Police Books

This book was mildly engaging --yet the logic and characterizations are weak. I continue to be a bit disappointed overall in the quality of the plots as well. Maybe more family interaction would help. My over all impression -- bleh. Wait for the paperback if you are a fan.

For those of you that gave a few thumbs down to the past 2 or 3 books by this author, don't give up! This is the "old" Faye Kellerman with lots of action and what ifs in it. This was a very good read and I recommend it. The storyline was quite realistic in this day and time. Hannah is a teenager with all the angst that goes with it. Cindy is a detective and "helps" Peter with a "cold case" that he was assigned.

I have loved all of the Faye Kellerman books--except this one. The characters were flat and the plot even flatter. It's as if she had to put this one out in a hurry. It took me 8 days to read it--I kept waiting for the plot to get interesting--it never did.

this book is boring, i had to skip to the end because it seemed there was so much filler. do not recommend.

Fifteen years ago, Dr Ben Little, a very popular school VP, was murdered execution style and found in the trunk of his Mercedes. The crime was never solved. One of the students whose life he touched is now a very wealthy woman. When she reads a current article in the newspaper about another man found dead in the trunk of his Mercedes, she believes the two crimes are somehow related. She offers a million dollars to the LAPD to take another look at the cold case.

The story follows Lt Peter Decker who is assigned the task of finding Dr Ben's killer through a maze of relationships that tie known associates to both of the murdered men. The story contains a lot of layers as the puzzle pieces come together.

This is the first book I've read by the author. I very much appreciated the mystery aspect of the story which was well thought out, and was surprised at the outcome. I also appreciated that triggers were pointed out to us during questioning of various people, giving us a better idea of what the detective got out of it, instead of having it explained to us afterwards.

We listened to the audio version while traveling cross country. The reader was talented but the story was so raw and brutal it was hard to take. I have never read this author before and probably won't again. If stark brutality is your thing you may like it but be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The only thing we really enjoyed was the outlandishly descriptive language which was sometimes so over the top we had to laugh. The author must write with a text book of over blown adjectives with the object of using as many as he can cram onto the page.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dave Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and sidekick, Clete Purcell, leave ravaged New Orleans for some R&R, peace and quiet and some fishing in Montana. But where Dave and Clete are, tranquility is rarely, if ever, present. No sooner do they get there then trouble finds them--in spades.

While fishing, Clete is accosted by two men telling him he is trespassing on the land of a wealthy Texas oil family, the Wellstones. Soon, Dave and Clete are in the middle of not one, but two, double murders. Clete's past association with a mafia don comes home to haunt him. Then Clete finds himself amorously involved with the wife of one of the Wellstone brothers, among other entanglements. Meanwhile there are subplots involving other characters, and it all becomes very complicated.

Written with the accustomed smoothness of a Robicheaux novel---this is the 17th in the series---the setting enables the author to pay tribute to one of his two homes--Montana--where he lives in addition to the one in New Iberia, LA, Dave's normal domicile. It all comes down to an astounding finish. Don't miss this one!

Fans of James Lee Burke will love this latest book about murder in Montana and the foibles of sidekick Clet Purcell.

The New Orlean detective hopes for some R&R in the Bitter Root Valley of Western Montana, but finds trouble follows him north. A gripping tale, but not for the faint of heart.

My wife and I have been reading James Lee Burke since he started being published. His descriptions of his surroundings, and his prose in general have become increasingly impressive and delightful, suggesting he may be studying the Masters. Indeed, in this book, if prose can be rated on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, this book should be rated a 10! Further, I suggest that readers beware: if you have other pressing "gotta-do's" on your agenda, don't start this book because you likely will not put it down until you have read the last sentence.
I rated this book a 3.5 vs a 5.0 because, along with being more prosaic, Burke seems to me to be increasingly base, ugly and disgusting in some of his characters who have barely graduated from animals to humans. The details of one man raping another could not bave been more repugnant, and, I believe is a first for Burke. A backhoe operator digging deep graves in which he intends to deposit newly created human corpses is also a first. As Burke has said, in this and previous books, worms and snakes crawl through his mind in all phases of daily living & sleeping --- lonliness, fear, exhilarations and on and on. There are just more pages of this kind of repugnances than I care to read.
In summary, this is a book that is well worth reading keeping in mind these caveats.

