Dr. Morgan Snow is a sex therapist with a 13-year-old actress daughter on Broadway, and a strained romantic relationship with Det. Noah Jordain. He's currently investigating the murders of web-cam girls - they are being poisoned while performing live on-line. It seems their killer taints stuff like oils and lubricants, posts them to the girls as a "fan" and asks them to use it. It does lead to one memorable sequence - a kinky lesbian sex scene that ends in the girls vomiting uncontrollably. There's still some originality left in fiction, folks! Anyway, Morgan herself is treating a patient who only likes to refer to himself as "Bob". It turns out he's a prolific judge with an addiction to on-line porn - and a connection to the girls who are dying. She's also counselling a group of teenagers with on-line porn problems, and a couple of them may also have links to the dead girls.
While that purports to be the plot, most of the book dwells on Morgan's stress over her daughter wanting a television career in Hollywood. Morgan's own mother was a child star whose career crashed once she was a teenager, and she eventually died of a drug-overdose. Morgan doesn't want this for her own daughter, and even contemplates moving back in with her ex-husband to provide a more stable home-life for her daughter. This is turn leads to further tensions with her detective lover. All of this tiresome melodrama detracts from what could have been a very entertaining, trashy thriller. As it is, all the story threads come together really well at the end, something of a rarity these days, it seems. The last third was fast-paced and exciting, with a surprise killer with a thoughtful and believable motive and a solid climax. If they'd excised all the personal problems Morgan is going through, there wouldn't be much of a book left, but the thriller aspects deliver the goods admirably.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
"Black Out" by Lisa Unger
Annie Powers would seem like the typical upper middle-class woman, with her husband Grey and daughter Victory (ugh), and pampered lifestyle, except for the fact she can't remember much of her past. When she is followed by a mysterious stranger on the beach outside her home one night, it is the beginning of a strange upheaval in her life. She starts suffering migraines and bits and pieces of her former life begin to return to her. She remembers her life as a teenager, when her mother decides to marry a death-row inmate. This incident brings the inmate's son into their lives, which eventually leads to disaster. Intercut with this are chapters set in the future, where Annie is stuck on a boat, attempting to escape an unknown threat.
The biggest disappointment in "Black Out" is that it could have been so good. As the plot slowly unfolded, I occasionally felt as if I had come across a winner. Unexpected twists, a story that keeps you guessing as to what is really going on, the whole deal. But eventually the twists start becoming a little convoluted...to the point where Unger writes herself into a corner and has no choice but to completely cop out. Events in the last part of the book would seem to totally contradict events that had happened earlier. When a story leaves you unsure as to what did or did not really happen, that's not good writing. It's not good story-telling. I did not come away from "Black Out" feeling satisfied. One option would be to read the whole thing again, knowing the outcome from the beginning, but I don't think there would be much to gain from that. Of course, it's hard to explain my disappointment without ruining the story, so be warned that there is a SPOILER below.
My first SPOILER! Yay!
Final warning: SPOILER AHEAD
Throughout the story, Annie relates the activities of a detective. He initially blackmails her when he discovers that she changed her name, and is using the identity of a dead woman. However, he realises something untoward is going on, and uncovers many unsavoury facts about Annie's husband and his parents, and their possible involvement in what is going on now. At the end, though, he's revealed as nothing more than a figment of her imagination, conjured up whenever she suffered a migraine. This is despite the fact he interacted with other characters, and that Annie supposedly interacted with his wife. Therefore, everything that happened before is thrown into doubt. Did Annie's doctor really get murdered? Did she really locate her believed-to-be-dead lover from her teenage years and finally kill him? What exactly happened on that boat and who killed them all? And how exactly did Annie obtain all the information she needed if the person who discovered it never existed? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The biggest disappointment in "Black Out" is that it could have been so good. As the plot slowly unfolded, I occasionally felt as if I had come across a winner. Unexpected twists, a story that keeps you guessing as to what is really going on, the whole deal. But eventually the twists start becoming a little convoluted...to the point where Unger writes herself into a corner and has no choice but to completely cop out. Events in the last part of the book would seem to totally contradict events that had happened earlier. When a story leaves you unsure as to what did or did not really happen, that's not good writing. It's not good story-telling. I did not come away from "Black Out" feeling satisfied. One option would be to read the whole thing again, knowing the outcome from the beginning, but I don't think there would be much to gain from that. Of course, it's hard to explain my disappointment without ruining the story, so be warned that there is a SPOILER below.
