A very well put together novel
588740
Harold Middleton is a former war crimes investigator. He was heading back to the States when he was detained. He thought it was because he held in his possession an unscripted manuscript of composer, Frederic Chopin. The police inform Harold that he is a suspect for murder. Harold is the most unlikely person to commit murder or is he? Also what Harold thought was a fake manuscript has turned out to be the real deal. Join Harold as he races from Poland to America in The Chopin Manuscript.

In The Cooper Bracelet, Harold returns after his wild adventure with the police and the Chopin manuscript. Only this time Harold's wife is involved. This story will have readers traveling to even more countries as an international plot has been implemented.

Author, M.J. Rose explains the concept for Watchlist. Back in 2004 when she joined the International Thriller Writers, she wanted to bring notice to thriller writes. Though how do you do so in a new and exciting way? She can up with the idea of releasing a book one chapter at a time on audio. The most important step of all is how will authors respond to this idea and how do you get them to buy in? Well as Ms. Rose describes, it is very easy... you just pick up the phone and call the authors. So many authors said yes that Ms. Rose herself lost a spot in this book. Mr. Deavers was the brain child behind the plot and main character. The rest was up to the other authors to write how this story should play out. Watchlist is composed of two stories...The Chopin Manuscript and the sequel, The Cooper Bracelet.

Calling all thriller/suspense/mystery fans...If you have not heard of or checked out Watchlist then you should. Ever since I first saw this book in hardback, I have wanted to read this book. I can tell you that this book was pretty much right up there with my expectations of it. It had the suspense, a good plot, and some of the best authors to help the story along as well as the characters.
3239845
It was a very well written and thought out plot
4252676
Very surprised at how complex this novel turned out to be. The characters are funny and believable. The story was fast moving and engaging. I liked it and can't wait for the next one.
4518158
Terrific read.  Really got in to all the characters.  You can't go wrong with this well put together novel.  Can't wait for the sequel.
794260
This is a great novel. Clearly well above the average novel. I found myself hooked until the end and wanting even more of it. The author made an incredible job writing this. I've been looking for a book about this topic on amazon for quite a while and im very satisfied that i found this piece of art. Well done.
1101584
This is a very professionally written novel. The characters are well developed/described. The scenes are well described and appropriate for locale. The characters are also well developed. As my Grandpappy would say,"the men were MEN, and the women were glad of it." Sometimes the action was a little too fast. I never knew how Billy got from the gun fight on the bridge to being a prisoner of  Zufar.  (Did I fall asleep??)''' I appreciated that the author did not pick a political side to emphasize  in this book. In my opinion: a good read!  Roberta Lyle
3450481
I really enjoyed this novel.  I read it in one sitting and would recommend it to others who enjoy well developed characters with complex human emotion.
4301844
This book is really excellent, especially considering it is a first novel for the author. Yes it is long, but necessary to establish this complex world and corresponding characters.  Plenty of action and very well written. I am looking forward to the next volume. I hope and expect that he will add some romance as the main characters mature. Doesn't need to be X-rated just PG-13.
3855801
I enjoyed this book a great deal. Not only is the main character very well thought out, but there are a few supporting characters I am very interested in following to the next story.
666223
A well researched and crafted novel, action packed and detailed scene setting
3688535
You can tell by reading this book that the author knows his material very well, and that the characters have been very well created, one would say from real life.  This is a very believable novel, with strong characters with deep, complicated personalities.  The struggle against a large institution and the attempts to address this is something I can relate to.  This book is worth reading and rereading.
3895684
The first thing that impressed me about the novel was its scope  just reading the blurb put me in mind of the kind of Space Opera that Peter F Hamilton writes, and though I knew not to expect something similar, I was damned surprised but just how detailed the universe that Steve created is.

Earth has been left behind (a major catastrophe struck the planet, forcing humanity to leave behind the homeworld), and now inhabit what is called the Sphere of Humanity  a region of space encompassing hundreds (if not thousands) of planets linked by wormhole-travel. The Sphere is governed by the Administration, but they have their own control-struggle going on with the Games Board, a faction that runs every conflict and war for entertainment value and ratings. Its unlike anything Ive encountered in SF before, and Steve does an awesome job exploring the factions and their policies, motives and technology.

A word of warning, though  Steve doesnt spoonfeed the reader. You may find yourself a bit lost in the beginning, as there are many names and acronyms youll read that you won't immediately understand, but if you're patient youll experience how everything builds into a coherent and understandable picture, and youll see just how many threads and ideas Steve packed into this novel.

