Skip this and read Don Davis
346192
If you just cannot miss reading all the horror of this case then by all means, Read "Hush Little Babies" by author Don Davis instead.  This book is mainly based on the court case which us real TC fans know spells boring and uninspired if not lazy writing.  While there are a few details included in this rendering that are not in Davis' book, it is still not worth your time.  I don't care that her mother-in-law wore stretch pants and mini boots to trial every day although the author seems fixated on it.  I read more about Darlie Routier's breast enhancement then I did about the murders or evidence.  I think Don Davis gives a fair portrayal of Ms. Routier's case as well as the prosecution's case.  I could go on for pages as to why I think Darlie is guilty but this is not the forum for that.  As a side note, I had to rip off and throw away the hideous cover to this book due to the fact I was disgusted by it and didn't want anyone to see me reading it, especially at the park with my seven year old son!  I doubt I will ever read the third book on the case by P. Springer because anyone touting Routier's innocence has clearly been duped by her soft spoken Southern charm.  She is so similar to Diane Downs and Susan Smith it is crazy.  And of side note, her ever faithful spouse Darin recently filed for divorce maybe at least he and their surviving son Drake can try and move on with their lives.
3027175
The protagonist acts like a total doofus which makes her unrelatable.  Other characters are very one-dimensional (terrible ex-wife, supportive boyfriend, 'glamorous journalist' friend, etc).  The story is kind of throw-away suspense which wraps up just fine but has no emotional impact on the people involved.

I suspect that the author a scientologist.  The protagonist that needs grief counseling/therapy so badly and yet clearly does not actually seek it out.  Instead all she goes chasing after ghosts and all she apparently thinks about is 'somebody must have seen something.'  Every time I read that line in the book (and it appears dozens of times) I just rolled my eyes and cared less and less about this character.  Writing style was also a definite meeh.

Overall not the worst, but not worth the time.
1914877
Dennis McNally authorized bio of the Grateful Dead is a missed opportunity by the author to tell a story far richer than the one he presents. The main issue is that McNally's snobbish style of writing permeates every page. He was the Dead's shoe shine boy for the latter part of their career and not the shining shine he seems to think he was. His exploitive tales of Garcia's and th eband's drug use, as well as their sexcapades, belie this book at its worse: a kiss and tell tome. Written in the immediate aftermath of Garcia's death, this book reeks of money grab. McNally should have taken his time and let this band's story brew, and not go for the afore-metioned money grab. If you want a real bio of the Dead, read Garcia by Jackson or Aces Back to Back by Allen, because this is the Star magazine version of the Dead's history.
1603583
Neil is my favorite author, so I read this twice to make sure I wasn't missing something the first time around.  This book has none of the mystery+humor that makes his other books worth reading.  The plot reads like it was conceived as it was written (or like a Dean Koonz novel, you pick which is worse).
784983
I enjoyed Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code.  I had planned to read Deception Point, but now I'm not sure I want to invest the time.  I at least need a break with a better writer.  I would argue that if this had been Brown's first novel, it would possibly not have led to a second and the critics' reviews would have been much less glowing.

It feels like a first draft.  If I had to assign it one word, that word would be TEDIOUS.  The repetion was excruciating.  The dialogue feels like it was generated by an eighth-grader.  The plot is horribly predictable.  The narrative feels like a thin veil over heavy-handed pedantry.  (If you've read The Celestine Prophecy, you know what I mean.)  Rather than tell us a good story, it seems that Brown is trying to tell us that he did a lot of research.  My wife and I agree that the book comes off as one that somehow missed the editor's eyes.  Many contrived elements appear in the text, and the characters actually display wonder at the different unrealistic circumstances, as if Brown is saying to the reader, "I know, right?" when he is actually just being lazy.

