Bruce Walker became a cop so that he could protect the defenseless. He grew up in an abusive home and he's determined to help as many victims and put as many criminals in jail as he can. He's also determined not to follow in his father's footsteps. He knows that abused children can become abusers themselves. He's seen it not only in his work, but with his two brothers. Bruce feels that the only way he can end the cycle of abuse in his family is by maintaining absolute control of himself and avoiding relationships.
His determination is tested when he meets Karin Jorgenson while working on a case. They feel an immediate connection that they both want to pursue, but Bruce can't bring himself to let down his guard. As a therapist working with abuse victims Karin understand the dangers posed by abusers, but she trusts her own judgment about Bruce. The question is whether or not Bruce can learn to trust her, and more importantly himself. He wants to try, but the case that brought them together may ultimately pull them apart.
This book had a lot going on. The obstacles that Bruce and Karin face aren't trivial. This isn't the same old same old where the hero is avoiding relationships because one woman done him wrong and now he just can't trust females. He's a control freak with a lot of unresolved issues. He knows that he can't have a meaningful relationship if he doesn't let down his guard, but he's so fearful of his past that he's paralyzed. Karin believes in him, but she can't make his choices for him and if she wants to be his lover she can't allow herself to fall into the role of being his therapist. I think that would have been plenty of conflict, especially for a category-length book, but Man Behind the Cop included not one, but two significant subplots.
The first is the case the brings Bruce and Karin together. One of Karin's clients was murdered by her abusive husband who then took their children and went on the run. Bruce is worried that the man may kill the children and feels that it's his responsibility to find them in time. The second subplot involves a crisis with Bruce's Little Brother, Trevor. Bruce has been Trevor's Big Brother for several years. His mother is an addict and his father is out of the picture because of past abuse so Bruce is the only stability that he has. When Trevor's mom goes missing and is presumed dead his father comes back into his life, claiming to have cleaned up his act. Bruce has to decide if he should step back and give the two a chance to form a bond, or stay close to protect Trevor from further harm.
For me all of this added up to an interesting book about Bruce's journey, but it didn't really work for me as a romance. All the time spent on Trevor and the hunt for the kidnapped children left too little time for Bruce and Karin as a couple. I was left feeling that I hadn't seen enough of them together to believe that their issues had been resolved in the time frame of the book, which only spanned a few weeks. The book was well written and involving, so I would be interested to read more of this author's work to see if they work better for me as romances.
Grade: B-
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
2009 TBR Challenge for October: The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
October Challenge: Horror
It's April 1941 SS Officer Erich Kaempffer is a man on his way up. He's preparing to begin a plum assignment setting up a new death camp in Ploiesti, Romania. After serving for a year at Auschwitz he feels confident that he's the right man to increase efficiency by building the new camp and he's looking forward to the task.
Unfortunatley for Officer Kaempffer he has made enemies on his quick rise through the ranks of the SS and there are those who would love to see him fail. As a result he is given a mission to complete before going to Ploiesti. He must take two squads of his einsatzkommandos and check on an Army unit sent to guard an isolated pass in the Transylvanian alps. The unit was sent to occupy an ancient stone structure overlooking the pass, which the locals refer to as the Keep. It should have been a routine, even boring, assignment but within a week of their arrival their leader, Captain Klaus Woermann, sent a disturbing message to headquarters. It read only:
Kaempffer has a negative history with the Army officer and looks forward to succeeding where Woermann has apparently failed. However, when he arrives at the Keep he finds that something is indeed killing the men and it does not seem to be human. Rumors are running rampant that the killer is a vampire. The already desperate situation is made worse by the fact that the two officers are barely able to tolerate each other and there is almost no concrete information available about the history of the Keep.
The local innkeeper finally suggests that they bring in Professor Theodor Cuza, a scholar who has spent time at the Keep and knows the history of the region. Woermann enjoys the irony of the fact that their only hope is a Jewish professor, but he worries about what Kaempffer will do if Cuza is unable to provide the answers they need. He's especially concerned about the fact that Cuza is in such poor health that his daughter Magda must travel with him. The Keep is a military barracks and even under the best of circumstances it's no place for a lone woman. Tensions are already incredibly high in the Keep and the two newest residents may make the complex situation impossible to control.
Unbeknownst to the people at the Keep there is one more player in the unfolding drama. A man with red hair and blue eyes knows what has awakened in the Keep. He'll travel thousands of miles to meet the destiny he knows awaits him, and possibly more that he does not expect. The question is whether he'll arrive before it's too late to prevent the evil from spreading beyond the pass.
