Status Updates From City for Ransom

This is just awful. Candidate for worst i've read this year. I'd have stopped already if I hadn't had so much trouble finding a book for the Gilded Age category in the historical mystery setting challenge.

Finished the first chapter and we're not off to a good start. The dialogue is boring and stilted, the metaphors aren't so much mixed as ripped to shreds and it's all so transparent and so so tedious. Hoping this finds its groove or it's going to be a looooong walk to the end.