It was mostly okay but was boring in some parts, especially the ones that had a lot of numbers being read.

This book was a slower than the other Rhymes books. There was so much computer information in the story. It only got faster and more interesting during the last half of the book. I'm listening to the CD now and find myself going forward on sections of the CD.

Great book -well written,clever plot-further development of main characters and a lead in to a new book.

This is your standard Jeffery Deaver novel. Since I lilke his Lincoln Rhyme novels, I enjoyed this one, too. If you have read others, you will notice that they include people from past novels and if you haven't, this will not be a deterent.
Very good CSI features and you always learn about detective work.

When Lincoln Rhymes reluctantly agrees to drop an important case to pursue the solution to his cousin's recent murder charge, he enters the world of identity theft and data mining. For the first time, he faces an uncommonly evil adversary who "knows everything", which is exceptionally frustrating for a person like Rhymes.

I, like many other reviewers, have read all of this series and found this one to be a super page-turner. I frequently neglected my computer or watching the Olympics to get back to my book. I remember as I read that I bet Deaver put a lot of work into his books, so be sure to watch the 3-min. video that Amazon includes after the PW review - it's amazing!

While most of us worry about identity theft, I also remember thinking, go ahead and try to quantify me (data mining companies), I just don't think I'm quantifiable. But I don't think I ever want a dossier on me as large as the one on Amelia Sachs no matter how correct or incorrect. Is this for real? Perhaps fiction based on future truth.

Well said, Mr. Deaver. At any rate, knowledge is power in anyone's book!

I have to commend the writing. And when I say writing, I mean the actual use of language. I gag at a sentence that doesn't flow; at descriptions that don't make sense; at writing that doesn't engage. French definitely has a rare skill to put words together to create a great story.

The plot itself is good, there are many readers out there who disagree with the end of the novel, however I'm going to say I loved it. The psychology behind this novel is great.

While a lover of great language, I am also a lover of watching Law & Order. This book is like an extended episode set in Ireland with interesting characters.

I will read again... along with whatever else French comes out it.

I really enjoyed reading In the Woods. The manner in which it is written (even down to word choice) is evocative and interesting, even beyond the actual plot. And that is something that one does not often see enough of in this genre. The character development and dialogue between the two main individuals in the story is very, very thought-provoking, leaving one wondering about them in a way that just does not happen with most characters in detective-type books. For this reason alone, I think I would buy another book written by Tana French.

Nonetheless, the plot is a bit frustrating. Not because of how the one mystery (of two in the book) is resolved. Despite some people thinking this resolution was unfulfilling and/or simplistic, I liked it. And though the main character does spend a lot of time in the middle of the book drinking and smoking and ignoring his partner, something some other readers also were irritated with, I think this adds to the character development side of the book, presenting a good look at how an individual destructs and a relationship becomes terribly damaged, despite neither side necessarily, ultimately, wanting that.

As for the mystery that remains unsolved, well, that is a bummer. But, this is why I say this is a good first book. Not because I think authors necessarily get better after the first one. (Often, they don't or get worse!) But because I can see this ending of In the Woods as quite masterful, if French takes up the threads of this plot line again in a later book. (I do not believe her next book does, but maybe an even later one . . .)

I merely think, if we can wait over half a dozen books to find out the Harry Potter ending, can we not also wait more than one book for French to tie up some ends? Moreover, not having even something major resolved seems very realistic to me. Even if French never comes back to this thread, I can still see the point behind leaving the mystery unsolved (despite, admittedly, being rather disappointed in the few minutes right after finishing In the Woods that I did not get a clearer answer).

Well that's it really. Bought this new on a whim at costco and was really captivated by the writing and the story. Very simple yet descriptive writing makes it easy to picture it all in your head, story and plot not predictable as I suspected they would be.

