Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Uneven

With Steve Martini's The Arraignment, I found a very uneven mystery. The characters seem flat and shallow, although maybe you have to read from the beginning of the Paul Madriani series to get more background on recurring characters. The writing seems rather bland and dry. Some parts were very predictable and I figured out the villan halfway through the book (something I don't usually do). The first half of the book showed great promise, and then proceeded to sink with each successive page. The plot was very convoluted, and even at the end when things were somewhat explained, it still seemed totally unbelievable. Too many questions were left unanswered and the entire plot didn't make sense. As someone who reads dozens and dozens of mysteries every year, I wasn't impressed with Mr. Martini.