Invisible killer is a decent book but could have been much better.
921662
There are some very true and chilling Insights in "invisible killer".Though the authors co-op writing style leaves a bit to be desired with lots if repeated information and very disjointed timelines.
2457723
With its flashy premise involving an Alaskan serial killer returned to add to his spree of killings after a five year hiatus, this book starring FBI agent Jessica Harding is certainly attention-grabbing. And with its high body count and gruesome killings, it is a pretty exciting read. It is well-edited and fast-paced. It lacks, however, sufficient depth in its characters. Even the main character feels a bit shallow and certainly is not a dynamic character. The book has a realistic feel with its settings, and perhaps it is this that adds to making the cast of characters feel so stiff, and never as genuine as the described landscapes. The killer, especially, along with his means and motives is never properly explored. All in all, the book has the slight undertone that the rest of the federal government doesn't care much for Alaska, and that's just the way they like it, too. The storyline, though, is exciting enough - and these flaws in the characterization would probably go unnoticed in a made-for-TV adaptation of the story. There are aspects of the story, like the Old Believers, that are particularly interesting. It isn't a terrible book by any means, but it isn't a wonderful one, either. What makes this all the more disappointing, is that the potential is there for this to be a much more engaging and exciting serial killer story.
3572863
Red Moon is a horror novel with werewolves (lycans).  Lycans are an obvious symbol for terrorists and terrorism and race and racism and a bunch of other -isms you can probably work out for yourself.  This correlation is so obvious that it's hardly worth mentioning, but the ways the obvious drives the story are at the core of the book's flaws and that's why I mention it.

About two-thirds of Red Moon is a decent little story about two teenagers from different worlds taking different paths, but moving alongside each other.  Their meeting and friendship are unlikely, but this drives the story.  There is peril of the Romeo and Juliet kind as both pox their houses and fall into a love that ends in predictable disaster.  It's not a great or original story, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading.

Sadly, the last third of the book begins with a terrorist attack that decimates much of the US and its dystopian aftermath.  This plot line doesn't have to be terrible, but it is in Mr. Percy's execution as he takes a story that is intimate within the whole of its world into one that is more like a disaster-thriller - all action, no characters.  I kept wanting Shelley Winters to appear to lighten the load as if America had become an overgrown Poseidon Adventure.

Mr. Percy has written what is intended to be a serious book - rising above its genre to tell us an allegory about hate and the injustices that are done because of it - and that's the problem.  The seriousness of the literary attempt gets in the way of the story.  The author's choices are painfully obvious ones and even the naming of the werewolves as Lycans is unoriginal (see also the Underworld movies).  A focus on style over substance makes this book less successful than it might have been.  Read the first two-thirds and skip the rest.
1480818
Output is an engaging, fast-paced zombie thriller that is fun but very derivative. He sets his crew far in the North which is a good way to isolate his characters but ultimately fell flat. "Terror" by Dan Simmons was far better and in the end, the cold carried little force. Even Scott Sigler's "Ancestor" felt far more frozen even though the bulk of that was set in the Great Lakes. Baker gave a mildly interesting explanation for the zombie's abilities, but again it's nothing new. We had a bit of messianic insanity but it felt like a weak mirror of "The Stand" by Stephen King. Even the way some infected could talk to others in their insanity felt like it was copied from "The Shining" and "The Regulators" (also by King). I liked that he made his main character an obese, suicidal woman in a very male-dominated environment but in a few pages her suicidal impulses disappeared and in a couple chapters she seems to have slimmed down to a Ripley-esque fighting force so that hint of originality was quickly squashed. (Where  she found new clothing on an isolated rig was never explained.)

In the end, I found that I read it quickly and eagerly (good!) but was always disappointed by how bland everything was turning out to be. That said, if he could make such a derivative book still feel interesting, I will happily read whatever he writes next.
1325608
It was well written and believable as far as being the voice of John Winchester, but it could have been a lot better. When this book came out I was excited to read it as I am a huge fan of the show. It started off good enough, but the farther into it that you read it becomes less like a journal about the trials of surviving in a life submerged in a supernatural world and more like a course book on mythology. As you read the anecdotes about the three Winchester men begins to diminish and it's just his difficult to follow notes on different beings and the folklore behind the stories. I can assure you it is not any where as interesting as the show. I was pretty disappointed.
4681691
I really enjoy these Ghostwalker books and it was good but could have been better.

Ken was a great tortured bad boy hero, but I don't think he went all that well with Mari. Here you have a women who not only has been repeated raped and beaten as part of a "breeding" program but has also been completely controlled and manipulated since she was a child.  So it is hard to accept that what she feels for Ken is not just pheromones and that her soul mate is a controlling man who only get sexual satisfaction through rough sex. If you can get past that, it is a typical action packed ghostwalker read, with more parts of the conspiracy coming to light.