My first SPOILER! Yay!
Final warning: SPOILER AHEAD
Throughout the story, Annie relates the activities of a detective. He initially blackmails her when he discovers that she changed her name, and is using the identity of a dead woman. However, he realises something untoward is going on, and uncovers many unsavoury facts about Annie's husband and his parents, and their possible involvement in what is going on now. At the end, though, he's revealed as nothing more than a figment of her imagination, conjured up whenever she suffered a migraine. This is despite the fact he interacted with other characters, and that Annie supposedly interacted with his wife. Therefore, everything that happened before is thrown into doubt. Did Annie's doctor really get murdered? Did she really locate her believed-to-be-dead lover from her teenage years and finally kill him? What exactly happened on that boat and who killed them all? And how exactly did Annie obtain all the information she needed if the person who discovered it never existed? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
"Almost Dead" by Lisa Jackson
"Almost Damn Dead" is probably a more appropriate title here, as "damn" is about the third most used word after "the" and "and". It's not that I'm a prude or anything - have you seen some of the stuff I read? - but the use of the word is so frequent and so obvious that it's really distracting. How could it get past an editor? Remove "damn" from here and you can cut the book by about 30 pages. Seriously.
The plot has Cissy Cahill spooked by the fact that her evil mother has escaped from prison. Suddenly, members of her family begin to die. We the reader know that the mother has an accomplice, but as for Cissy and her ex-husband Jack Holt, they are clueless as to who might want to off the entire Cahill clan. As for Cissy's mother, we're never actually told what she did to get into prison in the first place, nor the intricate details of how she managed to escape, either. The plot makes some very lame attempts to cast suspicion on Cissy and Jack themselves, but this book sticks so rigidly to the romantic suspense formula that you know nothing is ever going to come of it. About the only saving grace here is that Cissy and Jack already know each other (they are on the verge of divorce), rather than having them meet and fall in love simply because the author wants them to (the problem faced by Jackson's "Deep Freeze"). However, Jack doesn't have much of a personality, and Cissy is so unpleasant and self-centred it's hard to figure out why anyone would want to spend time in her company, personality or not. At the funeral of her grandmother, whom she admits she didn't even like much, she behaves as if she's the only person who has a right to the mourn the woman, dismissing everybody's condolences. She ultimately snubs her neighbour, who while at times is a little overbearing, has never been anything but nice to her. Cissy concludes that her neighbour is a catty bitch who wants to steal her husband away. Then there's the babysitter Tanya, who does a bang-up, professional job, whom Cissy simply dislikes because she can. When Tanya tells Cissy that she's quitting because she doesn't like working for her and thinks she should see a shrink, I was going: "Right on!" I kept hoping it would be Cissy that wound up with a bullet between the eyes rather than most of the ancillary characters.
I always try to say something positive about a book, because there's no fun in constant negativity (or is there?), but I'm struggling here. While I managed to finish the damn thing (ha ha), the whole product was hugely damaged by having such an odious main character. Combine that with a flimsy plot (someone remind me again exactly what Cissy's mother went to prison for), a writer seriously short of adjectives (maybe try "old couch" instead of "damn couch"), and a romance that feels like it's there simply because it has to be, and you have a damn stupid book that takes too damn long to read and DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!