This was an interesting book. It was obvious to me while reading it that it was the authors first novel. I liked that it was long, because I like to read, but sometimes I felt like the author just threw in a bunch of unnecessary words- but besides that Tana French is a very very smart and talented writer. Don't get me wrong, there were parts where I absolutely couldn't put the book down. Reading 3 or 4 long chapters straight through- not realizing I had read so much until my head started to hurt. Although I knew who was behind the murder 1/3 way through the book, it was still a good suspense read. The ending drove me crazy. A very good book all the way through, but at the end I either wanted to throw it at a wall or cry. I guess the fact that it made me so angry proves that it actually was a very good book.

This book was really well written - the author has a talent for using words. I thought the dual plots were interesting and there was so much potential here that I was greatly disappointed by the lack of resolution at the end. The book was too long somehow, although I can't say exactly why. I just kept reading and thinking "Come on, let's get this solved!" I couldn't believe the way it ended - even if the solution had been a sad or shocking one, I wish there had been a solution of some sort, to have some type of closure. Other than that, I would not warn future readers to avoid the book. It's worth reading.

This book, which follows step by step the itinerary of a battalion of German security police in the East during WWII, is a scary confirmation of Hannah Arendt's theory on the "banality of evil" that emerged after Eichmann's trial in 1961. It shows how perfectly average people, representing a cross-section of a developped country's society, when placed in certain circumstances, are able to perform the most gruesome and crual acts of barbary in an efficient and non-committal way against innocent populations. It is a depressing book, all the more so as almost none of these perpetrators suffered any consequence after the war. They went on to live their banal and mediocre lives as ordinary people, until the 1960's when some of them were tried and suffered very light sentences.

Very well-done and insightful study on ordinary Germans in the Holocaust and Browning's overall thesis extends to "ordinary men" in many circumstances.

Christopher Browning is a distinguished historian of the horror of the Nazi holacaust against the Jews during World War II, His book on Reserve Police Battalion 101 is a microcosmic examination of how ordinary men responded to the Hitler's regime's insane plan to kill all of the Jews in
Europe.
The book focuses on the Reserve Police Battalion 101 made up of lower middle class men from Hamburg. These men were typical Germans in their views toward Jewry and the Nazi propaganda drummed into their heads. Most of the soldiers were long married, had some level of education and managed to avoid frontline service. These men were not in the military elite and most prefered civilian life back home in Hamburg.
These approximately 500 soldiers particpated in several shooting of Jews in Polish villages; transportation of the Jews to death camps and Jew hunts in which the hapless Semites would be captured. They are responsible for the shooting of 6,500 Jews at Jozefow and Lomazy; 35,000
at Majdanek and Poniatowa and placing Jews on trains to Treblinka. In all they participated in the deaths of 83,000 Jewish men, women and children.
The vast majority of the German soldiers took part in the murders. Some were reluctant to engage in this murderous enterprise by they were in the minority. Among reasons given for the odious and criminal behavior of the men in Reserve Police Batallion 101 are according to Browning:
1. Peer pressure of their comrades in arms. These were men in hostile territory who did not want to be accused of letting their buddies down.
2. Obedience to orders from higher authorities.
3. Fears of their or their family's punishment if orders were not obeyed.
4. A belief that the Jews were not Aryan human beings and were responsible for the killing of German women and children.
Browning claims each person's motivations are a mystery to the rest of us and we can never say beyond extrapolation what led these men to commit such abhorrent deads of cruelty and murder.
Browning has included a long appendix in which he responds to the criticisms on his work made by Dr. Daniel Goldhagen. Goldhagen believes that Germany was pervaded by antisemetic culture making the entire nation into Hitler's willing executioners. Browning contrarily argues that antisemitism was not limited to Germany. Browning states that German authoritarianism, conformity with the social group and Nazi propaganda all played a role in turning regular individuals into mass killers. He is cautionary on the power for harm which can be inflicted by authoritarian states on their citizens.
Browning's book is a classic of holocaust literature and is essential in any study of the gruesome and heartbreaking study.

Another brick from the the Professors' classroom. I got to page 148, which was quite a feat, believe you me. But important it is. I don't deny that, and true too.