Probably the most annoying thing about this book is the fact that the characters can't just say what they discover; they have to teach it.  The protagonist(s) are trying to save the life of a friend/brother, and one would think that would boost their senses of urgency.  Instead, whenever some new development occurs, one of them becomes the teacher and the rest are idiots.  I don't know how many times I read, "I understand what you're saying," said Langdon, "but I still don't see what that has to do with X."  To which the reply is something like, "Let me put it another way.  Suppose I were to tell you that Y."  She couldn't just say, "We need to go to the Capital building--trust me!"  That this occurs over and over and over again leads me to believe that Brown has lost sight of the fact he is writing a novel.  I imagine him grinning at his "cleverness" while he writes, eager to show the world how much time he has spent a) visiting DC and b) using search engines.  He seems aroused by the fact that people will Google the elements in his book.  I'm sorry, but that doesn't make one a good writer or suggest a book is worth reading.

This book deserves the one star it receives from me because I did actually want to know what happened.  I think there is a kernel of a good book inside this one.  Probably several pages shorter, and one that a good editor could have helped tease out.  I truly think that people who enjoy this book are probably not avid readers, or perhaps more exactly, not readers who digest a wide range of books and genres.  This potboiler does make the reader want to know what happens next, but the tension comes not from the plot; it comes from having to wade through scene after scene of substandard writing.  I believe that anyone who has been bowled over by good writing at some point in his or her life would be spoiled to this book.  There is certainly room for escapist fiction, but even among those books, there are good and bad.  All reviews are subjective, of course, but I found this book the worst I've read in several years.
1375799
If you ever thought books were not worth reading if they were offered for free or self-published, this proves the point.  Anyone who gave this more than a one-star rating, has never read a good book  Dan is sleeping with the hotel receptionist while on a business trip and then finds his wife, who he left home in London, dead in his hotel bathroom; he then takes off on the run with the receptionist so he can prove his innocence -- which they will figure out how to do at some point.  Pages and pages and pages and pages of hand wringing and asking himself over and over and over who would do such a thing and lots of evasive tricks to avoid the police.  I read to the half-way point literally bored out of my mind and then began to skim through the last half.  I could sum up for you in two sentences what happens during the second half but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who acutally wants to read the book.  Suffice it to say that the BIG SUSPENSFUL SURPRISE ending has been used in movies and books thousands of time (think Body Heat) and is about as surprising as Dan is stupid.
3316467
I wanted to like this book... a lot.  I saw the cover and read the synopsis.  I was in all the way.  Why?  Because I read&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Hollow-Chocolate-Bunnies-of-the-Apocalypse-Gollancz-S-F/dp/0575074019/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz S.F.)</a>&nbsp;a couple of years ago and found the story to be very engrossing.  I would've never guessed that I would spent that many late nights completely engaged in the story of a young man named Jack and his new found friend Eddie... a toy (more importantly a stuffed bear).  Their story revolves around solving a murder mystery with both shocking and comedic results.  But where that book focused on toys and nursery rhymes, Amberville focused on just stuffed animals.  What I missed in Amberville though was the humor... but I also missed the overly serious parts that Robert Rankin could sneak in when I wasn't prepared.

I think a lot of readers and reviewers will be comparing&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Toyminator-Gollancz-S-F/dp/0575079517/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Toyminator (Gollancz S.F.)</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Hollow-Chocolate-Bunnies-of-the-Apocalypse-Gollancz-S-F/dp/0575074019/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Gollancz S.F.)</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Who-Censored-Roger-Rabbit/dp/B000FJF7KY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Who Censored Roger Rabbit?</a>, and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Who-P-P-P-Plugged-Roger-Rabbit-A-Hare-Raising-Mystery/dp/067940094X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit? A Hare-Raising Mystery</a>&nbsp;with this book - Amberville.  It's a shame that author Davys won't be placed right in there with Gary K. Wolf and Robert Rankin, because I really wanted him to be.  The idea of such a wonderful subject, like fantasy and childhood innocence merged with adult themes (i.e. crime / murder / etc.) is really a borderline psychological horror story if written right.  Or, it can be just as easily a knee-slapping comedic masterpiece or even a smart witty thinker.  Once you've compared this writing to the others of this small sub-genre, then you'll see that unfortunately Amberville didn't quite go in either direction near far enough.  Instead it was quite humdrum in parts...  This book is not bad, in fact it's pretty good and interesting.  BUT... I wanted it to be much, much better since I had such great reading experiences with Rankin and Wolf, so "bear" that in mind when seeing my disappointment.
4132520
This book drags on for over 600 pages. And "drags" is the perfect word. There's a sea-anchor here that Dan Brown uses to slow the pace to a mind numbing speed.
His characters lecture each other for our supposed benefit.
Characters describe important discoveries, "then he saw it." And we are kept in the dark. This is supposed to be suspenseful, but it's really just annoying and amateurish on Dan Brown's part.
He lies to the reader.
He misdirects the reader to stall for time. (Time equaling a dozen more useless pages.)

