Iron River left much to be desired. Actually, it left everything that could possibly be desired. Normally, I could get through a 300 page book after a few hours, but Iron River, oh no. In fact, as of 1/11/17, I haven't even finished the book. First of all, the story has 2 main characters. Neither of which I knew the names of, due to the over-abundance of unimportant characters who were constantly being introduced. One of these main characters is named Charlie Hood, one of the most under-developed heroes i've ever seen. The only development he gets is 2 letters to his parents. The other main character, Mr. I-don't-seem-to-have-a-first-name Pace, is actually interesting, holds to the motives that the author originally intended for him, and is developed. Another huge problem with the story was that the plot was extremely difficult to follow. At the part of the book im currently at, Hood was in mexico hunting cartel leaders, then he was at a wedding, then he was high at said wedding, and now I don't even know where he is. To compliment the poorly developed hero, is an equally, if not more, under-developed villian. The antagonist is a Cartel Leader who has only been mentioned a few times in the story. The only story that Armenta, the antagonist, has gotten is that he one of the most dangerous men in the world. Guess what though, he has not commited a single violent crime in the entire story. The only crimes that he has personally commited is the purchasing of illicit weapons and suppresors. The more elaborate and interesting antagonists are the members of a group called the Zetas, who are working with Armenta, or maybe against Armenta. I honestly don't know, there are way too many different characters so I might be confusing Armenta with some other cartel leader. In short, this book has been a chore to read, and I could not recommend it to anyone.