Here's a token of the Professor's clear narrative style: "The portrayal of German-Polish and German-Jewish relations in these testimonies is extraordinarily exculpatory; in contrast, the portrayal of Polish-Jewish relations is extraordinarily damning. If we begin by examining the first two relationships as described by the former policemen, we can better see the asymmetry and distortion involved in their account of the third." Of the third! The third what? Do you know what he's taking about anymore?

Please, give me a break, mister. I believe the Lord gives gifts and talents to every one of His creatures. You can pick to be a bullfighter, a fireman, or a professor. But pick right.

This book (as described by previous reviewers and the product description) details what the men in the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 went through, specifically during the SS Invasion of Poland.

Browning describes in detail the process of dehumanizing the Jews, and writes at length on the style of execution that the Germans refined and perfected in Poland, prior to the widespread use of gas chambers: the person to be killed forced to lie down flat on their face, and then shot at a particular spot in their neck. The accounts of these executions is not just gratuitous violence -- graphic gore for the sake of shock or horror -- but rather, demonstrates that over time, the police officers involved in the executions worked to make the process of mass killing more humane (an idea that was at the root of the gas chambers, as ironic as that seems). It also serves to drive home the point that after so many hundreds of people were shot, the officers were able to completely dehumanize the people they were killing.

What is unique about this book is that it is not just another historical account; the author takes into consideration what the Nazis themselves had to go through, psychologically and emotionally, in order to carry out their orders. Many other historians have analyzed historical events during WWII while still demonizing the Nazi forces ~ but Browning shows us that the troops really were Ordinary Men, and these men suffered tremendous emotional tolls as a result.

And herein lies the Truth that makes this book so chilling: any one of us could have found ourselves in the very same position, carrying out the very same orders, as the German troops in WWII.

Browning describes the various social conditions and governmental policies that effected how the Nazis were able to so completely dehumanize their enemy and rationalize their own involvement -- in part, because the men were assuaged of their sense of responsibility for their actions, and also in part due to the tremendous number of times that the actions had to be carried out. Repetition bred a sense of normalcy.

In the Afterword, Browning addresses another author who has critiqued Browning's work -- Daniel Jonah Goldhagen -- whose work I feel compelled to mention since it directly relates to this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is studying modern history, sociology / psychology, or WWII, but keep in mind that it is extremely graphic and very, very hard to read -- not because of the language used, but because of the events that Browning so meticulously describes.

In case you don't know, the Woman's Murder Club is made up of San Francisco Detective Lindsay Boxer, Assistant D.A. Yuki Castellano, Medical Examiner Claire Washburn and Reporter Cindy Thomas. In this one we have three story lines going at once, all interesting.

The book opens with wacko Fred Brinkley firing six shots at passengers on a ferry. Four people die and Murder Club Member Claire Washburn is wounded. Brinkley is quickly arrested, but is he sane, Yuki is going to try awfully darned hard to prove he is.

Meanwhile person or persons unknown are kidnapping rich kids and their nannies. The nannies turn up without a pulse, but the children are kept by the nefarious bad guys, who warn the families that their darlings will remain alive and unharmed as long as they don't go to the cops.

And meanwhile again, there are problems a brewing in Cindy's new apartment building. Some one dispatches a dog there, sending him off to doggie heaven. Of course, a dead dog isn't enough to satisfy the killer, so he moves on up to killing the tenants. Think Cindy will find a story here?

Okay, so there you have it, three mysteries to wrap your mind around. Is it too much for one book? Not on your life. Mr. Patterson and Ms. Paetro pulled me right on in, held my interest, kept my finger turning those pages. This is a good book. I'm a big fan of Patterson's earlier work and it seems Maxine Paetro has put him right back on track. You won't go wrong with this one.

Albeit the stories in the book are good and they'll keep you reading and maybe you'll've a good time, the way Lindsay found the killers is almost preposterous.

P.S. In the very last page says in Spanish:

"Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta y no llores / porque cantando se alegran / cielito lindo."