I can't wait for the movie because it'll actually be an improvement.
424007
Plot

Leland Davis is on a quest to find the secret behind his dads life. Who was he? How did he become the man he was? Meanwhile, Chester, his dad, is shown in his early years, developing into something he himself wouldnt have dreamed.

So we have a man after his fathers life and the fathers life. It thought the premise was fine, but the story itself was half interesting and half confusing.

Characters

Leland Davis: wealthy, owns a dog, drives a Wagoneer, parents dead, 62, blue eyes, brown/black hair

Chester Davis: Lelands dad, faux travel writer, thief, blue eyes, took martial arts, liked safecracking

Donald Thompson Richards: Nickname is Snoshu, short dark hair, brown eyes

Denny King: bar owner, dad was a cop

There were a couple more characters and the cast was interesting. I would have liked to have seen more of Donalds personality come through or at least resonate stronger because I liked him. He had a unique personality. Denny and the girl at the end were also unique.

Dialogue

Again, Donalds shows up with a good voice. There were Mr. and Mrs. Landers and I liked how they spoke.

Writing

The book is divided up into the past and present with the headings of These Days and Those Days. Those Days showed the life of Donald and Chester and how they grew up and what they became.

The author attended the James Patterson class on short chapters.

So, now the problems. How to do this without playing spoiler. About half way through I understood the beginning of the book where it listed three notorious unsolved crimes. I thought the premise of the story and Chester becoming who he was very interesting.

I did have difficulty knowing the passage of time. The book doesnt tell the ages of Chester and Donald when they had their adventures. It only explains how they grew from children to young men, but the specifics on time didn't go well for me.

One major confusion was that a major portion of Lelands These Days scenes...werent real. I won't tell anymore but that didn't settle well with me. The author tried some coincidence type stuff at the end and that didn't work either. It happened too quick.

Because of this the story fell apart and became confusing. Leland visits the site of his fathers death but there didn't seem to be anything relevant in that. He learns who and what his father was...but how he discovered it wasn't explained. It it was, I missed it. Because of this, Donalds story didn't fill out like it should have.

I was disappointed after it was revealed that pages and pages of story didn't actually happen. And from then on I tried to find a point to the whole thing. Unfortunately, I couldnt.

My Rank:

Camouflage Belt
7782
Oh my goodness!

It's not a good sign when it takes me a month (on and off) to read one moderately-sized Ted Dekker novel. I don't say it often but I'm glad I'm finished with "Mortal" - the second book in "The Books of Mortals" series. This story was a real chore to read. As in the first book, "Forbidden", there are some intriguing ideas to be had but the characters are extremely dull (save one or two) and details of the world are kept to a minimum, leading more to confusion than just having enough details to encourage the reader to connect the dots to create their own understanding of the world. The final nail in the coffin, and perhaps the biggest, is that the story is so generic and reminiscent of Ted's other works (particularly "The Circle Quartet" and "Immanuel's Veins") it hurts. The story also shares many similarities with a much better series by Eric Wilson, "Jerusalem's Undead Trilogy". The last 60 pages of "Mortal" are some of Ted's best work (could be Tosca's influence though) but it's far too late in the game to save this story. I don't recommend this novel at all.

