Two out of three ain't bad

Lee Child's Killing Floor and Die Trying are awesome reads. I am sad to say that the third novel in his series, Tripwire, is at best a mediocre read. While reading it, I was in the ideal thriller reading environment, sitting on a chair in a condo facing the beach. If a thriller doesn't work there, it is a bad sign. This book diverges from the format set in the prior two. The first two are action-oriented with many characters and fast paced plot. This story is a mystery which takes place on a much smaller canvass. This slows down the story quite a bit and ended up losing me.

Another problem is that one of Child's great stregths is misused. His description of how one accomplishes a technical task, like picking locks or casing a building for breaking and entering. His descriptions are indepth, no matter what the topic. In this book, he ends up describing any matter of boring topics such as how rooms and houses are decorated.

I'm not going to give up on Child as the first two books were so excellent, but if the rest of the books are most like Tripwire, then I am going to be really sad.