I went through a Steven King phase in high school, but since then I've read very little horror, so I initially thought about selecting a random book from my TBR for this month. Then I remembered that I'd gotten several recommendations over the years for F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series and decided to finally give it a try. The Repairman Jack books are an offshot of a series known as The Adversary Cycle, and The Keep is the first book in that series so I decided to start there.
I felt that The Keep did what I think a good horror novel should do. It created atmosphere, suspense and a sense of the creepy and made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen. I liked the idea of 20th Century evil pitted against much older evil and the ways that evil finds to manipulate the humans for it's own purposes. Unfortunatley some of the characterization wasn't as good as I would have liked. A couple of the key characters fell flat and there's a romantic subplot that didn't work as well as it needed to. One other thing worth noting is that the body count remains fairly low until near the end of the book. That was fine with me since I don't like a lot of blood and gore, but I know some horror fans don't agree and would likely find this disappointing.
Grade: B
Will I read the next book in the series?: Yes. I found this book interesting enough to be curious about where the story goes next. Also, the next book in The Adversary Cycle is The Tomb, which is where Repairman Jack makes his first appearance.
It's April 1941 SS Officer Erich Kaempffer is a man on his way up. He's preparing to begin a plum assignment setting up a new death camp in Ploiesti, Romania. After serving for a year at Auschwitz he feels confident that he's the right man to increase efficiency by building the new camp and he's looking forward to the task.
Unfortunatley for Officer Kaempffer he has made enemies on his quick rise through the ranks of the SS and there are those who would love to see him fail. As a result he is given a mission to complete before going to Ploiesti. He must take two squads of his einsatzkommandos and check on an Army unit sent to guard an isolated pass in the Transylvanian alps. The unit was sent to occupy an ancient stone structure overlooking the pass, which the locals refer to as the Keep. It should have been a routine, even boring, assignment but within a week of their arrival their leader, Captain Klaus Woermann, sent a disturbing message to headquarters. It read only:
Request immediate relocation.
Something is murdering my men.
Kaempffer has a negative history with the Army officer and looks forward to succeeding where Woermann has apparently failed. However, when he arrives at the Keep he finds that something is indeed killing the men and it does not seem to be human. Rumors are running rampant that the killer is a vampire. The already desperate situation is made worse by the fact that the two officers are barely able to tolerate each other and there is almost no concrete information available about the history of the Keep.
The local innkeeper finally suggests that they bring in Professor Theodor Cuza, a scholar who has spent time at the Keep and knows the history of the region. Woermann enjoys the irony of the fact that their only hope is a Jewish professor, but he worries about what Kaempffer will do if Cuza is unable to provide the answers they need. He's especially concerned about the fact that Cuza is in such poor health that his daughter Magda must travel with him. The Keep is a military barracks and even under the best of circumstances it's no place for a lone woman. Tensions are already incredibly high in the Keep and the two newest residents may make the complex situation impossible to control.
Unbeknownst to the people at the Keep there is one more player in the unfolding drama. A man with red hair and blue eyes knows what has awakened in the Keep. He'll travel thousands of miles to meet the destiny he knows awaits him, and possibly more that he does not expect. The question is whether he'll arrive before it's too late to prevent the evil from spreading beyond the pass.
I went through a Steven King phase in high school, but since then I've read very little horror, so I initially thought about selecting a random book from my TBR for this month. Then I remembered that I'd gotten several recommendations over the years for F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series and decided to finally give it a try. The Repairman Jack books are an offshot of a series known as The Adversary Cycle, and The Keep is the first book in that series so I decided to start there.
I felt that The Keep did what I think a good horror novel should do. It created atmosphere, suspense and a sense of the creepy and made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen. I liked the idea of 20th Century evil pitted against much older evil and the ways that evil finds to manipulate the humans for it's own purposes. Unfortunatley some of the characterization wasn't as good as I would have liked. A couple of the key characters fell flat and there's a romantic subplot that didn't work as well as it needed to. One other thing worth noting is that the body count remains fairly low until near the end of the book. That was fine with me since I don't like a lot of blood and gore, but I know some horror fans don't agree and would likely find this disappointing.