The plot has Cissy Cahill spooked by the fact that her evil mother has escaped from prison. Suddenly, members of her family begin to die. We the reader know that the mother has an accomplice, but as for Cissy and her ex-husband Jack Holt, they are clueless as to who might want to off the entire Cahill clan. As for Cissy's mother, we're never actually told what she did to get into prison in the first place, nor the intricate details of how she managed to escape, either. The plot makes some very lame attempts to cast suspicion on Cissy and Jack themselves, but this book sticks so rigidly to the romantic suspense formula that you know nothing is ever going to come of it. About the only saving grace here is that Cissy and Jack already know each other (they are on the verge of divorce), rather than having them meet and fall in love simply because the author wants them to (the problem faced by Jackson's "Deep Freeze"). However, Jack doesn't have much of a personality, and Cissy is so unpleasant and self-centred it's hard to figure out why anyone would want to spend time in her company, personality or not. At the funeral of her grandmother, whom she admits she didn't even like much, she behaves as if she's the only person who has a right to the mourn the woman, dismissing everybody's condolences. She ultimately snubs her neighbour, who while at times is a little overbearing, has never been anything but nice to her. Cissy concludes that her neighbour is a catty bitch who wants to steal her husband away. Then there's the babysitter Tanya, who does a bang-up, professional job, whom Cissy simply dislikes because she can. When Tanya tells Cissy that she's quitting because she doesn't like working for her and thinks she should see a shrink, I was going: "Right on!" I kept hoping it would be Cissy that wound up with a bullet between the eyes rather than most of the ancillary characters.
I always try to say something positive about a book, because there's no fun in constant negativity (or is there?), but I'm struggling here. While I managed to finish the damn thing (ha ha), the whole product was hugely damaged by having such an odious main character. Combine that with a flimsy plot (someone remind me again exactly what Cissy's mother went to prison for), a writer seriously short of adjectives (maybe try "old couch" instead of "damn couch"), and a romance that feels like it's there simply because it has to be, and you have a damn stupid book that takes too damn long to read and DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
"You Can't Hide" by Karen Rose
Tess Ciccotelli is a psychiatrist whose patients are dying in mysterious circumstances - and she looks like the prime suspect. Detective Aidan Reagan thinks she's a cold-hearted bitch, but slowly comes to change his mind the more he gets to know her. It doesn't take long for the police department to figure out that Tess is being set up. And she's being set up by somebody who obviously really, really hates her. Soon, not only are her patients targets, but so is anybody who knows her - friends, family, mere acquaintances and those who simply have the misfortune to say hello to her.
This being a romantic thriller, much of the focus is on the developing relationship between Tess and Aidan, but I have to admit that it was handled quite well here. The main barrier to their happiness lies in a previous case where Tess gave evidence in court that let a child-killer live out the rest of his life in a psychiatric institution, as opposed to rotting on death row. Aidan discovered the body of the last victim, and can't believe she could help effectively set a killer free. This sort of material is deeper than much of what you find in this genre, so it helped the two characters feel like real people, as opposed to two people who simply get together because that's what's supposed to happen.
The plot is also well-constructed. While there are a few plot strands that simply feel like filler, Rose for the most part delivers a twisty suspense tale. I'm happy to announce that I didn't figure out the identity of the killer - the clues are there, and I was pleased that it all went right over my head.
"You Can't Hide" arrived earlier in Rose's career, and I suspect that might be why it is of a much higher standard than her current work. Since she's now churning out a couple of thrillers a year these days, the quality has slid. Nevertheless, it's always a pleasant surprise to come across something much better than you were expecting it to be. Refreshingly clear of many of the cliches found in the romantic suspense genre, "You Can't Hide" is one that should be hunted down.
