Hah. There have been many contemporary novels I've read in recent years that left me feeling that either the author was a short story writer - or that if they were not, they should have been. There's a subtly different skillset involved in writing novels and some newer writers don't quite seem to have it nailed down yet. (Sometimes I wonder if fanfic is part of that too.)

A book that lingers is a book with merit indeed! I'm downloading the Kindle sample right now so I don't forget it.