Mystery Crime Books

First what I admire: I couldn't stop reading this! It's fast, it's quick, it's clever, it's full of intrigue and suspense. The thing that impressed me most: I could not have written it! My book has sex, naked people in California doing things like jumping on trampolines and smoking pot, but no history, geography or visits to Swiss banks!

What I don't like: Well, the dialogue is often stiff. The writing is sometimes trite and full of cliches.

BUT, seriously, YOU try writing a novel that crosses borders, takes place in a major world museum, delves into religions and secret societies and keeps the reader turning the pages! It's hard to do and Dan Brown did it very well.

I found myself up very very late reading this book. The ending was ok, but overall a must read.

I read the Da Vinci Code because..., well, I was traveling and everyone seemed to be reading it. After I finished it, I felt as if I had had a lot of warm beer: bloated with empty calories, left with mildly unpleasant taste and a slight headache.

The fact that this book is a bestseller can make one question the value of universal literacy. It is really badly written. I didn't expect Updike or Vonnegut, but Dan Brown makes even Clive Cussler appear a decent wordsmith. To add insult to injury, the Da Vinci Code fails the genre and becomes predictable halfway through.

The story is inhabited by "comic strip" -grade characters bumping around, solving absurd puzzles placed there for reasons which make no particular sense. From time to time, a character stops what they are doing, leans against a wall, or stares into space and thinks "deep thoughts", through which the puzzles are solved and the premise of the book is laid out. These are sprinkled with what passes for historical and religious factoids, often researched poorly enough for the errors to be apparent to a layman like me.

Before I stand accused, I am not religious in the least. I don't find the book offensive (other than by being so badly written): in fact political correctness oozes from it, as does the author's apparent desire to be liked by everyone and sell to everyone (and this includes the good Catholics among book buyers:-)

If you want a well written and well researched "conspiracy theory through the ages" tale, get Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. For a nice travel crime story, pick up P.D. James.

As for the Da Vinci Code..., I have played computer games that have higher literary merit than this. Really.

Dan Brown hit a homerun here. This book has an awesome story line and really keeps you wanting more. The action is fast yet easy to keep up with. Brown has a great way of making you feel like you know what's going on in the story, but still surprises you in the end. Read the book first, saw the movie second, and the book was MUCH better.

Davinci Code had an interesting beginning. I liked how he drew the reader in with his introduction of the curator, langdon, the bishop and albino. Initially engrossing, but BEWARE, the last two thirds drag. He regurgitates a good deal of his plot twists as the novel wears on. I had his 'twists' and characters figured chapters ahead of time. I even guessed the last cryptic clue APPLE pages and pages before Langdon figured it out. These characters with their Ivy league PhD's should be able to outsmart me - but they didn't!

As far as the religious controversy. Any intelligent, practicing Christian takes it with a grain of salt. Obviously, those most vulnerable to this kind of tripe are people of little faith, minimal worship and study of Christianity. Brown is so repetitive in his love of pagan rituals, sun dieties, and feminine goddess garble that it turns the reader off completely. He seems to be writing for a less intelligent audience. Why else would an author insist on such redundancy unless he felt his audience wasn't smart enough to grasp his message the first time around? Yawn.

Overall, I'd give the first 150 pages four stars. Brown could have easily shaved off 100 of the last 200 pages and still made this a pretty good read. The last third (two stars at best) really dragged on and the ending was highly predictible (if your inferencing skills go beyond a third grade level).

Jim Chee barely escapes becoming the fourth of a string of strange homicides plaguing the NTP. His investigation into the crimes takes him all around the reservation. Lt. Leaphorn is also trying to figure out this puzzle. Witchcraft and a shady doctor add elements to the story, making it significantly different than most murder mysteries.

What got me, were the touching moments where Leaphorn was with/thinking about his wife, describing how he was losing her to the unexplained folly of the human brain. This secondary storyline shows the Legendary Lt. in a place where many of the readers have been or will be in, making him an extremely compelling character in this volume.