This being a romantic thriller, much of the focus is on the developing relationship between Tess and Aidan, but I have to admit that it was handled quite well here. The main barrier to their happiness lies in a previous case where Tess gave evidence in court that let a child-killer live out the rest of his life in a psychiatric institution, as opposed to rotting on death row. Aidan discovered the body of the last victim, and can't believe she could help effectively set a killer free. This sort of material is deeper than much of what you find in this genre, so it helped the two characters feel like real people, as opposed to two people who simply get together because that's what's supposed to happen.
The plot is also well-constructed. While there are a few plot strands that simply feel like filler, Rose for the most part delivers a twisty suspense tale. I'm happy to announce that I didn't figure out the identity of the killer - the clues are there, and I was pleased that it all went right over my head.
"You Can't Hide" arrived earlier in Rose's career, and I suspect that might be why it is of a much higher standard than her current work. Since she's now churning out a couple of thrillers a year these days, the quality has slid. Nevertheless, it's always a pleasant surprise to come across something much better than you were expecting it to be. Refreshingly clear of many of the cliches found in the romantic suspense genre, "You Can't Hide" is one that should be hunted down.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
"Close Enough To Kill" by Beverly Barton
This is another one of those romantic suspense novels where the lead characters spend as much time thinking lustful thoughts about each other as they do hunting a serial killer. The culprits this time around are Sheriff Bernadette "Bernie" Granger and her new deputy Jim Norton, who was once a big-time football player. She had a big crush on him when she was a teenager, so she tries to keep her feelings in check whenever he's around. As for him, he's taken the job to be closer to his son, whose mother has spent a lot of energy on keeping the two apart. Although a lot of effort is spent on establishing that Bernie is a plain woman, Jim slowly develops feelings of attraction toward her (despite taking a couple of cracks at her sister first - what a guy!)
Oh yeah, and they're hunting a serial killer. He's called The Secret Admirer, as he first seduces his prey with innocent notes and gifts. Then he proceeds to send them kinky S&M sketches, before kidnapping, raping, torturing and murdering them. Quite a few women become victims, and the finger points at all the handsome, eligible bachelors in the town. I figured the killer the moment he was introduced. I kept thinking: "Oh come on, it really can't be that obvious! I'm not THAT clever!" Seriously, the killer's identity was meant to be a surprise?
"Close Enough To Kill" works fine on a trashy level. There's lots of sex, rape and death to keep you occupied, all delivered with a complete lack of class. The writer has a curiously blunt approach to her descriptions. My favourites were: "After raping her in the anus with a wooden phallus..." and "Damn, what a pair of tits!", the latter being Jim's internal response when he finally gets Bernie out of her bra. But to be fair, Barton generates at least a little suspense in the sequences where the women are being initially stalked - one woman's car breaks down, and another woman is nabbed despite having police protection.
Fairly indistinguishable from much of the genre's output, and I doubt romance readers are going to appreciate Barton's unimaginative, crass descriptions of rape and murder.
Oh yeah, and they're hunting a serial killer. He's called The Secret Admirer, as he first seduces his prey with innocent notes and gifts. Then he proceeds to send them kinky S&M sketches, before kidnapping, raping, torturing and murdering them. Quite a few women become victims, and the finger points at all the handsome, eligible bachelors in the town. I figured the killer the moment he was introduced. I kept thinking: "Oh come on, it really can't be that obvious! I'm not THAT clever!" Seriously, the killer's identity was meant to be a surprise?
"Close Enough To Kill" works fine on a trashy level. There's lots of sex, rape and death to keep you occupied, all delivered with a complete lack of class. The writer has a curiously blunt approach to her descriptions. My favourites were: "After raping her in the anus with a wooden phallus..." and "Damn, what a pair of tits!", the latter being Jim's internal response when he finally gets Bernie out of her bra. But to be fair, Barton generates at least a little suspense in the sequences where the women are being initially stalked - one woman's car breaks down, and another woman is nabbed despite having police protection.
Fairly indistinguishable from much of the genre's output, and I doubt romance readers are going to appreciate Barton's unimaginative, crass descriptions of rape and murder.
