Book Review: Evo by Diane May

I’m excited to bring you today’s book review. It is one of those books I would have originally passed on if the author hadn’t contacted me. Now, I’m here to make sure you don’t pass it on.

Blurb

The premise for Evo by Diane May starts twenty years earlier in the United States when CIA agent, John Blake, realizes his daughter, Maya, is one of the unborn babies who underwent an illegal genetic experiment. Skip to present-day Verona where homicide detective, Livio Marchiori, is investigating The Hypnotist, a serial killer unlike any other. With The Hypnotist threatening to kill Marchiori’s love interest, Dr. Abby Jones, he is relieved when  Captain Victor Miller from Interpol walks into town and offers his assistance. However, Miller has his own agenda that ties back to that CIA experiment twenty years ago.

Review

Hats off to the author for such a fresh and creative story, and a debut novel, no less. There are many reasons why I enjoyed Evo. I liked the futuristic yet traditional elements of the story. The thoughts of designer babies and virus’ able to wipe out half the world’s population is downright scary, even more so considering the world is probably not as far from developing such things as we would like to think.

Evo is certainly not a book lacking action. How could it not with the inclusion of supervillains. Yes, I said supervillains because that is what The Hypnotist and “Doc” et al are. The mention of Doc leads me neatly into the topic of Evo‘s characters. There are no unnecessary characters in this book. Even when you think there is, they appear later on and play their vital role. They are reflective of everything about Evo, the storyline, the timeline, the locations, which all tie up neatly in the end, without being forced.

Perhaps a slightly controversial opinion, but Doc was actually my favourite character. He was downright creepy and had a hidden agenda I was longing to get to the bottom of, and when I did, it was worth the wait. In fact, it made Evo even better for me. Normally, I would have favoured Maya as a main character but I was left disappointed. She had to potential to be stronger and more fierce but I found her to be the damsel in distress too often for my liking.

While I would have liked to give Evo five out of five, at about 35% into the book a big gap seemed to occur. I hope this won’t cause any spoilers but it is at the point where the police are decoding the virus attack. At first, I thought the story began to be told in reverse chronological order but that seemed to switch around again and I felt I was missing something. Luckily, things picked up again and it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of Evo.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I can only thank Diane May for giving me the chance to review it. I’m looking forward to what she has to offer next.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.