Grade: B
Will I read the next book in the series?: Yes. I found this book interesting enough to be curious about where the story goes next. Also, the next book in The Adversary Cycle is The Tomb, which is where Repairman Jack makes his first appearance.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Nameless by Debra Webb
When Vivian Grace seventeen she was kidnapped by a serial killer known as "Nameless" and was forced to kill him in order to escape. She has worked hard to get past that experience and to make a life for herself protecting other victims. She's now a rookie FBI agent determined to succeed at her job and advance in the Bureau. She already feels somewhat thwarted in that ambition because her mentor arranged to have her sent to the Birmingham field office instead of the higher profile assignment she requested. He's concerned that a Vivian's past makes her too vulnerable to work high profile cases, but there's nothing he can do to protect her when a local kidnapping turns into exactly the kind of high pressure case he'd hoped to shield Vivian from. In spite of his wishes, and her own nightmares, Vivian is determined to save the kidnapped child. To do that she reaches out for help from an agency legend.
FBI agent Ryan McBride focused all his attention on his work as a hostage negotiator. He had a perfect record, working on the most difficult cases, until a kidnapping went horribly wrong and the young victim was killed. As a result McBride was made the scapegoat for his boss' mistake and lost his job. His response was to go to Key West and crawl into a bottle and three years later he still hasn't crawled back out. When Vivian shows up on his doorstep his first impulse is to send her away, but when he hears the details of the case he's unable to resist returning to the job he was never quite able to let go. Soon he and Vivian find themselves drawn into a puzzle created by a psychopath determined to play on both their pasts to win a game where he's the only one who knows the rules.
This is yet another suspense novel that devotes a chunk of the book to the killer's POV. I would have been much happier without that, but it all in all it wasn't too bad and the rest of the story was interesting enough that I was still able to enjoy the book. The disgraced former agent out to redeem himself and the former victim looking to prove herself are both common character in suspense novels so both Ryan and Vivian could easily have come across as tired cliches, but I found them both interesting.
I think that was partially because the situation had more layers and shades of gray than are sometimes present in this kind of book. For example, the bureaucracy wasn't painted as all bad and the rogue hero as all good. It's made clear that Ryan's former boss screwed him over, but it's also clear that he made that easy to do by pushing too hard and breaking too many rules. Vivian's boss is a a jerk, but he's genuinely dedicated to his job and doesn't allow his reservations about Ryan to interfere. Even Vivian's mentor isn't all bad. He does manipulate her career for his own selfish reasons,but he's also right about her needing to deal more effectively with her past. The only thing that really disappointed me was the ending, which hinged on tying several thread of the story together in a way that was far too convenient for my tastes.
Grade: B-
FBI agent Ryan McBride focused all his attention on his work as a hostage negotiator. He had a perfect record, working on the most difficult cases, until a kidnapping went horribly wrong and the young victim was killed. As a result McBride was made the scapegoat for his boss' mistake and lost his job. His response was to go to Key West and crawl into a bottle and three years later he still hasn't crawled back out. When Vivian shows up on his doorstep his first impulse is to send her away, but when he hears the details of the case he's unable to resist returning to the job he was never quite able to let go. Soon he and Vivian find themselves drawn into a puzzle created by a psychopath determined to play on both their pasts to win a game where he's the only one who knows the rules.
This is yet another suspense novel that devotes a chunk of the book to the killer's POV. I would have been much happier without that, but it all in all it wasn't too bad and the rest of the story was interesting enough that I was still able to enjoy the book. The disgraced former agent out to redeem himself and the former victim looking to prove herself are both common character in suspense novels so both Ryan and Vivian could easily have come across as tired cliches, but I found them both interesting.
I think that was partially because the situation had more layers and shades of gray than are sometimes present in this kind of book. For example, the bureaucracy wasn't painted as all bad and the rogue hero as all good. It's made clear that Ryan's former boss screwed him over, but it's also clear that he made that easy to do by pushing too hard and breaking too many rules. Vivian's boss is a a jerk, but he's genuinely dedicated to his job and doesn't allow his reservations about Ryan to interfere. Even Vivian's mentor isn't all bad. He does manipulate her career for his own selfish reasons,but he's also right about her needing to deal more effectively with her past. The only thing that really disappointed me was the ending, which hinged on tying several thread of the story together in a way that was far too convenient for my tastes.
Grade: B-
Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley
In the 1920's Italian playwright Galeazzo D'Ascanio wrote a play called Il Prezzo for his mistress, the beautiful English actress Celia Sands. Il Prezzo was expected to be D'Ascanio's dramatic masterpiece but it was never performed because Celia disappeared the night before it was scheduled to open.
Decades later Galeazzo's grandson, Alessandro 'Alex' D'Ascanio, has decided to finally stage Il Prezzo. Working through the family Trust he's restoring Il Piacere, his grandfather's estate on Lake Garda, and intends to have the play performed at the outdoor theater on the grounds. He believes he has found exactly the right lead---a struggling young English actress named Celia Sands.