Anything Tony Hillerman does in my opinion is well worth reading. But I am a big fan of the Leaphorn, Chee mysteries anyway.

And the setting is marvellous too. The book is set right smack in the middle of the Large Reservation in the State of Utah. This is the first book in the Joe Leaphorn/Jimmy Che series, and it certainly is a good one. These two wonderful detectives are caught in the middle of a bunch of murders that seem to lead back to witchcraft in the Navajo nation. Hillerman makes his setting come alive and the people in his books are real. In it we learn a lot of Navajo folklore. I think it will certainly be worth pursuing the other books in this series since Hellerman seems to make this world his own.

This is the first in this series that I've read and I enjoyed it. It's a quick read and surprising. I've heard other books in the series are better and I'd like to read them and see for myself.

Oklahoma's own Tony Hillerman shines brightly with "Skinwalkers", the first of the Leaphorn/Chee mysteries to put the two characters together in the same book. One of the best novels from one of the most brilliant writers of the past 35 years. VERY highly recommended!

Edna Buchanan has brought Miami reporter Britt Montero page to the written page -- both on the pages of the newspaper and in this fast-paced and breathless mystery. She is starting anew without her beloved Kendall McDonald, but with a lot of new changes to her life and lifestyle. She ends up working with The Cold Case Squad on the murder of a less-than-good guy she interviewed years and years ago. She and her buddy Lottie uncover new layers to an accidental death. She and her former romantic KC Riley learn how to co-exist in the same city. It's very exciting to hang around with Britt!

It's also fun to read. Buchanan switches voices this time, alternating between Britt following up on the boating accident and The Cold Case Squad tying together loose ends about that death of Britt's old interview subject. The villains turn out to be colorful and original. The plot twists are believable. And I can't wait for the next installment -- I think I know what's going to happen next but I can't say without being a spoiler.

In the last novel "Ice Maiden", we saw the love of Britt Montero's life (Kendall McDonald) killed in an explosion. Having finally decided to spend the rest of their lives together (Kendall effectively breaking KC Riley's heart), Britt saw only a bright and promising future. Now reeling from his death and returning from a self imposed exile, Britt finds herself on the trail of not just one story, but two. Having located a disposable camera with photos of a missing bride and groom, and finding that she was the last person to see a man (whose body was just discovered) years before, Britt is willing to go to even Alaska to right wrongs and solve the mystery. With KC Riley strugging to accept her loss (of McDonald), and Britt's pregnancy, it soon becomes apparent that they may have to come to an understanding or truce to survive. I really enjoyed this latest Edna Buchanan novel and look forward to the next one.

Buchanan has always been one of my favorite authror and with "Love Kills" she doesn't disappoint. It's fast-paced, hysterically funny in parts and kept me turning pages until the end. I can't wait for her next book to come out.

I loved having Britt back, especially paired up with the Cold Case Squad. The first half was so good that I was unable to put it down. By the second half, I felt like I was reading a Stephanie Plum novel.

When did Britt become so stupid? It must've happened somewhere between Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, when she and Lacey were running around acting like the Keystone Kops. The Britt I've come to know over the years never would've done half the idiotic things this one did.

I also don't care for cliffhangers -- if I like the author and the story interests me, I'm going to buy their next book anyway. I hate the ploy of leaving things hanging to force me to buy a book. I'll of course be buying the next one, not only to find out how all the loose ends were tied up, but because Edna Buchanan is one of the best authors out there. I just wish she hadn't resorted to so many gimmicks in this long-awaited book, and I hope that Britt goes back to being herself rather than some cartoon facsimile.

Britt Montero is staying on a blissfully solitary tropical island while healing from the death of her fiancé when her best friend, photographer Lottie Dane, shows up. Lottie and Britt go surfing, and soon after expressing the wish that they'd brought a camera to capture the glorious views, they find one in the surf. It's a waterproof disposable camera with three exposures to go. So, while Lottie fills Britt in on what's happening back home in Miami and at the newspaper they both work for, they snap a few shots.

