This was another really quick read, of which i am most appreciative of. I have no idea where this came from or why i even had it on the shelf......and i never read the jacket of this somewhat shabby library discard hc......I just started reading......and then i was done! Beyond being fast paced, which is worth at least a 1/2-star to begin with, I found myself shaking my head at the really awful decision-making skills of our lead character Stuart Harris. This is very bumpy ride that had me turning pages rather swiftly, but the bumps were all his fault......sort of. A complicated story of hack newspaper journalism, corporate corruption, illicit drug trade, murder, and smoky drug dens......most of which our hapless main man really had no business being involved with at all, but he just could not help himself. So for every situation that captivated my interest positively, I was simultaneously turned off by his bumbling ridiculous emotional reactive decisions......a wash of sorts.....but slightly fun, and quick....so 3.5 it is. And my dust jacket tells me that Philip Reid is a pseudonym for 2 different collaborating authors....which may explain my back & forth-ed-ness.... ( )