Review - Hell to Pay by Zen DiPietro

Cabot Layne and his unlikely team just seem to keep getting sucked deeper into their involvement with the Planetary Alliance (PAC) as everyone seeks to avoid the impeding conflict with the invading Barony coalition. The situation makes for unlikely bedfellows, such as the PAC and notorious crime boss Ditnya Caine.

While “Hell to Pay” still features the finely tuned writing of this series, it doesn’t really advance the story or the characters very far. In fact, at the end of this installment of the series, I had the distinct impression that it had just taken me in a full circle; finishing off in a situation that was very similar to where it started.

Although Cabot, Nagali and Omar are all ‘intersting’ characters, none of them have reached the point where I care about them all that much, and the relationship between Cabot and Nagali still seems forced. There’s something about them that just isn’t gelling for me, and I hope it’s not simply that all of the main characters are, apparently, rather decidedly straight.

Whatever the issue is, it’s become clear that this series is not for me. I still think the writing is excellent; it’s just not speaking to me. So, it should come as no surprise that I have no plans to continue reading the next book. There just isn’t anything in it to keep my interest.

“Hell to Pay” is available from Amazon.