Britt is intrigued to learn that the Cold Case Squad is looking for her. She is also suffering from cash flow problems, so she decides to head home with Lottie. They leave contact info with locals in case the camera owner appears, and then they fly on home.

Back at work, Britt persuades her editor to let her return to the police beat, although he seems reluctant. Lottie shows her the photos she's developed from the found camera. The pictures portray a vibrant, handsome young couple obviously in love, probably on their honeymoon. Britt can't help but feel sad; if Kendall McDonald hadn't died, the pictures of the tropical honeymoon might have been of Kendall and Britt.

At the police station, Britt discovers that the notorious kidnapper, Spencer York, has been murdered. York had been a kidnapper-for-hire for fathers without custody of their children, and his methods had been brutal. Britt had been instrumental in his arrest and imprisonment; she also had spoken to him right before he jumped bail. Now he is dead, and there are too many suspects.

Britt gets an even bigger shock when she sees a Coast Guard alert for newlyweds missing on their honeymoon. She recognizes the photos. It's the same couple whose happy faces had appeared on the film from the camera she and Lottie found on the beach.

Britt's personal story weaves through and between the two mystery plots --- and it packs some startling revelations. The characters in LOVE KILLS are fleshed out, three-dimensional and real, and they're surrounded by lots of terrific Miami atmosphere, capturing the flavor of the city. Edna Buchanan is masterly at pulling the reader along with clever cliffhangers; she also incorporates a chase scene that manages to be thrilling, frightening and crazily hilarious. Three plot twists truly surprised and delighted this jaded, seen-it-all mystery reader.

LOVE KILLS is pure enjoyment, and while Buchanan is a new author to me (where have I been?), I plan to read every book she has had published --- ASAP.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

So far, it's only 2 books in the series, but I have really enjoyed reading both of them. I love how the author has worked in all the characters and hope for more development among them in future books. I look forward to the next Gray Whale Inn book.

This was a great read .. Am looking forward to more book's by this author .

I enjoyed the first book in this series (Murder on the Rocks) very much. This second offering does a great job of giving more background on the Cranberry Island residents and Natalie herself but the mystery itself falls flat. While the author throws around a lot of suspicion, the outcome itself seems quite random.

Its hard to say more without giving too much away (I hate reviews that do that) so I'll finish by saying I would recommend this if you really liked the first one and that I would read a third one if the author chooses to keep the series going.

I stumbled across the previous (and first) book in the "Gray Whale Inn" series -- "Murder on the Rocks" -- when looking at my Amazon recommendations. It looked so incredibly good, that I immediately picked up that book as well as this one (the second in the series). What a hit !!! Amazon didn't steer me wrong.

If you love cozy mysteries, you'll love this one ! I think it is one of the most well-done series I have read in awhile and I compare it to Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse mysteries. The location of Cranberry Island, Maine is what really makes the book. The writing is so descriptive that I expected to see the coast of Maine outside my window when a stopped reading for a moment. The descriptions of the setting are so intriging that I actually spent some time looking on Google for information on the Cranberry Islands --- I was that fascinated!

If you love a good mystery --- If you love the coast of Maine ---- If you love B&B's ----- this series is for you !!!!

Natalie Barnes is facing the beginnings of the off season. With few bookings at her bed and breakfast over the winter months, she's hoping to make ends meet. But that soon becomes the least of her worries. A stranger noise is waking her up in the middle of the night. Is her inn haunted? Her ex-fiancee has shown up as a guest, wanting another chance at making their relationship work.

But more troubling is the death of Polly Sarkes. Polly had lived on the island her entire life and helped with the laundry at the Gray Whale Inn. When she appears to vanish, Natalie goes to her house and finds her dead, an apparent suicide. At least that's what the sheriff quickly rules it, but Natalie isn't so sure. Her friend had too much life. Beside, she was in the middle of packing a suitcase. Natalie quickly learns that Polly was the only hold out in a deal to sell some land for a new development. Was that the motive for her murder?