Character-wise, there are plenty of stand-outs, with a slight leaning toward one character, Marko, but Steve gives everyone their time in the spotlight. Each member of the crew has specific abilities that not only set them apart but also bring them together in innovative ways, especially when they need to do something or build something. Theres a real sense of camaraderie among the crew, though there are the odd disagreements.

One aspect of the novel that readers might find strange is how Steve writes dialogue  its not something Im used to, but in this case it worked well for me, and also went a long way to showing how each character thinks and experiences a situation.

The world-building of this novel is pretty damned cool, and Im sure book one hasn't yet scratched the surface of the universe Steve has built  you find out how wormholes are created, what goes into the making of weapons and armour, how long it takes to travel into orbit and then back down again, just how to deal with not being able to use wormholes to travel vast interstellar distances Im no expert, but it seems clear to me that Steve put a hell of a lot of thought into this book, looking at things from many angles to make sure he had covered all his bases and knew what he was talking about. Granted, this is SF and Space Opera, so were dealing with technologies that don't exist (yet), but you get my meaning. :-)

The battles in the book (and there are plenty) are not only excellent but interesting, too, as Markos crew are drawn into conflicts that test their knowledge as well as their abilities to react and work as a team. And the relationships between the crew grow and change throughout the book  there aren't any static characters here, another aspect of the novel that keeps things interesting.

Taken all together, I really enjoyed this book  its the kind of Space Opera (layered with Military SF) that is fun, engaging, interesting and intelligent, with great characters, excellent world-building and cool action. All SF-readers should be reading this  Im pretty sure you won't regret it!
2774839
A little of everything thrown together making for a most enjoyable read.
3012190
I found this novel while browsing Amazon.  I almost passed over it, as I had not heard of the author, but it appealed to my interests in philosophy, religion, and sex.  The book is also set very much in the legal world, which meant that much of it was relevant to me, and the various characters depicted all seemed entirely plausible.  I am very glad that I bought it.

The previous reviewer is correct in that the author clearly has a first-rate mind.  His breadth of knowledge - the law, academia, the church, philosophy the arts (especially, opera), and wine - is staggering.  All of this is woven into a book with strong characters and a plot that grips you from the start.  It isn't an easy read and sometimes one feels that Zahorski has so much to say that he should be saying it in a series of novels, but it's a brilliant, intelligent, sophisticated, and gripping read, and I hope we shall see more from Zahorski - clearly a promising novelist - in the future.

Oh, there is some quite bad sex along the way though.
4846210
I really enjoyed this novel. I am not usually a big fan of sci-fi books because I often found many such works full of laughable imaginative details that are at most at a K-school level. However, this book is different. The scientific details are very well designed and almost plausible. I think this benefits from the fact that the author herself is a real-life scientist. The story plot is well developed and full of nice twsits. The only complaint I have is the begining is a bit chaotic and may be hard to understand particularly for someone who never read her other books. This seems to be the style of this particular author, because her other works received similar criticisms about their chaotic beginings. However, after you passed the first five pages, everything starts to make sense and become enjoyable.
1130991
This is one of the finest novels I ever read. The intricately woven plot, the elaborate character and scene descriptions are all awesome. The novel kindled in me an amateurish interest in astrology; I have to research further how each character is tied to the zodiac sign and/or the planets/stars. The novel is a bit slow to take off - first 45% of the novel goes to describing the mystery from the perspective of various characters but it pays off to be persistent. The mystery starts to unravel in the last quarter of the novel but the plot is so elaborate that the reader is kept hooked till the very end. I would suggest to would-be readers that they read the novel in large chunks in preferably more alert times because of the extensive level of the plot details. All in all, a terrific novel and the author rightly deserves the Booker.

Now some cribs about the Kindle edition. The issues are minor and few but they indicate that ebooks are still an afterthought to the publishers. For some weird reason, the table of contents is at the end of the book. There are a few places where words got jumbled or missed; I am sure that this is not the case with the hardcover or paperback editions. Especially towards the end, page numbers jump by more than 1. I hope they have not missed any pages, at least I did not detect any discontinuity in the plot. The beginning page of Part XI was actually marked as Part XII. All these are minor but it is not possible to ignore the notion of step-motherly treatment by the publisher. It is high time that Kindle editions have absolutely the same high quality standards as the hard copy versions do.
2882479
This is a very compelling and well-paced novel.  There were a few distracting run-on sentences that I would have thought an editor could have helped rework with the author, but otherwise an extremely readable story.  This author has a remarkable talent for setting scene and character.  One final minor criticism is that I wish that the author would have found a way to finish with the narrator back in his old age in Pennsylvania, just to emotionally bring us full circle.