ANOTHER BAD BOY BITES THE DUST
588807
Low slung gun, all dressed in black, dark, dangerous attitude - Yup, this guy is a gunslinger!
But wait, he is neither pushy or discurtiest - Mattie's refusal to lodge this stranger does not push him to violence.
Herman and Andy are fishing when they hear some shots - they investigate and find the gunslinger back shot.  When Andy runs pellmell to Mattie and informs her of their find she sends for Sheriff Atwater and Dr. Kevin Murphy.  He is courting Mattie.
One thing leads to another what with Beaudry running a fever and Mattie having to change his dressings and some weeks later spending a day fishing an attraction develops - mostly reawakened lust and emotions that neither wishes to acknowledge.
Clint Beaudry will make no promises until he catches his wife, Emily's killer and Mattie will not force any promises that cannot be kept.
Ah, the monkey wrench gets thrown into the mix when Clint leaves on his search for the rider of the palomino.  Then Clint meets up with a bottle of whiskey and comes to a very big decision.
What a great story when Clint finally gives into Sheriff Atwater's request to hold down the fort as he heals.
Yup, you don't want to pass up this story - wonderful characters and great situations leading to a wonderful love story.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- Whoops! Mattie demanded her night. And got it.
69722
After such a great part one in Wired this turned out to be a typical poor sequel. I was somewhat disappointed.
2660407
This one had me worried for a while.  The previous books in the series had me rooting for the main male character in this book.  I also had another character I was hoping would get what he deserved.
4127530
This series started out strong, but just fizzled out under its own weight.  Too many bad guys, too many plots, too many contrived twists, too many POVs and too much time between book releases really weighed this down.  This book was much like the last one - light of action, almost devoid of sexy time, and long on banal descriptors of scenery and activity that added nothing to the plot or the characters but went a long way toward meeting a word count.  Over the course of the five books - which mind you took place over just a 4 month time span - every character except for Patrick had complete personality transformations.

I like this author, but Into the Light/Away from the Dark put this series to shame.
3018672
It might be time to end the WEB Griffin books. The last few releases in each series have been ho-hum at best. It is time for him to rest on his laurels.  The Vigilantes is a perfect example of the downfall. Everything that made his books wonderful was missing in this one. No character building and no suspense. It will be the last new release Griffin book I purchase.
1020587
Sad ending to a man who really was a good guy, but liked to be known as a heal and a cad.  He loved his wife's and had little to say about them that was poor.  Spent his money like there was no tomorrow and provides a good amount of dirt and lets face it - that's why we read !
4655347
This is the last of the series that I can say I enjoyed. Even then I thought there was too much running around, and not enough figuring things out by our hero. For a guy who can foreshadow and is allegedly pretty smart, Alex keeps doing dumb things. He's spent 4 books reacting to everything, and at some point he needed to just up and get out of London if things were going to continue to be this unsafe for him and his friends. For a series that started off well and was enjoyable, it's sad that it's merely tolerable by book 5, and books 6 and 7 are just blah. Where most series become more interesting, and the writers become more polished with characters they have worked with over multiple books, that's not the case with Jacka and this series. Every book it feels like he's writing for these characters for the first or second time. The writing itself doesn't become easier to read, unlike Butcher and Aaronovitch became as their similar series went along. This is the last book I bought for the series, and borrowed the next two from a friend. I won't be reading past 7, as it's become more of a chore than it should.
4661051
A disappointing close to a disappointing run. I enjoyed Red Hood and the Outlaws. Let's hope that Red Hood/Arsenal was an aberration and that the new Outlaws will be worthy once again.
833692
Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor is one interesting protagonist, but he's gotten to be too much work. What I found refreshing and new nine books ago, is now just annoying:Jack's banter, the jerky style of dialogue, the ode to other writers and their work, the repetition of pet phrases, "I s***e thee not," is wearing. In addition, Bruen strung out a story that could  have been written in one third of the pages he used to drag out the tale. But the biggest disappointment to me was the ending. Jack himself must have been horrified that the ending only set up the next installment where the reader might get the whole story at last.