I enjoyed the first in this series, so I was looking forward to this one. I was glad to join these characters again. After two books, they already feel like old friends. And the recipes at the back sound wonderful again.

On the whole, the plot was great with plenty of twists that kept me turning pages. I do have a couple complaints about it, however. Murder related to development on the island was the plot of book number one. I was disappointed to see that play such a prominent part of this book. Additionally, the ending, while satisfying, was rushed.

These complaints weren't enough to keep me from enjoying the book, however. I'm already booking my next stay at the Gray Whale Inn.

You have to admire someone who thinks (and writes) outside the box. Jasper Fforde takes the realm of children's nursery rhymes and transforms it into a world of mystery and mayhem that's definitely for adults. The list of suspects who could have offed the womanizing drunkard Humpty Dumpty is as colorful as the folks trying to crack the case, so to speak. Though I found some sections a bit hard to plow through (I can't stick with a page- long paragraph)the humor and downright cleverness of the book kept me turning pages. I loved the fact that in Detective Jack Spratt's world, the fictionalization of the investigation for the local rag is more important than the quest for justice. Straight from the newspaper comes the sizzling headline, "Nursery Favorite Dies in Wall-Death Drama." The wildly nutty ending was way over the top in a perfectly wonderful way. A well seasoned story that will really hit the spot.

Jasper Fforde made his name in the literary world with his very popular "Thursday Next" series of books following the eponymous heroine on a series of fantastically convoluted adventures in the world of metafiction. There are some connections between the characters in this novel and characters who appeared as minor figures in one of the "Thursday Next" books, but the "Nursery Crime" series is a distinct animal, albeit though it plays with many of the same metafictional themes. "The Big Over Easy", the first entry in the new series, is a wonderful little book.

The basic story follows Jack Spratt, the head of Reading's Nursery Crime Division (NCD), who has worked for decades in what is considered a career dead-end (one step above the Ministry of Magic's Centaur Office, if you will), handling criminal acts involving nursery rhyme characters (he himself is one, though he doesn't know it, combining Jack Spratt, Jack the Giant-Killer, and Jack and the Beanstalk). He is joined by Mary Mary, a young Detective Sergeant who despairs at being put in the NCD, and really wants to work with Friedland Chymes, the celebrity detective whose adventures she grew up avidly following. The rest of the NCD crew includes a rookie assigned there for two months and then forgotten about, a hypochondriac, and an alien (yes, aliens have arrived, and, as documented in one of the fake newspaper clips included at the start of each chapter, were determined to not be very interesting). The case: the apparent slaying of Humpty Dumpty. The list of suspects is byzantine, and the plot has more contortions than the Gordian Knot, dragging in as incidental figures, among others, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer of Greek myth: he ends up renting a room in Jack's house and romancing his daughter Pandora (despite the 3980-year age difference).

The plot is ultimately not that important; Fforde wittily simultanteously employs and satirizes the various tropes of the genre (identical twins, red herrings, culprits who are only introduced toward the end), and the real fun of the book is in the numerous details (though the final resolution is quite fun; the sheer number of plots going on is itself a sort of parody of the standard detective story). Fforde has a dry, very British sense of humour in the vein of Monty Python and such. His depictions of the novel's world are endlessly entertaining; the book is marvelous fun to read. Each chapter begins with a quote from various in-universe sources, mainly newspapers, highlighting and parodying various fictional tropes. The other major theme in the book is Fforde's exploration of the idea of the celebrity detective; Watson loyally documented and published Holmes' exploits, but here we see this concept run amok: publictation has become as, if not more, important than actuall solving the case for many detectives, Chymes most of all. They actively conduct their investigations in order to make them readable and dramatically interesting.

Highly recommended.

Fforde just makes you think too much. There is so much nursery rhyme tie-in that it makes your head spin. It's too much to really concentrate on the story! You spend all of the time piecing together the little bits of clues and subtle allusions to the rhymes themselves, and the story gets a bit lost in the shuffle. It did make me want to look up a lot of information on nursery rhymes, but it was a hard book to follow with all the distractions.