The real translation is:

"Ay, ay, ay, ay, Sing, don't cry/ because by singing will cheer / my darling

I wasn't excited to pick this one up, but I am glad I did. It keep my attention and actually I like listening to Patterson's books....They flow, are fast paced and easy to follow.....this one didn't disappoint.

as usual James Patterson has given us a spell binding adventure in law and order with the Womens Club. I am looking forward to the TV series.

I miss Alex Cross and would love to read more of his adventures.

Dianne

I find James Patterson a guilty pleasure, but the entertainment value of his books have been slipping dramatically over the past several years. THE 6TH TARGET is the sixth book in his Womens' Murder Club series, and it's easily the worst.

This book isn't really a novel as much as it's a collection of three underdeveloped crime subplots (plus a severely underdeveloped romantic subplot). None of these storylines is particularly interesting, since Patterson devotes so little space to fleshing them out. Just when one subplot gets going, Patterson abruptly shifts gears and heads to the next one. The result is jarring, and deprives the book of any momentum. The characterization in this book is also quite negligible, which is almost a given in any Patterson book these days.

The first four novels in this series were light fun, but the last two were pretty much a waste of time. 6TH TARGET may be the last in this series that I will spend time with; there are much better books out there.

Elizabeth George in my favorite writer, and I purchased "Careless in Red" the day it came out. I was so disappointed in the reviews that it took awhile for me to start it. Big mistake. I thought it was terrific. Perhaps not quite in the league with "Playing for the Ashes" or "Deception of his Mind", but close enough. First, I did not find the characters names hard to remember, or the plot hard to follow. If you are writing about people who live in Cornwall, Tom, Dick and Harriet are not realistic choices. While I did eventually guess the murderer, it took awhile, and certainly made sense. I never found the "who" to be really important in an Elizabeth George novel, but rather the "why".

Second, I found her group of primary and secondary characters to be very appealing and sympathetic. More so then in most of her book. Reviewers who complained, surely could not be regular readers. Elizabeth George's topics have always been realistic, and some of her themes are not pretty.

Third, what do you do with a character who has lost his beloved wife and son in such a horrible manner. To me, having Lynley walk for 43 days until he stumbles upon a body, is as good as any other means for opening the book. I certainly would not have expected him to hit the bars or the booze. I liked Helen and will miss her. During the last 2 years, I have periodically re-read all 13 books, and realize while Helen may have appeared to be fluff on the outside, she was a class act with a strong inner core. I felt the same way about Daidre, who was also a class act, in different ways. She appeared to be exactly what Lynley needed to come back to the world of the living. There was nothing improper about their relationship, as some reviews have suggested. I wondered if she would reappear in future books, much down the road, as their differences would be interesting to see play out on paper. Yes, Havers comes back to aid her dear friend, and as always she is perfect. I did not like Bea, as much as some readers. At times, she appeared too much like (not in looks)to Havers, and there can only be one. With the exception of "A Place of Hiding" all of Elizabeth George's books are 4 to 5 star rating. My only criticism is that it was Helen, not Deborah, who was done away with. I can not figure out what two such dreamy men could see in such a boring, dim-wit women. 13 books, no growth, no personality, leads to boring story-line.

I started to bail on this book several times, and now I wish I had. I was intrigued by Santo's murder, since initially he didn't seem to be one who had enemies. This book is way too long. Should have been edited to make it cleaner and quicker. I like my mysteries to zip along more than this lumbering tale. I wish it were tighter, with fewer characters. Definitely one of the plot lines did not move the story along. The ending was unremarkable.

