Carolyn is a 4 year old girl with a very rare inherited genetic disorder called CIPA - Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. This means that she does not feel pain, hence the title of this novel. Throw into the mix a secret organisation which wants to exploit this condition and we have the makings of this far fetched thriller.
This is Derek’s debut novel and he clearly tries very hard. The plot develops at a steady place with lots of back story and positive character development. The workings of the secret organisation are cleverly written with lots of grey areas making you wonder who the good guys are and who are rogues.
So the basic idea of this novel is rather good but I found this novel to be just an okay 3 star read. Although the building blocks were there the story was told with a very heavy overuse of cliches. One or two trusted cliches would have been okay but this was constant through the dialogue between characters. It was like watching an episode of Catchphrase on television.
Also although the plot was good, the action was very far fetched. Yes, the general public can be quite altruistic but never going so far out of their way like these characters! Then there is the violence and the lack of morality to consider.
Altogether I found Painless to be a 3 star okay read. It did not excel in anyway. If it was a television drama, it would be one that just washes over you. Readers want a little more from their reading pleasure rather than finishing the book and thinking that was okay.
Painless is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was first published in 2009.
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