If you get a kick out of those sorts of tie-ins and know a great deal about nursery rhymes, this is probably one of the best books you'll read. The parts I did get were masterfully done. And Fforde has a great writing style, which is normally very engaging. But if you're more like me, and are going to spend the whole book almost getting it but feeling like you're missing something you should know, I'd give this one a miss. His Thursday Next books are far more enjoyable!

I first became enthralled with Jasper Fforde through "The Eyre Affair" and have read all of this books. Resisted "Over Easy" at first since I am not a big fan on mysteries or children's books. I surprisingly loved it and didn't want to put it down. Cannot wait to read "The Fourth Bear." And I loved this book because it was almost as round as Karl Pilkington's head. But much funnier.

I read this book and thought it was extremely clever but I just could not bring myself to give it more than three stars.

The basic plot premis is that the Reading, England, police department has a section called the Nursery Crime Division where Detective Inspector Jack Spratt works. Jack has just finished a case (The Crown v. Three Pigs) which should have resulted in the certain conviction of three pigs in the murder of a wolf. But, in an unforseen development, a jury of the pigs peers acquit them of the murder and his department head is telling Jack that the departmental budgetary meeting is going to result in the disbandment of the NCD. Not a good day for Jack. But things get even worse. Humpty Dumpty is found dead at the bottom of the wall where he liked to sit and think. Was it an accident, suicide or could it have been murder? Jack is assigned a new partner, Sergeant Mary Mary, who has transferred in from Basingstoke in the hopes of working with her hero and longtime contributor to Amazing Crimes Magazine, Detective Friedland Chymes. Jack doesn't want a new Official Sidekick, Mary wants to work with another detective, and Chymes wants to take over the Dumpty case so he can write it up for Amazing Crimes. Let the intrigue begin!

The first book I read by Jasper Fforde was The Eyre Affair with the Thursday Next character. I just fell for the whole concept. I had wanted the Nursery Crimes stories to be as enjoyable for me, if not more so. Sadly I cannot say that it was. Fforde has the most incredible imagination. He has taken a topic which we are all familiar with, nursery rhymes, and turned them upside down and inside out. The characters are all familiar and yet he has given their entire world a skewed slant which makes them totally different from what we would expect. I can give him nothing but robust, appreciative applause for his ideas and concepts. But, I didn't enjoy this STORY very much. There was just too, too much going on in the story for my taste. Mr Fforde put in too many characters, too many situations and too many possible villains for me. He gave me one villain, explained why it couldn't have been that character and took him away (or did he?). He gave me another villain, exposed the falseness of the reasoning for his guilt and so took him away (maybe?). It just seemed to go on much too long. In fact, this is the same problem which I had with the Thursday Next novel, it too went on far too long to completely hold my attention. I wanted this to be over but it just kept plodding along and along and along. And the reveal about the true murderer was just so bizarre that I actually went back and re-read parts of it just to make sure I had gotten it straight. And the parts about the Jellyman and the Sacred Gonga, well, I never got those at all.

I liked the book, I enjoyed reading it up to a point, but I don't think I will search out the next Nursery Crime book. I'll stick with Thursday.

The Wheelman kicks butt, from the opening line to the reckless, taking-corners-on-two-wheels ending. It has an almost punk crime sensibility and Duane Swierczynski knows how to turn the dials on the reader's emotions. Read this when you have time to race all the way from cover to cover.

Hard-boiled crime fiction, by which I mean crime fiction from the perspective of law-breakers, from the perspective of people for whom legality is profoundly unimportant, has become very difficult to find. Classic contributions to the genre have dropped out of print, as parlor detective fiction clogs the shelves. "The Wheelman" is not only a welcome hard-boiled novel, but a brilliant one at that. The pace is extremely fast, but, at the same time, Swierczynski manages to find each character's unique voice, and those voices are often hilarious.