The role could be her big break, but Celia is reluctant to accept a job that's offered to her only because of her name. Her mentor Rupert has been hired to direct Il Prezzo and he persuades her that the opportunity is too good to pass up. The two of them go to Italy and take up residence at Il Piacere along with the rest of the cast. Rehearsals go well and everyone involved soon has high hopes for the opening. However, events soon seem to be mirroring the first attempt to stage Il Prezzo and Celia begins to fear that someone or something doesn't want to the play to open.
I think that I expected this to have a stronger romantic element than it did. Celia and Alex do have an attraction, but it's not center stage in the story. Once I adjusted to that I was able to enjoy the book for what it is---an involving Gothic puzzle. The pace is fairly slow, but the story never seemed to drag and it held my attention all the way to the end.
Grade: B+
Decades later Galeazzo's grandson, Alessandro 'Alex' D'Ascanio, has decided to finally stage Il Prezzo. Working through the family Trust he's restoring Il Piacere, his grandfather's estate on Lake Garda, and intends to have the play performed at the outdoor theater on the grounds. He believes he has found exactly the right lead---a struggling young English actress named Celia Sands.
The role could be her big break, but Celia is reluctant to accept a job that's offered to her only because of her name. Her mentor Rupert has been hired to direct Il Prezzo and he persuades her that the opportunity is too good to pass up. The two of them go to Italy and take up residence at Il Piacere along with the rest of the cast. Rehearsals go well and everyone involved soon has high hopes for the opening. However, events soon seem to be mirroring the first attempt to stage Il Prezzo and Celia begins to fear that someone or something doesn't want to the play to open.
I think that I expected this to have a stronger romantic element than it did. Celia and Alex do have an attraction, but it's not center stage in the story. Once I adjusted to that I was able to enjoy the book for what it is---an involving Gothic puzzle. The pace is fairly slow, but the story never seemed to drag and it held my attention all the way to the end.
Grade: B+
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Firestorm by Iris Johansen
When Kerry Murphy was a young girl a house fire killed her mother and left her in a coma for two years. Her experience gave her the ability to telepathically sense fires, and connect with fire victims. Her used her talent to become a firefighter, but after a friend died in a fire she was no longer able to bear the responsibility of fighting them day to day. She now works as an arson investigator and uses her dog Sam as a cover for her unique talent. She's proud of the life she's built for herself and considers herself at ease with her talent, but she has few close relationships and suffers from horrible nightmares.
Brad Silver has problems of his own. He saw his brother, a U.S. Senator, and sister-in-law burned alive in their limousine. They were the victims of a madman named James Trask. Trask had been the head of a secret government research project to create controlled firestorms. It wasn't until the project was canceled that anyone realized that Trask had become obsessed with his creation and by then it was too late to stop him. He's now an out of control pyromaniac, using his invention to blackmail the President. Trask has vowed that he won't stop killing government officials until his demands are met.
Like Kerry, Brad has special abilities. Unlike Kerry his skills don't center around fire. Instead Brad is able to act as a “controller” for others psychics. He feels that with his help Kerry could make a connection with Trask and help locate him before anyone else is killed. Kerry doesn't agree. He tells her that in exchange he can help her finally get over the loss of her mother. Kerry values her independence and wants nothing to do with Silver or any other psychics, so she initially refuses. However, when she inadvertently makes a connection with Trask he becomes obsessed with her and attacks her brother and his pregnant wife. In order to protect her family Kerry changes her mind and agrees to partner with Silver and the two of them race to stop Trask before he strikes again.
This was a psychological thriller with paranormal elements. On the positive side, the premise of this book was interesting and I basically liked the characters and their interaction. The one thing I did think was odd was the way Kerry kept giving Brad a hard time for being prickly. Considering what her personality was like I felt like that was a definite case of the pot calling the kettle black and that Silver should have called her on it.
On the negative side a fairly large chunk of the book was devoted to Trask's POV and I'm tired of that. These days it seems like almost every suspense and mystery book I read spends almost as much time inside the killer's head as that of the main character(s) and I'm over it. I have much more interest in how the mystery is solved than in getting the details of yet another fictional version of homicidal craziness.
Grade: B-
Will I read the next book in the series?: Yes. I'm interested enough in Kerry & Silver to try the next book.
