The Scopas Factor

Immediately within the first couple pages, readers are drawn in to an intense and mysterious tale. A young girl is introduced and her seemingly free-spirit, grasp the attention of the readers, because some men come into camp and very quickly, her mom, the Mud Woman disappears. Thus, the mystery of her disappearance begins and readers meet another character, Mike Hegan. Far from the refugee camp of the Mud Woman, Mike finds himself immersed in the disappearance of this woman, leaving the reader wondering how their lives and stories become intertwined. Once readers understand the characters and can make some sense of them, The Scopas Factor is a well-written and intense mystery. There are many tales of lies, deceit and secrets that make this book difficult to predict. I found myself on the edge of my seat, wanting to read more to try and figure out if Mike Hegan would be successful in uncovering how and why the disappearance of the Mud Woman took place. Because of the intense way the story sucks the readers in, time passes by quickly at the suspense of what will happen next.

This book took me a bit to get into since it follows different characters in the beginning than the main character. However, it’s set up is relevant to key aspects through the rest of the book. From the book description I thought the fiance, Diana, would be more absent, more of a plot device. On the contrary, she’s active and funny and makes a great counter to the more serious, grounded Hegan. It’s fun watching them get sucked into a circumstances they don’t want to care about, and then watching them figure out all the stray pieces and having to run all over creation to put those pieces together. Probably what was most interesting and unexpected is the art factor. The role of art and artists comes up a lot--reminiscent of the Da Vinci code in a way. As someone who enjoys art of all varieties, I enjoyed this very much. I give four stars because despite the engaging plot, witty characters and sharp dialogue, there is a lot of telling where I would prefer showing. The author obviously put in a lot of work on the dialogue and I wish they would have used it even more to expose information and character traits. Maybe that’s just a personal on my part.

Sports journalist-turned-writer Vincent Panettiere proves once again he is no stranger to weaving an intense story with a twist at every corner. He entertains and excites readers with his creative writing mastery and mind for intricate detail. As soon as readers open the book, they discover a world described in such detail it will seem real. Each sentence is painstakingly molded, but Panettiere doesn’t go overboard with the wording. He simple spins a tale while using just the right number of words and sentences. Panettiere uses one tactic forgotten by modern mystery writers – include the reader in the journey. The Scopas Factor is a must read for any mystery fan.