I had the privilege of reading Duane Swierczynski's This Here's a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery, his non-fiction tome of bank robbery facts and figures, a few years back when it first came out. In THE WHEELMAN, Mr. Swierczynski takes fact, mixes it up with a whole lot of fiction, and comes up with a thrilling crime debut that's well worth the read!

We first meet Lennon, a wheelman or get-away driver, waiting outside a Wachovia bank in Philadelphia as his two associates, Bling and Holden, get caught on their way out of the bank with the $650,000 take. Somehow, Lennon, a mute Irishman who knows nothing more about robbery than how to get away, manages to retrieve his buddies and hightail it out of the city. Unfortunately, someone--in the form of a black SUV--manages to stop Lennon and the get-away car in its tracks.

Cue to Lennon, supposedly dead, in the process of being dumped into a pipe at a Philadelphia Children's Museum construction site. Thankfully, Lennon's not as dead as he looks, and he manages to outsmart his two body-dumpers. Not so fortunate for them when they realize what a pissed-off Irish mute can do for revenge.

Suddenly, getting out of Philadephia isn't as easy a trick as it was supposed to be. Bling and Holden appear to be dead at the bottom of said pipe, the $650,000 is missing, there's a few retired ex-cops on his butt, and both the Russian Mafiya and some old-time Philadephia mobsters are after him--and everyone wants a piece of the bank take.

As things go from bad to worse, with blown-up buildings, lots of gunfire, knife torture, and some really cool close calls, THE WHEELMAN leads us on a chase to find the money from the bank heist and get the heck out of dodge.

Besides being an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat crime thriller, THE WHEELMAN is just pure fun. With interesting facts thrown in--I hadn't realized that it was DilLINger, not DillinGER--and some laugh-out-loud moments--trademark "Scratch-Your-Balls-Until-The-Feds-Arrive"--this is one book you really don't want to miss.

I thought this was a strong crime novel written by a new writer with a very distinctive voice. I didn't pick this out for myself, it was a gift from a friend, and I appreciated it very much. I can't wait to read other books by the same author!

For those of you familiar with Richard Stark's anti-hero thief Parker, Philadelphia writer Duane Swierczynski's Irish mute Lennon may strike a familiar chord. Lennon might not be a riff off of Stark's original, but in many ways he's certainly cut from similar cloth, and that certainly makes him interesting.

Vying with Lennon for top billing in a field stuffed with memorable characters, is the City of Brotherly Love herself. She is a setting lovingly (if unblinkingly) rendered by the Phildelphia native Swierczynski. I love books where the setting comes alive so much so that it is yet another character in its own right. Swierczynski does precisely this in "The Wheelman."

The pace on the novel is good, the supporting characters vividly drawn. I defy anyone who reads this to forget either the college student keyboardist, the corrupt ex-cop, or the Russian don who are all involved to varying degrees in this plot. My only reason for giving it four stars instead of five was that the violence was so over-the-top (and perhaps that was the author's point) that I was not able to suspend belief all the way through it. It seemed to me that Lennon ought to have been either dead or in a coma long before the novel's explosive climax.

That said, this is a terrific book, a tour-de-force first offering, and I can't wait to dive into Swierczynski's next book, "The Blonde."

Parts of this book read like a Stephen King novel yet the work altogether could actually have been written much better. The author admits in the Preface that she could have a much more artistic piece of literature had she listened to some of her mentors.
However, that is precisely why this book is so magnetic. Her sincerity is revealed in her non-perfection. This is an autobiography. The honest approach to describing her experiences with the occult and paranormal are precisely what caused me to endure my initial skepticism.
I couldn't put it down after 3 chapters and enjoyed the sound biblical advice at the end of the book.- Pastor Mauldin

The first half of the book dealt with many scary things, for example how Johanna suffered through demonic attacks for years, apparehtly due to generational curses and (I believe) some occultic items she had around her home, and how she witnessed demonic miracles. I kind of cringed thru those parts, because the author almost makes you feel you are are there yourself.
The second half of the book is packed with useful, very Scriptural, truth about how she escaped, and others can escape, those horrors. Great book. Great read.

