I won a copy of The Hood with No Hands (Mister Rainbow #1) by C.S. Boag from a Firstreads giveaway. Regardless of me getting a copy for free, these are my honest thoughts on the book. When I first entered the giveaway, it was a book that sort of fascinated me and one I really wanted to win. It's kind of a pity that it's taken me so long to get around to reading it.
Essentially the book is set in New South Wales, Australia and about a man named Rainbow, who is a private detective. In this novel, he's been hired to help a woman, Sally Kane, find out what's been going on with her husband. She can't describe him exceptionally well, only that he's normal and nothing particular stands out. Through his investigation, Rainbow travels far and wide for information about this mysterious man, name David Jones, but nothing to do with the department store. Through his journey, we meet all kinds of interesting characters, including the titular Hood with No Hands and eventually, we find out what this Mr. Jones has been hiding.
The writing style was certainly unique. There were portions which seemed quick and snappy, which I found interesting. However, in the portions that weren't like that, the author dragged on a little in explanation and sometimes it just seemed a little dull. The majority of the book is meant to seem reminiscent of old private detective media, like the old books and movies of decades before. In some places, it does work well; I'm a little bit knowledgeable of those types of stories and movies so I understood it reasonably well. However, in some places, it was difficult to understand some of the slang because of the very same point. The plot was semi-original. I've seen various tv shows and movies with similar story lines. However, as I was reading through it, the author didn't let on much information at each point, so it was difficult to be able to determine future occurrences. It wasn't until later on in the book that it all came together and the events of Jones' past were finally revealed.
As for characters, I found many of them to be interesting. A lot of them seemed like they might be based on certain stereotypes, but they had certain quirks and characteristics that made them seem quite fresh. Some of the characters did kind of become tiresome towards the later portions of the novel. Though in the beginning I was intrigued by Sally Kane, I later found her to be somewhat annoying. Though I liked the aunt character, I think she was in the book a reasonable amount of time and would like to see more of her in the other novels of the series.
Overall, it was a good book. I didn't enjoy all of the book, admittedly. Regardless, I did like the majority. Like I said above, I think that it was sort of based a little too much on other storylines and characters, as well as that type of detective novel. However, I think the author has turned it all into something fairly original. I think it's worth four stars. It's a series I would like to continue reading.