Purgatory is not representative of Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series. If this was your first Jack Taylor, give Bruen another chance. Go back and read the early books and you will find the charm, wit, characters, and intriguing story line that earned Jack Taylor loyal fans. As for me, I've served my purgatory with Jack and will "go and sin no more."
3460811
Wow! What a ride. And not in a good way. The author of these books is so concerned with the main character being a "badass" that his writing comes off as sophomoric. Prediction: the big bad guy will eventually turn out to be Zeus.
The 1st person focus makes this series too narrow. Nathan is not a compelling character. All he does is get into fights and spouts silly "badass" lines. He is supposed to only look like he is in his 20's, not have the mindset of an adolescent.
I love the world the author has created, but his writing is not up to his imagination.
4318587
Another alpha male, with a feisty female character refusing to admit her feelings for her alpha-male.  I love the characters in the book, but it's getting redundant.  After reading the first three in the series in a row, I need a break from them.  Again, the characters in the book are great!!!  There were some humorous scenes with the parents invading.  It was great, but same thing over again.  I get it, the guys are all in the same industry, so it's going to be...
4842149
When this series started I was happy I found a new book to read and the first book started off really well. To me it seems that as the books progress the main character Nate get weaker instead of stronger and makes more enemies than allies. He gets beat up too much! How can such a supposedly powerful character get beat up so much and all of the villain get the best of him and he has to be rescued. This series just got bad for me. I think I'm done with this author. I don't recommend this series until the author makes the main character a real power to be reckoned with.
1923390
Weakest of the series so far for me.

If you have come this far with the series then for sure keep going.  For me though... I could not help but notice a few things that soured this book for me.  One...  We are made to care about a thief, drug abuser and dealer.  ??? What!  This is not the person I want my hero fighting and killing over.  Two... This book had much less of the things which made the previous books wonderful.  Travel to exotic locations? no.  Detailed descriptions of his rugged do-it-yourself resourcefulness?  not so much.  The third big thing which struck me is that this is the most episodic of the series.  The main side story relies on happenings in previous stories and does not explain them.  I just read those books a few months ago and I was lost.  Now, they are a main part of the characters conflicts.  On top of that our hero forces others to break the oath of secrecy and then freely shares those secrets with the saying that honor makes this right.  err... if you give your oath to keep secrets then breaking them is in no way good.

Finally, the book ends in that disgusting way that a few of the others do... our hero gets knocked out or injured with the resolution happening by others while he is unconscious.  ARRG!

The one saving grace for me is that the author prices these quick episodes at a bargin for the first day.  This lets me grab them at a discount.  If I would have had to fork over $3-4 I'd be miffed to the point that I would not bother.

What I'd like to see is more of the goodness of the first few novels.  More travel... more descriptions of the daily life of the keys which is paradise to many of us. The final wish is I'd love to see our hero finish it himself without getting knocked out.  Wear a helmet next time or something!
3003225
What I liked most about this book was the way the islanders adapted to their situation.  All aspects of this, setting up a government, getting food, exploring the mainland, and so on were very good.
But, once the bad guy emerged it went downhill pretty fast.  This is your typical kind of really evil and really lucky bad guy, he always manages to get away for more evil doings.
The following volume to this series is useless, don't bother with it unless you really liked the bad guy from the first book.  There is another after that that I didn't even attempt to read.
2537135
I'm almost finished with the Bosch series and it looks like things are going a little 'South' in terms of quality -- the two that followed this were disappointing. I'm hoping 'The Drop' and 'Black Box' redeem.
1759983
I don't think I've read a really good (5-star) Western with Johnstone's name on it since he died.  This was a good story, with good characters, but the repeated failure of Perley to deal out justice that was deserved was irritating.  Of course, each time the liberal-leaning BS came back to haunt him, I was rooting for the bad guys!  I'm hoping the next story in this series shows Perley has learned from his reluctance to kill and does what is necessary to survive in the old West.  Too bad the family can't find authors like Chuck West to write real Bill-Johnstone-style Westerns.
Norm
4866749
I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but this one - not so much. It almost felt like it had been written by someone else under JHB's name.

The relationship between Tera and Tucker did not have the emotional complexity and nuance that is a hallmark of JHB's writing. In fact Tera's character was especially clichd.

It drove me NUTS that the name of the Senator's older son changed in this book. His name was not Connor in Book 1 or 2!  Really poor form.

I also found it amusing that a good ol' Southern boy referred to condoms as "rubbers". That's not what we usually call them on this side of the pond - and not what the guys called them in books 1& 2. (Yes, I did a search).

Disappointing end to a great series.