Why do people get involved with stuff like this? Shouldn't one use a little discernment? The author, like other authors on this subject seemed to have jumped right into an occultish/newageish type spiritual healing apprenticeship.

After she found out how the guiding spirits could pretend to be angles, Jesus or anything they wanted, she then tried everything she could think of to get rid of them. Of course they just laughed at her when she tried to call upon ascended masters, angles and such, or tried sending them into the Light. The spirits also seemed to think it a joke, when she went to different churches to get prayed over.

It sounded to me like in the end the spirits seemed to just get tired of her persistence and lifestyle change and eventually left on their own accord. So I am left with the nagging question, what can God/Jesus/Holy Spirit or the Church do for a person in a situation like this? Or do they really even exist? And if there is a possibility that they don't exist, then maybe the spirits didn't exist either, and everything happed in her head!? Not saying that they don't exist, I just think too much and this book ended up making me ask more questions than giving me answers.

Of course the author lumps everything that is not understood, and cannot be explained by the bible into something that is evil. Which is another point I would disagree on.

In the end, even after all my complaints, I would still recommend buying the book. And like all books, don't take everything an author tells you at face value. Instead do a bit of research and read something else by an author with an opposite opinion.

I read this book many years ago and really loved it. The author has such an honest, open approach over what was such a horrible set of experiences in her life. I'd recommend it to every christian. As the author states in the back of the book, there is too little understanding of this subject across the church and it's such an essential one.

So glad she found God and such a good relationship with him afterwards. I'd put this in my top ten christian book list.

This book was one of many that heralded the insidious rise of the dreaded "New Age Movement" that never materialized. It's a bit humorous to see the author report as genuine nonsense such as "psychic surgeries", which have been thoroughly debunked. Her credulity is striking and colors the entire book. The 1980's were permeated with similar paranoid and ignorant thinking ("subliminal advertising"?, "backward masking"?) A better purchase would be Michael Shermer's "Why People Believe Weird Things"!

I enjoyed this book a lot. It is up to the usually James Patterson standard. If you are a James Patterson fan you will enjoy.

I just couldnt get into this book at all. it starts out okay but then it just plateaus and nothing exciting happens. not worth it.

James Patterson has been writing thriller novels since the 1970s, but didn't become a big success until 1990, when he wrote a novel entitled ALONG CAME A SPIDER featuring a character named Alex Cross. Now he's the biggest thriller writer in existence. I like Patterson's stories, but I don't think his pre-1990 novels are worth reading.

THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is an example of why. It comes across as a pretty mediocre novel, especially if you've read a lot of thriller fiction. The characters are quite flat, and the plot is pretty predictable and filled with silly cliches. The romance, in particular, is not the least bit believable. Unlike Patterson's later novels, this book is also pretty slow paced and overwritten in sections. I found it a chore to read.

I think THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is for Patterson completists only. If you're new to his work, my advice is to try KISS THE GIRLS, 1ST TO DIE, THE QUICKIE, or JUDGE & JURY. Those novels are far more entertaining than what I found here.

This book was what I was looking for and it is a very interesting book.

The über-bad guy who's invincible until the end. The cop bent on revenge. The rogue cop. The secret criminal society a la The Godfather on steroids. Bits and pieces of every thriller we've read are here on display. The bits and pieces fit adequately well, and the plot (the New York Cop and the Intrepid Reporter take down criminal mastermind with the help of the Feds) moves along. It's a decent airport read, but no more than that.

This book made me put off reading for awhile...until I could come back to it and try and finish it later. The book was so horrible I had to skim through the remaining chapters to try and figure out what happened in the end. After reading this novel I am hesitate on trusting the author with any of her newer books. This book is nothing like Carol's mother's books. Yesterday I read "I Heard That Song Before" in one day, and not once did I get tired of reading. I am going to check the reviews of Carol's books before I read another one of them. All book stores should pull this one off the shelf.