4/10
4628754
As an "inhaler" of all Lee Child / Jack Reacher books, anxiously awaiting the next installment in September, I picked up this book from the Prime Lending library. All because of the "Lethal Circuit (for Robert Ludlum and Lee Child fans #1) by Lars Guignard" teaser inserted by Amazon. Thankfully, I didn't buy it. First of all it's the length of a long short story. The writing is OK, but the story line is beyond absurd and the "clues" leading our hero from step to step in the discovery process are utterly unbelievable - both while you are reading and again when reviewing upon completion. This should be categorized "fantasy" ... or perhaps "avoid".
1002606
See what I did there? I grabbed the lowest common denominator (something 100% of readers will recognize) in an effort to make you think:

Get used to it.
Ernest Cline makes an average of about 2 references a page to Nerd/SciFi/80's music. In fact, I tried turning it into a drinking game, but I don't recommend it. You'll get wasted every reading session. It gets to be extremely distracting, and goes to show that Ernest Cline doesn't think much of his readers' intelligence if he has to constantly drop nostalgia bombs to keep them interested in this paper thin plot. I thought about the same of Ready Player One, and was always confused by its high rating. The lower rating of Armada indicates that maybe the readers are catching on and aren't quite as stupid as Cline thinks we are.

This book seems to be on the verge of self awareness of what it is. I laughed out loud when a character calls his mom and exclaims "I guess all those years I spent playing video games weren't wasted, eh?" But let's be clear. This is erotic fan fiction for video game addicts (or former addicts) who are in their late 20's or 30's and are starting to realize that they maybe wasted a sh**load of their youth on the wrong things (I don't mean to preach about how to spend your time, but let's be real here). Armada runs with the idea that the thousands and thousands of hours spent on video games, sci-fi movies, Dungeons and Dragons, etc. might not be wasted. They'll come in handy when it comes time to save the world, and of course will land you a hot girl while you're at it!

There's too many aggravating cliches to continue that rant. Let's just say anyone with average problem solving skills will be enraged at most of the actions the characters take. Though if I only reviewed the story line, this would be a very short review indeed. Every teen fiction stereotype is included, from a few deaths you are supposed to care about but don't, to the most shallow romance ever fictionalized (I didn't think it could get more shallow than Ready Player One's). Again, it's just the wet dream of a nerdy guy who wishes his gaming, D&D skills, and 80's hair metal knowledge will get him laid. The asinine self centered-ness of teen fiction heroes also shows up when tens of millions of people are killed, and our unlikable protagonist is more concerned with fist bumping his bros. Finally, the "twist" is so predictable, that you will guess it within a few pages, but for the rest of the book question whether the author could really write something so unbelievably easy.

Maybe I'm still drunk from taking a sip every time Ernest Cline name-drops some iconic nerd culture nostalgia, but as I read that Cline reportedly has already sold the movie rights for a seven figure sum... It's no wonder we get watered down crap from authors that are looking to write a book they can retire on.

I'm not the kind of person who gives a 1 star rating out of spite trying to lower the average. I don't think I've ever busted out the 1 on goodreads before! I truly think this is a 1/5 star book.
4631961
Hey, practice makes perfect. I can understand that, but I don't like wasting my time reading the ugly stumbles of an author trying to find his style. This is especially if you have already read The Davinci Code (A very good book). Angels and Demons is not a 'precursor' to the Davinci Code. It is a shoddy first draft with some slight alterations in the names of the characters and the cults. Even worse (for me at least), Brown's foray's into science are pitiful. It's as if he read a couple of 3 sentence science reports from The Reader's Digest and tried to weave an entire novel around them. This contrasts to his apparently decent knowledge of cults, sects, and societies exhibited in the Davinci code. In general, Brown's thinking is quite muddled. Here are some silly ideas from the book...

Energy and matter are interchangeable (E=MC^2)THEREFORE God must exist.

The X-33 spaceplane is the commuter plane of choice for european physicists.