Brad Silver has problems of his own. He saw his brother, a U.S. Senator, and sister-in-law burned alive in their limousine. They were the victims of a madman named James Trask. Trask had been the head of a secret government research project to create controlled firestorms. It wasn't until the project was canceled that anyone realized that Trask had become obsessed with his creation and by then it was too late to stop him. He's now an out of control pyromaniac, using his invention to blackmail the President. Trask has vowed that he won't stop killing government officials until his demands are met.
Like Kerry, Brad has special abilities. Unlike Kerry his skills don't center around fire. Instead Brad is able to act as a “controller” for others psychics. He feels that with his help Kerry could make a connection with Trask and help locate him before anyone else is killed. Kerry doesn't agree. He tells her that in exchange he can help her finally get over the loss of her mother. Kerry values her independence and wants nothing to do with Silver or any other psychics, so she initially refuses. However, when she inadvertently makes a connection with Trask he becomes obsessed with her and attacks her brother and his pregnant wife. In order to protect her family Kerry changes her mind and agrees to partner with Silver and the two of them race to stop Trask before he strikes again.
This was a psychological thriller with paranormal elements. On the positive side, the premise of this book was interesting and I basically liked the characters and their interaction. The one thing I did think was odd was the way Kerry kept giving Brad a hard time for being prickly. Considering what her personality was like I felt like that was a definite case of the pot calling the kettle black and that Silver should have called her on it.
On the negative side a fairly large chunk of the book was devoted to Trask's POV and I'm tired of that. These days it seems like almost every suspense and mystery book I read spends almost as much time inside the killer's head as that of the main character(s) and I'm over it. I have much more interest in how the mystery is solved than in getting the details of yet another fictional version of homicidal craziness.
Grade: B-
Will I read the next book in the series?: Yes. I'm interested enough in Kerry & Silver to try the next book.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Loner by Geralyn Dawson
Logan Grey is a Range Detective, tracking some the worst criminals in Texas. He lives alone and has no intention of ever changing that. Because he seems to have a talent for sensing impending trouble, newspapers dubbed him “the luckiest man in Texas” but he knows better. When he was just a boy he was the sole survivor of a flash flood that killed his whole family and left him to be raised in an orphanage. That set what he sees as the pattern of his life---when there's trouble he escapes harm, but those around him often do not. Logan doesn't consider that lucky at all and refuses to even consider having a family of his own that he could lose to misfortune.
One day while he's waiting for a meeting at the local bank his sense for trouble tells him to get out, but before he can act on it he's caught in the middle of a robbery attempt. He's surprised and intrigued when a female hostage helps him thwart the robbers. He wants to get to know her better but by the time the situation is sorted out, she's gone.
Caroline Kilpatrick was happy to help prevent a bank robbery, but she's furious with Logan for not recognizing her from their childhood. Logan was her first love and her first kiss. Far more importantly, he was the man she married and slept with, not realizing that he had been hired by her father to participate in a fake wedding ceremony in order to gain access to Caroline's inheritance. Logan left town after their one night together and as a result he never knew that their marriage was in fact valid, that she was pregnant with his child and that two months later her father died, leaving Caroline alone and destitute.
For many years Caroline had no idea where Logan was, so she struggled to provide for their son Will on her own. By the time she learned his whereabouts she had made a life for herself and no longer wanted to have anything to do with Logan, so she never contacted him about Will. Eight years later things have changed. Ben, the man who has been more of a father to her than her actual father ever was, has gone missing. He went to Black Shadow Canyon looking for information about a murder and hasn't been heard from since. The canyon is a notorious hideout for outlaws so Caroline knows that she needs help and Logan is just the man for the job. However, she has no reason to believe that he'll voluntarily help her search for Ben, so she devises a plan. She tells him about Will and says that the boy has been taken to Black Shadow Canyon.
Logan is stunned to find out that he's a father and has no idea what to do about Caroline, but he's determined not to let his son down. Caroline refuses to be left behind, so the two of them set out on the difficult journey to the canyon. They quickly find that the emotions between them, and their tentative efforts to reconnect, are almost as difficult to manage as bad weather and outlaws. The real question is what Logan will do when he realizes that Caroline lied to him. Will he forgive her and make a home with her and his son, or will he return to his solitary life?