The resolution at the end was quick and a bit disappointing, I thought that the author had set up perfectly to leave the reader hanging and lead into her next book. In fact I was totally prepared. Instead she gave the reader quick gratification and the predictable ending.
2707555
I've enjoyed all the Ceepak books, and this one's not bad. The mystery of whodunnit isn't much of a mystery, and the ending felt rushed and implausible. Annoyingly, the name of the murder victim is mixed up with the name of the murderer at the end of the book. It's like neither the author nor the editor cared enough to notice. Maybe a change of venue would help. Too many sensational murders in one small beach town already.
2332139
Overall, the book had decent pacing and an interesting premise. The first couple of chapters detailing the mother daughter relationship were well written. However, I had thought this book would be much more suspenseful/more of a mystery than it actually was. Many questions remained unanswered at the end. I skimmed through much of the mother's chapters in the middle and end simply because they were uninteresting and did not offer much to advance the plot or character.
3546820
Sarah's Diary is the story of a teenage girl caught up in a world full of unanswered questions and inconceivable loss. The premise of the story is interesting, but the outcome could have been better. I don't want to overly criticize, by any means, considering the author has a published book, but I found Sarah's voice more annoying than anything. Maybe it was just the way he (the author) wanted to characterize her, but I didn't feel any sympathy for her. I also felt the end to be rushed and left hanging in limbo. There were a lot of loose ends left hanging, and unless a sequel is forthcoming, that leaves the reader feeling a loss. To be honest, I'm glad I got this book for free when it was offered as such. Good effort, but could be reworked into a better story.
3397729
I've read many other books by John Van Stry, and this is the first book I was disappointed in. That said, I'm still giving it three stars; it's a decent book, but it's not as good as the author's other books. I'd characterize this book as an action-oriented urban fantasy with elements of a political thriller.

First, the good. The book includes well-written action scenes and a good plot. Character development is light, but that's OK for this style of book.

Now the bad. The villain is severely underdeveloped. We have no insight into the villain's motives until we get to a piteously short monologue at the end of the book. While John creates some mystery about the villain's identity -- this would be the 'political thriller' part of my characterization of the book -- I think it's poorly done, since I was able to identify the villain within the first quarter of the book. The book is slow to start; I put it down and almost didn't pick it back up.

The other books in this world (Wolf Killer and The King of Las Vegas) are both much better books.
3887805
Divergent was a decent book with great potential. The writing was enthralling enough to keep the readers into the story but at times it seemed to lack something. The dystopian aspect of the story was nonexistent; there could have been so much more done with it! The adventure is good and the main character is fairly well written. I was impressed by how well Roth kept up the first person point of view, it worked out well. I found myself disappointed that so many things were so predictable and the build up was so minimal that it made things that should have been surprising, a little boring. Still, the book was not bad. It was a good, quick read and I think many who aren't into the darker side of dystopian books will enjoy it. It definitely had a better story that Twilight, lol.
9372
This book is about average for a romantic-suspense/mystery novel but not quite as good as the first two entries in the series.

Nobel put enough twists in to elevate this story from run-of-the-mill status.  I would have liked to have seen more of what Kendall discovered revealed over the course of the story instead of in an info dump chapter after the climax.

On the downside, Nobel spent too many words detailing Kendalls confusion/doubts/angst over her relationship with Tally.  She spent almost as many words describing Arizona sunrises and sunsets.  Both could have been trimmed drastically without destroying the story.
158625
This is the first book Ive read by Hendrik Falkenberg. I had a few problems with the book.

A man is discovered crucified on a deserted beach. It is later discovered that he was a porn star. A woman is murdered in a painful way. These two people are members of the same quasi-religious group. Later another member is killed. The cops on the case bumble around. We learn far more about the young detectives personal life than is necessary. Further, the police in this story seemed clueless and pretty incompetent.

All in all just an okay read.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
3085511
This book was not bad but Iwould have preferred to spend the time reading something more interesting.
214684
well i just happened to see this book browsing through amazon.
The book has various chapters and each chapter is written from point of view of a character.

the books theme is good and could have been brought forward even better.
The characters were decently defined.
i was lost in lots of descriptions and side stuff and lost interest in between.

Book ended nicely for the sequel though
would rate it 3/5
182381
Shut Your Eyes Tight is the second novel to feature Dave Guerney, the highly decorated, retired NYPD detective now living in upstate New York.  Guerney is enticed into an investigation where a bride has been beheaded at her wedding reception.  The obvious suspect is nowhere to be found and the police investigation is stalled.  Guerney is hired by the victim's mother to investigate the murder.  Guerney uncovers clues that the police have overlooked and the investigation focuses on sex crimes, a sex procurement business and a school for young sexual predators.
I thought the mystery element of this book was very satisfactory.  The plotting was complex and engrossing and the denouement was quite good.  The story really needs better editing though, and at 500+ pages it was just too long.  Many passages share the detective's thoughts and doubts and really doesn't advance the story.  The other disappointment I had was Guerney's personal life didn't progress at all.  He still has a poor relationship with his son, if the author is not going to develop this side story just leave it out of the book.  He still has a poor relationship with his wife.  I found the passive/aggressive wife to be a very inconsistent character, again not really well developed or very appealing.  I think the author needs to jettison all of his personal life if he can't do a better job developing it in subsequent books.
So in summary, this book doesn't improve on the promising debut novel Think of A Numb3r but I'll probably read the next in the series in hopes that this author can sharpen his writing.
468571
This book has a good story that is engaging but is slow in points. The main issue I have is parts of this book resemble more of a survival checklist rather than a story. In more places than I could count the author lists parts or components or things found. Lists for the sake of lists, that don't do anything to more the story along. At these points in the story it felt more like I was reading his blog than a story. To a lesser extent I found the talk of Christian values by the characters at the same time as they had no remorse for killing very cold. Even if it's in self defense, you just killed a man. I would expect more thoughts from someone than he's "well ventilated". I really like these, it could happen soon how we are going to survive type books, so I found the premise to my liking and enjoy the same genre I think you will too.