This one was a page turner. I was so hooked right from the word go with this one.

The story was narrated by a few different characters. It jumped back and forth, but it didn't seem choppy. The story just goes on, but from a different perspective. It wasn't like it would switch to a new character and rehash what the last character just told us.

The writing was good. There was only one thing that bothered me, when a character is talking the author would use Said Shaw instead of Shaw Said. But that was really the only thing I didn't like.

I liked the beginning, it gave us enough info about the characters to pull me into the story, without giving so much detail that it became mundane. It follows the Boatwright family and then friends Shaw and Romeo. The Boatwrights win the lottery and that's when Shaw and Romeo really enter the picture.

The suspense in this novel doesn't come from not knowing what's going on. Quite the opposite, we know what's going on right from the word go. The suspense comes from hoping that someone will slip and everyone else will know what is going on. I would say it's more psychological that physical suspense.

The ending threw me for a loop. And while the last passage confused me a little it still was a great ending.

Overall good writing and a great story.

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Shaw and Romeo are on the run from their hometown in Ohio. They did something they shouldn't of at their job, so now they are heading south. They are hoping to get some work on the boats in the Florida Keys. When Romeo's car starts pulling a bit, Shaw turns off the freeway into a local gas station. They are in some small town in Georgia and the gas station is filled with news and television vans. Curious, Shaw asks the clerk what all the hubbub is about, and she explains that they sold the winning lotto ticket; the jackpot.

Shaw gets it in his head that he wants, no he deserves, a piece of that golden pie and initiates his own investigation until he figures out who the winners are. A local family, The Boatwrights won the whole 318 million. With Romeo's help, Shaw approaches the family and has them terrorized into sharing that money with him. He tells them that if they try anything fishy, Romeo will kill members of their family and friends.

RAVENS is suspenseful, full of drama, and eerie. You come to know the Boatwrights as well as Shaw and Romeo. What drives people to do what they do is simply amazing. Green is a master of this thrilling mystery and the writing speaks for itself. Must read! Absolutely hard to put down.

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I saw a blurb about the book, mentioning the characters were from Piqua, OH, my home town. As good as the story is, living in the hometown of the villans becomes difficult in the geographical errors for this town, though it does often suck as bad as the main characters make it out to be. There is much detail to the setting of the story, that town is well defined, and I feel I could almost map out that town with google earth. (There is even thanks given to the actual police of Brunswick) The only two accurate parts about Piqua would be the levy, where I have also watched meteor showers from, like the main characters, and we have a Hollow park. It's not the easiest park to get to, and most of the times I hear about similar things to the book were never at that park. There are a number of bridges, none are Vandemark. I don't even think there is a bridge on Vandemark road, which is in the next town to the north. For someone from the area, the amount of clarity on the details for the main part of the story is jarred from the lack of the details for this area. It's something a few minutes of editing could fix, and really make it a lot more solid.

Overall, it is a good book, but if you are from Piqua, it leaves a bit of a bitter taste. Again, not because many of the local kids think that Piqua does indeed suck, but the details are so wrong it makes it hard to believe. In a town with what seems like 20+ parks, over 6 bridges, and a few former fast food places, the author could have really done better with the background details.

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