Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: A flawed second novel about flawed characters.

After nearly giving up on Preston Falls several times, I finally completed the book to satisfy my curiosity about whether or not it had any point to it. It did not. No character is anything but a charicature, with the possible exception of a rural police chief who shows greater wisdom than, perhaps, the author intended. The plot-line, about an unhappy city guy, his unhappy wife, and their hapless children, seems to be dashing to its end, but is constantly running into marginal plot lines getting there. Perhaps the author needed to take advantage of the critical and financial success of his first book and just didn't take enough time with this. Don't bother with it.