It's OK to secretly store 1000's of kilotons of explosives (antimatter) in magnetic coke cans in the middle of a populated research institution without telling anyone.

Re-reading the Davinci code would be far more satisfying than trudging through this book.
2559680
Very disappointed; could have been a good plot but ruined by escapades that were beyond belief; i.e. speed boat travelling for many hours at sea above world record set on calm lake over a shorter period. I can accept some stretches of the imagination in stories but there were too many to give any credence to the yarn. Doubt if I will follow this Author.
Dan Brown can rest in peace, no competition.
4364621
I am a big fan of the comics, but this book was a letdown. I can't believe that Kirkman put his name on this thing.  Without ruining the book for the rest of you, the ending seemed rushed and unrealistic.  My biggest problem is that the writer tries to add depth to the story with details that are wrong.  Bonansinga can obviously tell a decent story, but he needs to have someone fact check these stories.
My first issue is the lack of firearms knowledge.  Bonansinga talks about people with 20 gauge combat shotguns, unrealistic .22 caliber pistol ballistics, and .33 caliber shotgun pellets(WTF)?  Just Google "shotgun pellet sizes" and you find a table of this.
Secondly, the author has no clue about the explosive properties of diesel versus gasoline.  Diesel does not burn blue when lit on fire.  A diesel van lit on fire, and will not go up in a mushroom cloud "with the violent brilliance of a supernova".  Diesel also makes poor molotov cocktails. Trust me on this.
Last, but not least, is the Ford S-10 they drove away in.  Jay, Chevy makes the S-10.  These are easy facts to check! I suppose I should be happy that either way, they made there escape from the plantation in something American made.
This is not an all inclusive list of the problems, but the most distracting in my opinion.  Any good story relies on facts.  Maybe in The Walking Dead world Chevy makes the S-10, and diesel is a combination of C-4 and nitroglycerin?  Details ruined this book, and has added nothing to the series.  Don't waste your time.
1683581
Awful story telling from a novice author.

The plot lines and narration are jumbled. Flashbacks (which are half the story) are convoluted and nested, leaving the reader confused. Often contradictory descriptions as if the author forgot what he said about a character previously.

This book doesn't do the comic book genre justice, nor is it an entertaining spoof of it. Rather it is like reading the worst of a bad DC milieu during the late 70s / early 80s without the artwork.

You can definitely skip this title.
1842096
I have to agree with some of the other reviews and say this was not worth the time that I invested to read this book.  Far too much time in this book was spent on back ground stuff from the previous books.  It almost seemed that the author made a point to have the characters travel to the locations of the previous stories either to rehash some of the high points of what happened in the previous books in an attempt to get those who are new to the series to go back a read the first 7 books or because there could not come up with enough new material for the book.  Along similar lines, I thought that this story ended rather abruptly like the author didn't really know how to finish it and there was a deadline looming so....poof the end.

Finally, the author(s) have gotten lazy and are not doing their research.  This story is supposed to take place in the 2007 time frame, 5 years after SECDEF Rumsfeld's memo stating that the title of Commander-in-Chief (CINC) was reserved for the president only was written.  Since then combatant commanders have been referred to as Commander, such as Commander, U.S. Central Command.  And while on the topic of CENTCOM, the authors obviously don't understand the nature and authority of the combatant commanders (COCOMs) and they give way too much authority in this story to the CENTCOM Commander.  CENTCOM is not routinely called in by the President or heads of various Departments or Agencies to discuss world wide matters, further, CENTCOM has no authority to take any action in Mexico or any other place outside the CENTCOM AOR....it takes 5 minutes and Google to figure that out.  It's almost as bad as saying that Daniel Boone died along side Davy Crockett at the Alamo when in reality he died 16 years prior to the Alamo....again 5 minutes and Wikipedia go along way....

It's sad to see how far the quality of WEB Griffin's "work" has fallen.  I've been reading his books for years but as time has passed and others have done more of the writing, the quality has suffered.