For the record, the three is based solely on the fact that like it or not the woman is a bloody brilliant writer...Now having said that.. I will take up the choice of my title...;-) I now see why a fan can learn to hate the writer... although hate is not truly how I feel, I am still not over the killing of Helen (and I speak for many of us) but also that ridiculous attempt at social statement, trying to in some way let us the readers understand, quote "what came before he shot her" unquote...a total rip off for consumers as these books are not cheap, and falsely called a Lynley/Havers novel.. to which I still take umbrage.. 'Whatever'..as in another review I wrote, I say to her: "Ms George you developed your popularity based on serial detective novels.. Dickens you are not".... But let me get back to 'Careless in Red' The only saving grace for me about this novel was the truly realistic suffering on the part of Thomas Lynley... I needed that catharsis myself.. although some readers felt it out of place, I felt it the only wise thing she has done since before the deed itself.. Why, because he was suffering unbearably just like many of us, at the loss of our beloved Helen and her unborn child.. and in doing so it made Ms George accountable for having inflicted this upon him in the first place...As a writer she must have some bond with Lynley, and so now she must look at what she caused by her decision...
The book as a whole botherd me for many reasons..Mainly most of the characters were so annoying... and self pitying.. I could go on.. As for the end of the book with a murderer getting away..another, Whatever... But I am at the mercy of the writer, because, as most fans will agree, like it or not, any book with our Barbara in it is a must read... ;-)

Really? You guys liked this book? Unfortunately for me, I read this one after I read Playing for the Ashes and a third one - can't remember the title - In all three, the author is definitely out to get the sexually adventerous libertines of the world, even if it ultimately has nothing to do with the plot (the third one I read....the one where Lynley goes to Scotland and the two young people die out on the rocky hills somewhere). Anyway, I was puzzled by the author's apparent moralistic self-righteousness until I saw of list of books by her on Amazon which includes something about loving God with all you mind. Oh, well, that explains it. Elizabeth, relax and live a little. Jesus Christ!

As a big fan of Elizabeth George and the Lynley series, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of Careless in Red. I even had the tingle excitement we "bibliophiles" get when I finally checked it out of the library. Unfortunately, the book is a major disappointment. There are too many characters, many of whom are dysfunctional, uninteresting, and depressing. The writing is laborious at points, especially all the details about surfing, waves, isobars, and minor roads in Cornwall. Lynley was present but may as well have been left out. Havers arrived too late to redeem the book, though her late arrival made the last 300 pages bearable. I never really had any desire to know who killed Santo Kerne, though I do admit I plowed ahead and finished the book... all the while waiting to start on the new Deborah Crombie book (Where Memories Lie). Readers who liked George at her best would do well to read one of Crombie's novels.

I did enjoy reading another Joanna Brady Mystery, as this series is my favorite of all the J.A, Jance books and it has been too long since the last book about Joanna Brady. But I do have to agree with another reviewer, it did jump around from one scenario to another a bit too frequently. However, it did hold my interest, I just wish it had dealt with a few less unconnected storylines and had a more absorbing mystery to get our teeth into. But I will continue to buy any of her books that come out that features Sheriff Joanna Brady, as I have followed this character from the beginning of the series. I do not like the main characters in her other series, they are not as "real" to me as Joanna is. I am glad that I purchased this book and I do recommend it, it is an enjoyable and entertaining way to pass the time. And Dennis will be older and more interesting in the next book! After all, there isn't much you can say about a four month old baby, I can understand that it is hard to work him into the storyline.

If Johanna Brady were real, I'd be in love with her! J.A. Jance continues to be a master of this genre and, as usual, produces a great addition to the Brady series. I highly recommend this book and wish she could write them faster!

Sheriff Joanna Brady is back and the suspense grabs the reader. The opening doesn't connect to the story line until the end and leaves the reader expecting the connection to occur much sooner.
Over a rough weekend Joanna's office finds themselves buried in bodies. Each is a story of a family in trouble and the reader is drawn into the lives of every character. For readers familiar with the series it it a visit with old friends you haven't hear from in a while.
DAMAGE CONTOL keeps you reading when your head tells you that you'd better spend your time elsewhere. How much better can a mystery get?
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil WarUnder the Liberty Oak

I have read the whole Joanna Brady series and was waiting impatiently for this next one to be written and published. It was good but not as good as some of the earlier ones. It is still worth a read though and I recommend it. Having lived in Tucson and Phoenix for many years I always enjoy reading books about places I am familiar with. I can never put a Jance book down until I finish it. She is a very good writer.

The best part of J.A. Jance books is that she always delivers.

THis is a strong story, with good, well-drawn characters.

It won't keep you up at night but it will entertain.