"City Of The Sun" by David Levien
Nearly two years after their son disappears, Paul and Carol Gabriel are forced to get the help of private detective Frank Behr when the police appear to be doing nothing. Behr is haunted by the death of his own son, so this latest case hits closer to home. He's eventually convinced to let Paul accompany him in the investigation, which opens up leads that suggest the boy is still alive.
"City Of The Sun" has rave reviews from other writers, amongst them being quote-whore Harlan Coben, but also from Michael Connelly and my own favourite - Robert Crais. So I did hold out hope that this would be a dark, suspenseful experience. And while it is a dark story, there just wasn't enough going on for me to be truly gripped. Behr's sources, which help him in developing new leads, conveniently pop up when needed. And the answer to the "mystery", when it comes, is pretty by-the-numbers, with a pretty outlandish climax.
With precious few plot twists (if any) to ratchet up the tension, it's pretty much the reader wallowing in the misery of depressed, burnt-out characters. A follow-up has just hit the shelves, but I might pass on it.
By the way, the long absence between posts is due to a faulty laptop, and a lack of funds in obtaining a new one. In that time, I've also read "Life Sentences" by Laura Lippman. But it was a boring, pointless pile of shit that doesn't really warrant a review - and is the first book I've ever taken to a second-hand bookstore. Both that and "City Of The Sun" were simply too easy to put down, so that's why I've done little reading in the last couple of months.
"City Of The Sun" has rave reviews from other writers, amongst them being quote-whore Harlan Coben, but also from Michael Connelly and my own favourite - Robert Crais. So I did hold out hope that this would be a dark, suspenseful experience. And while it is a dark story, there just wasn't enough going on for me to be truly gripped. Behr's sources, which help him in developing new leads, conveniently pop up when needed. And the answer to the "mystery", when it comes, is pretty by-the-numbers, with a pretty outlandish climax.
With precious few plot twists (if any) to ratchet up the tension, it's pretty much the reader wallowing in the misery of depressed, burnt-out characters. A follow-up has just hit the shelves, but I might pass on it.
By the way, the long absence between posts is due to a faulty laptop, and a lack of funds in obtaining a new one. In that time, I've also read "Life Sentences" by Laura Lippman. But it was a boring, pointless pile of shit that doesn't really warrant a review - and is the first book I've ever taken to a second-hand bookstore. Both that and "City Of The Sun" were simply too easy to put down, so that's why I've done little reading in the last couple of months.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
"The Darker Side" by Cody McFadyen
This is the third book to feature Special Agent Smoky Barrett, coming after "Shadow Man" and "The Face Of Death". The former was a solid serial killer thriller, but the latter is one of the best entries in the genre. Despite a pretty awful beginning 40 pages, "The Face Of Death" developed into a fast-paced, genuinely scary and even moving thriller. It comes highly recommended.
When an author's second book vastly improves over the first, I take that to be a good sign. So I was very much looking forward to "The Darker Side". Alas, with greater expectations come greater disappointments, as "The Darker Side" is a very by-the-numbers affair, with the curious lack of drive in the proceedings exposing some of the author's more annoying traits - ones I was able to gloss over in previous outings because the stories were so involving.
Agent Barrett's case this time is to chase a killer who seems to be using his victim's deepest, darkest secrets against them. He'll get them to reveal their worst sin before murdering them. The first victim turns out to be the transexual son of a Senator. Although much is made of this political connection for the first part of the novel, it's basically forgotten about by the time the book is over - just one of the many faults to be found here. But, moving on....the second victim is a reformed drug and sex addict, which leads Barrett and her team to the woman's church and Father Yates, the priest she made her confessions to. From here, Barrett realises there's a very strong religious undertone to the murders and that the numbers 142 and 143 found on each victim means that her killer has actually been in operation for a very long time....