Carol Higgins Clark writes like a child who hates writing, but loves the applause at the end. I imagine her writing for indulgent parents who have low expectations of her but who cheer after reading the book. The writing is shallow, the characters are cliche and the mystery is pretty much non existent. Don't bother with these books.

This was a mediocre book. It is not one that screams for a second reading.

Since I can't think of a polite way to express it, I'll just say that this book is terrible.

You pick the category - characters, writing style, word choices, plot, voice, etc. - it is bad, bad, bad.

Don't waste your time if you're over 8 years old. Even if you're 7 or younger, there are far, far better books to read.

This story is definitely intended to be a light-hearted mystery, and the author does a good job of protraying annoying characters.

However, the paperback edition I picked up was filled with typos, which constantly jangled my nerves. Also, Chappy's shouts were always IN CAPSLOCKS! It drove me nuts! Like others have stated, it didn't give a good feel of the music industry (and don't get me started on the extremely dull interview the radio personalities gave...ugh. No wonder their station was doing badly).

I was hooked on the Donovan's after "Amber Beach". After I read "Jade Island" I was ready to walk away. I am so glad I didn't. "Midnight at Rubhy Bayou" takes a little twist away from the ordinary dangers the Donovan family faces by adding a little of the supernatural. It really is a great read.

Very good book higlhy recommend buying it. Dissappointed that shes not writing stories for Justin and Lawe the last two donovan brothers that are twins I might have to boycott buying her books until she comes out with stories for the last two Donovans.

This is the 4th book in EL's Donovan series, and like the other 3 this is a book that is hard to put down. It has plenty of action and the relationship between Faith Donovan and Owen Walker is developed slowly but tantalizing enough to keep you turning pages to see what will happen next between them. I liked Owen a lot. I don't think it mattered that he was a less educated and a smaller man than the other heros in the first three novels, namely Kyle, Jake, and Archer. He was just as smart, just as intelligent, just as sexy,just as honorable, and just as deadly. It says a hell of lot when Archer Donovan trusts you to take care of his little sister. Archer's trust was not misplaced as we find out in the development of the story as he comes to Faith's aid again and again. One of my most favorite scenes was when he met up with Faith's obnoxious and much larger ex-boyfriend. It was hilarious and very well written.

As far as heroines go, Faith was somewhat lacking when compared with the other Donovans. However, she was intelligent, gifted, and sweet; not quite a hot head as her other siblings. However, I think that rich girl Faith did very well for herself with Owen. A guy that put her needs first, in and out of the bedroom. Cudos to EL for bringing us a heroine who needs a little help in achieving fulfillment in the bedroom. After all, I think that most women do.

Why this one didn't get 5 stars you may ask? Mostly, because I didn't like the way EL ended the love story between Faith and Owen. Owen felt very strongly about being reponsible for others; also, I think that he had some reservations about his much lower socio-economic background. I would have liked EL to take them back home and let us in on some real soul searching for Owen before he came to the conclusion that he was ready for being responsible for a wife and family.The rest of the Donovan guys could have helped him along.It would have been a perfect ending to an otherwise great story.

Had to read this book after reading Pearl Cove and enjoying yummmmmmmmy Archer Donovan and his love Hannah. Faith Donovan the youngest sister and jewelry designer and Owen Walker best friend and Ruby expert goes with Faitn Donovan to the Bayous for her best friends wedding and to present her a beautiful Ruby Necklace. But, the Heart of Midnight a giant ruby is lost and a Russian is trying to find it and murder anyone who gets in his way and Faith may be next. I really enjoyed this one. I would like her to write about their twin brothers and the Emerald trade,but I highly doubt it. Looking forward to reading Color in Death by her and all about Sapphires. Read this book it's highly recommend.

Lowell just doesn't let her readers down with the lovable Donovan clan. Recommendation: Start with "Amber Beach" and then work your way to this one. See her complete book list and the order in which they go at: www.elizabethlowell.com