It was difficult for me to like either Logan or Caroline. Logan's willingness to go along with the lie told by Caroline's father was bad. It was worse for him to sleep with her believing that their marriage was a sham and knowing that he would be leaving the next day. The only excuse he had was that he was young and, as an orphan with no prospects he was desperate for the money to make a start in life. Caroline didn't even have that excuse for the lie she told Logan. She knew where he was for eight years and never contacted him to tell him about Will until she needed to use the information to trick Logan into helping her. That would have been justifiable if Will had actually been the one in danger, but Ben was a grown man who made his own choice to go on a dangerous trip. I understand that Caroline loved Ben and thought of him as family, but I don't think that made it acceptable for her to manipulate Logan into helping him, especially since she was well aware that Logan didn't have warm feelings for Ben. Logan definitely had his faults, but I found Caroline much more frustrating and annoying.
In addition to my problems with both the main characters I also felt that the circumstances that resulted in them being married were sort of ridiculous and some of the dialog rang false. In the end I wasn't able to get past those things, which made it impossible for me to enjoy what might otherwise have been an interesting plot.
Grade: C-
One day while he's waiting for a meeting at the local bank his sense for trouble tells him to get out, but before he can act on it he's caught in the middle of a robbery attempt. He's surprised and intrigued when a female hostage helps him thwart the robbers. He wants to get to know her better but by the time the situation is sorted out, she's gone.
Caroline Kilpatrick was happy to help prevent a bank robbery, but she's furious with Logan for not recognizing her from their childhood. Logan was her first love and her first kiss. Far more importantly, he was the man she married and slept with, not realizing that he had been hired by her father to participate in a fake wedding ceremony in order to gain access to Caroline's inheritance. Logan left town after their one night together and as a result he never knew that their marriage was in fact valid, that she was pregnant with his child and that two months later her father died, leaving Caroline alone and destitute.
For many years Caroline had no idea where Logan was, so she struggled to provide for their son Will on her own. By the time she learned his whereabouts she had made a life for herself and no longer wanted to have anything to do with Logan, so she never contacted him about Will. Eight years later things have changed. Ben, the man who has been more of a father to her than her actual father ever was, has gone missing. He went to Black Shadow Canyon looking for information about a murder and hasn't been heard from since. The canyon is a notorious hideout for outlaws so Caroline knows that she needs help and Logan is just the man for the job. However, she has no reason to believe that he'll voluntarily help her search for Ben, so she devises a plan. She tells him about Will and says that the boy has been taken to Black Shadow Canyon.
Logan is stunned to find out that he's a father and has no idea what to do about Caroline, but he's determined not to let his son down. Caroline refuses to be left behind, so the two of them set out on the difficult journey to the canyon. They quickly find that the emotions between them, and their tentative efforts to reconnect, are almost as difficult to manage as bad weather and outlaws. The real question is what Logan will do when he realizes that Caroline lied to him. Will he forgive her and make a home with her and his son, or will he return to his solitary life?
It was difficult for me to like either Logan or Caroline. Logan's willingness to go along with the lie told by Caroline's father was bad. It was worse for him to sleep with her believing that their marriage was a sham and knowing that he would be leaving the next day. The only excuse he had was that he was young and, as an orphan with no prospects he was desperate for the money to make a start in life. Caroline didn't even have that excuse for the lie she told Logan. She knew where he was for eight years and never contacted him to tell him about Will until she needed to use the information to trick Logan into helping her. That would have been justifiable if Will had actually been the one in danger, but Ben was a grown man who made his own choice to go on a dangerous trip. I understand that Caroline loved Ben and thought of him as family, but I don't think that made it acceptable for her to manipulate Logan into helping him, especially since she was well aware that Logan didn't have warm feelings for Ben. Logan definitely had his faults, but I found Caroline much more frustrating and annoying.
In addition to my problems with both the main characters I also felt that the circumstances that resulted in them being married were sort of ridiculous and some of the dialog rang false. In the end I wasn't able to get past those things, which made it impossible for me to enjoy what might otherwise have been an interesting plot.
Grade: C-
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Fifth Victim by Beverly Barton
Genny Madoc is a psychic who lives in the Smokey Mountains, just outside the town of Cherokee Pointe, Tennessee. One night she has a horrible vision of a young woman being sacrificed on a ceremonial alter. She calls her cousin Jacob, who's the town sheriff, for help but he isn't able to reach the girl in time. No one in Cherokee Pointe has ever seen anything like this murder and they have very few clues until FBI agent Dallas Sloane arrives and offers his assistance.
He's come to Cherokee Pointe because the murder resembles a number of others that he's been investigating. Dallas is convinced that he's on the trail of a serial killer who kills five victims in close secession and then moves on to a new location. In each group of five the first four victims are chosen at random, only the fifth victims are similar. This makes it difficult to see the pattern and Dallas' colleges are convinced that he's imagining things. His beloved niece was the fourth victim in one of the groupings and people are convinced that grief has warped his judgment. The murder in Cherokee Pointe is the first in a new grouping, which gives Dallas the best chance he's had to catch the killer.