"The Darker Side" just has everybody - the author and the characters - going through the motions. It's clear McFadyen has run out of ways to move these people along. Smoky Barrett has endured being raped by a madman and watching as he murdered her husband. Same madman also mutilated her face. In the previous books, we learnt Smoky shot and killed her daughter while aiming to shoot and kill the madman, who used the daughter as a shield (these events all took place before "Shadow Man", so I'm not spoiling anything). In this book, we learn a couple more horrible truths about Smoky that she's had to endure. I mean, it's getting a little ridiculous. We're up to the third book here. It seems McFadyen only seems to be able to develop and define Smoky through the tragedies she has endured. Well, buddy, you're running out of credible ways to do this. Time to create new characters, or move the focus primarily to the plot, and further away from the characters we already have.
The other thing that really bugged me here was the way people talked. Callie, a member of Smoky's team, calls everybody "honey-love". Bonnie, Smoky's adopted daughter, calls her "Momma-Smoky". Kirby Mitchell, a character from "The Face Of Death" (who, realistically, doesn't even need to be here) calls Callie "Callie-babe". I mean, ugh! Enough! It was really irritating, and was highly noticeable because the plot here was so lacking. The religious theme to the murders was pretty ho-hum, the motive a real non-event, and the killer himself wasn't terribly interesting.
The fact that "The Darker Side" was a bit of a bomb doesn't mean I'll be giving up on the author. "The Face Of Death" was an excellent book, and I'm of the belief that somebody who can turn out a winner like that deserves a second chance.
When an author's second book vastly improves over the first, I take that to be a good sign. So I was very much looking forward to "The Darker Side". Alas, with greater expectations come greater disappointments, as "The Darker Side" is a very by-the-numbers affair, with the curious lack of drive in the proceedings exposing some of the author's more annoying traits - ones I was able to gloss over in previous outings because the stories were so involving.
Agent Barrett's case this time is to chase a killer who seems to be using his victim's deepest, darkest secrets against them. He'll get them to reveal their worst sin before murdering them. The first victim turns out to be the transexual son of a Senator. Although much is made of this political connection for the first part of the novel, it's basically forgotten about by the time the book is over - just one of the many faults to be found here. But, moving on....the second victim is a reformed drug and sex addict, which leads Barrett and her team to the woman's church and Father Yates, the priest she made her confessions to. From here, Barrett realises there's a very strong religious undertone to the murders and that the numbers 142 and 143 found on each victim means that her killer has actually been in operation for a very long time....
"The Darker Side" just has everybody - the author and the characters - going through the motions. It's clear McFadyen has run out of ways to move these people along. Smoky Barrett has endured being raped by a madman and watching as he murdered her husband. Same madman also mutilated her face. In the previous books, we learnt Smoky shot and killed her daughter while aiming to shoot and kill the madman, who used the daughter as a shield (these events all took place before "Shadow Man", so I'm not spoiling anything). In this book, we learn a couple more horrible truths about Smoky that she's had to endure. I mean, it's getting a little ridiculous. We're up to the third book here. It seems McFadyen only seems to be able to develop and define Smoky through the tragedies she has endured. Well, buddy, you're running out of credible ways to do this. Time to create new characters, or move the focus primarily to the plot, and further away from the characters we already have.
The other thing that really bugged me here was the way people talked. Callie, a member of Smoky's team, calls everybody "honey-love". Bonnie, Smoky's adopted daughter, calls her "Momma-Smoky". Kirby Mitchell, a character from "The Face Of Death" (who, realistically, doesn't even need to be here) calls Callie "Callie-babe". I mean, ugh! Enough! It was really irritating, and was highly noticeable because the plot here was so lacking. The religious theme to the murders was pretty ho-hum, the motive a real non-event, and the killer himself wasn't terribly interesting.
The fact that "The Darker Side" was a bit of a bomb doesn't mean I'll be giving up on the author. "The Face Of Death" was an excellent book, and I'm of the belief that somebody who can turn out a winner like that deserves a second chance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)