Easy Read

 "I was in line behind this man, he was very skinny. I love skinny people, we are all God's children, but he says, 'How small is a small?'"

"It's small. The Mediums are medium, the Large is large. If you have to ask how small a small is you're not hungry enough, come back later. GET OUT OF THE LINE." 

The late John Pinette, at a Phoenix, AZ Dairy Queen.

I monitor my Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) dashboard periodically - meaning I look a couple times a day, to see what's cooking. Usually, it's "Eight-Balls." Zeroes. A few times a month I make a sale or three, or someone reads some pages. When your marketing budget is k-cups and internet access, even something weekly is worth celebrating. Then, there are moments...

Yesterday, someone picked up A Matter of Principle and read it. I mean, they read it. They blew through 477 pages (out of 497), the last twenty of which they polished off today. Holy cow.

There are several explanations for this much, this quickly. Here is the most plausible, derived from several comments and reviews from other James Greer novels.

Principle is an easy read.

How easy is easy?

Amy Painter is a straightforward kind of character. She is happy to share with the reader what's on her mind, and in her heart. She does hero things but doesn't require notice, or accolades. She is a professional without driving the point home unnecessarily.

And fully capable of making a point.

The story isn't complicated. It's believable, a reader can point to people they know who would do the things the characters are doing. They know people like Amy who have stood up when being counted mattered. Then, they look at the trade-offs in their lives and say:

"I'm not hungry enough."

I don't take "It's an easy read" personally. In fact, I glory in it. If it only takes you a day to see what Amy Painter does when confronted by bullies, it leaves you more time to discover what happens to Karen Sorenson when she goes undercover on a sailboat in the Bahamas.