I got a strong feeling of first draft here anyway. The book feels as if it were written quickly, strictly following a template of dramatic beats. The chapters are very short, and switch jarringly back and forth between Michael (first person) and other characters, especially the villains. None of the villains has much depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I disliked the staccato jerkiness of the narrative, and I didn\u2019t believe the preposterous premise for a moment. This is junk food literature \u2013 easy to chew, highly flavored, zero nutrients. Quickly finished and forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not awful, and profanity was avoided. But I wasn\u2019t impressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Ledwidge is a successful thriller writer who has collaborated several times with James Patterson. So he knows the formula for keeping readers turning pages. No Safe Place, book 3 in a series about retired police detective Michael Gannon, makes that very plain. Unfortunately, it\u2019s possible to overdo the formula, at least in this reader\u2019s … Continue reading ‘No Safe Place,’ by Michael Ledwidge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[5780,5779,5781],"class_list":["post-21367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-michael-gannon","tag-michael-ledwidge","tag-no-safe-place"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21370,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21367\/revisions\/21370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}