Dallas believes that the murder is the only reason he's come to Cherokee Pointe, but Genny knows there's more. She had a vision of Dallas too, and she knows that he's her soul mate. What she doesn't know is how that will change her life, whether or not she'll be able to explain things to Dallas and how he'll feel about it if she does. Genny's concerns about the future multiply when she realizes that she has formed a link with the killer and that he has chosen her as the fifth victim. It will take both Genny's abilities and Dallas' skill to stop the killer before he completes his pattern and slips away again.
I chose this book in part because of the location. I've been to the Great Smokey Mountains and the area is beautiful, but I rarely see it used as a book setting. I also thought the premise was interesting and had great potential. Unfortunately the book failed to live up to that potential. Dallas worked well as the driven, skeptical hero, but Genny was another story.
Genny is the standard cliched psychic whose gifts are conveniently limited in exactly the way needed to drive the story. She's also a Mary Sue. Everyone loves her and she sees the best in everyone. She even uses her gifts to charm wild animals, including a wolf who she feeds by hand. At one point animals save her from the bad guy in a scene that read like an extremely violent version of a Disney cartoon. Animals helped Snow White clean house for the seven dwarfs, made a ballgown for Cinderella---and saved Genny from a homicidal maniac. I rolled my eyes so hard I'm lucky they didn't stick like that. The romance between Genny and Dallas didn't improve the situation. I'm not fond of stories about predestined love and instant connection. I don't enjoy it when a couple is seemingly in love for no reason whatsoever and this was definitely one of those stories.
The secondary plot took up a lot of the book and it was also unsatisfying. Genny's best friend Jasmine is a successful businesswoman in Cherokee Pointe. She owns the local motel and a restaurant and club. Her love life isn't doing nearly as well as her businesses. Years ago she was involved with a boy named Jamie, the scion of the local gentry. Because Jazzy's family was poor his family saw her as trash and forbade the relationship. Jamie wouldn't risk his inheritance to marry Jazzy, so he left her behind when he went away to college. He still likes to use her as a booty call whenever he returns home for a visit though. Jazzy always turns him down, but then gives in when he persists.
The problem with that isn't really that it makes Jazzy look dumb for allowing herself to be used. I understand how she could get stuck on Jamie and be unable to resist him, even as he goes through a string of fiances. The problem is that Jazzy admits that the attraction isn't just sexual. She also likes Jamie for his money. She justifies this because she grew up poor and now wants the good life. I can understand that, but it still makes her seem at best mercenary and at worst like she's trying to trade sex for cash. That makes her objections to people thinking of her as trashy or treating her like she's a whore a little problematic.
For me all of these character issues overshadowed the thriller plot, which didn't turn out to be anywhere near as compelling as I had expected. The slight paranormal twist did little to lift the villain above run of the mill. In the end this book simply failed to live up to it's premise.
Grade: D+
This is the fist book in a trilogy. I picked up all three books at the library at the same time so even though this one was bad I decided to try the next one to see if the series would improve.
The Last To Die is Jazzy's story. Genny has a vision of Jamie being murdered and the crime being a threat to Jazzy. She doesn't want to believe that her friend could kill her ex, but the vision isn't clear and she can't be sure. Genny knows that Jamie doesn't believe in her gift and won't heed any warning that she would give him. She does warn Jazzy to stay away from him at all costs and she, Dallas and Jacob create a plan to keep Jazzy safe. Unfortunately their plan fails and when Jamie is murdered Jazzy has no alibi. Her friends then have to solve the murder in order to keep her from going to prison for a crime she didn't commit.
I suspected the book would be a DNF when the big plan to protect Jazzy completely failed to do the obvious---never leave her alone. I tried to overlook that, but couldn't overlook some major problems with the real killer. To avoid spoilers I'll simply say that a person suffering from the severe mental illness Ms Barton describes couldn't possibly devise an intricate plan to commit murder, act normal enough to lure Jamie to his death and carefully avoid leaving trace evidence at the scene.
It's a shame that The Last To Die wasn't a better book because the hero, Caleb McCord, was really good. He just wasn't good enough to carry the rest of the mess.
Grade: DNF
He's come to Cherokee Pointe because the murder resembles a number of others that he's been investigating. Dallas is convinced that he's on the trail of a serial killer who kills five victims in close secession and then moves on to a new location. In each group of five the first four victims are chosen at random, only the fifth victims are similar. This makes it difficult to see the pattern and Dallas' colleges are convinced that he's imagining things. His beloved niece was the fourth victim in one of the groupings and people are convinced that grief has warped his judgment. The murder in Cherokee Pointe is the first in a new grouping, which gives Dallas the best chance he's had to catch the killer.
Dallas believes that the murder is the only reason he's come to Cherokee Pointe, but Genny knows there's more. She had a vision of Dallas too, and she knows that he's her soul mate. What she doesn't know is how that will change her life, whether or not she'll be able to explain things to Dallas and how he'll feel about it if she does. Genny's concerns about the future multiply when she realizes that she has formed a link with the killer and that he has chosen her as the fifth victim. It will take both Genny's abilities and Dallas' skill to stop the killer before he completes his pattern and slips away again.
I chose this book in part because of the location. I've been to the Great Smokey Mountains and the area is beautiful, but I rarely see it used as a book setting. I also thought the premise was interesting and had great potential. Unfortunately the book failed to live up to that potential. Dallas worked well as the driven, skeptical hero, but Genny was another story.
Genny is the standard cliched psychic whose gifts are conveniently limited in exactly the way needed to drive the story. She's also a Mary Sue. Everyone loves her and she sees the best in everyone. She even uses her gifts to charm wild animals, including a wolf who she feeds by hand. At one point animals save her from the bad guy in a scene that read like an extremely violent version of a Disney cartoon. Animals helped Snow White clean house for the seven dwarfs, made a ballgown for Cinderella---and saved Genny from a homicidal maniac. I rolled my eyes so hard I'm lucky they didn't stick like that. The romance between Genny and Dallas didn't improve the situation. I'm not fond of stories about predestined love and instant connection. I don't enjoy it when a couple is seemingly in love for no reason whatsoever and this was definitely one of those stories.
The secondary plot took up a lot of the book and it was also unsatisfying. Genny's best friend Jasmine is a successful businesswoman in Cherokee Pointe. She owns the local motel and a restaurant and club. Her love life isn't doing nearly as well as her businesses. Years ago she was involved with a boy named Jamie, the scion of the local gentry. Because Jazzy's family was poor his family saw her as trash and forbade the relationship. Jamie wouldn't risk his inheritance to marry Jazzy, so he left her behind when he went away to college. He still likes to use her as a booty call whenever he returns home for a visit though. Jazzy always turns him down, but then gives in when he persists.
The problem with that isn't really that it makes Jazzy look dumb for allowing herself to be used. I understand how she could get stuck on Jamie and be unable to resist him, even as he goes through a string of fiances. The problem is that Jazzy admits that the attraction isn't just sexual. She also likes Jamie for his money. She justifies this because she grew up poor and now wants the good life. I can understand that, but it still makes her seem at best mercenary and at worst like she's trying to trade sex for cash. That makes her objections to people thinking of her as trashy or treating her like she's a whore a little problematic.
For me all of these character issues overshadowed the thriller plot, which didn't turn out to be anywhere near as compelling as I had expected. The slight paranormal twist did little to lift the villain above run of the mill. In the end this book simply failed to live up to it's premise.
Grade: D+
This is the fist book in a trilogy. I picked up all three books at the library at the same time so even though this one was bad I decided to try the next one to see if the series would improve.
The Last To Die is Jazzy's story. Genny has a vision of Jamie being murdered and the crime being a threat to Jazzy. She doesn't want to believe that her friend could kill her ex, but the vision isn't clear and she can't be sure. Genny knows that Jamie doesn't believe in her gift and won't heed any warning that she would give him. She does warn Jazzy to stay away from him at all costs and she, Dallas and Jacob create a plan to keep Jazzy safe. Unfortunately their plan fails and when Jamie is murdered Jazzy has no alibi. Her friends then have to solve the murder in order to keep her from going to prison for a crime she didn't commit.
I suspected the book would be a DNF when the big plan to protect Jazzy completely failed to do the obvious---never leave her alone. I tried to overlook that, but couldn't overlook some major problems with the real killer. To avoid spoilers I'll simply say that a person suffering from the severe mental illness Ms Barton describes couldn't possibly devise an intricate plan to commit murder, act normal enough to lure Jamie to his death and carefully avoid leaving trace evidence at the scene.
It's a shame that The Last To Die wasn't a better book because the hero, Caleb McCord, was really good. He just wasn't good enough to carry the rest of the mess.
Grade: DNF
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