M. Regina

When will doormat lead women characters cease to be?

Revisado: 12-06-24

The book is a quick read with great whodunnit clues. The end is not too obvious. Try to catch it on sale though. The lead character, supposedly a deputy sheriff, is a submissive in a job that requires a firm backbone. She need not be Jessica Jones or Xena, but she shld at least speak up for herself and her achievements! My goodness! I had to check the publication date for this book. This character fits one written in the more blatantly sexist 1970s or 80s, not 2022's kind of sexism! The deputy sheriff is a sample of how a woman with some self-respect shld NOT handle herself at school, work or within her family. Injustice and bullying can not be met with placating smiles, angry eyes, fuming silence, and indignant walkouts! Still, the dog is a great help to the plot and something that soothed me after reading abt Deputy Doormat.

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Though predictable, main character is A+, familiar plot moves fast. An OK waiting room read.

Revisado: 10-08-24

Similar to other books with an ex-badass SEAL or CIA guy who is a Reacher-style good guy/reluctant hero with Bourne's skills and desire to be left alone. Naturally, inside government types betray him, try to kill him and they chase him. Same old stuff on that score. But, not a bad take on the same thing. Sounds like the two voices reading the audio book are not reading their lines in the same place at the same time. The voice actors are talking at each other rather than TO each other. To make matters worse, the male narrator is flat, like an AI voice. Spoiler ALERT! Plot yawns: Duh-uh, of course the bus blowing up was targeted at main male character and not the girl. Who wld have thought otherwise? Yet author tries to sell it to us anyway. And of course the outspoken, demanding teenage girl wld be 'taken' at the end where the hero has to give himself up to save her. Yawn. You can skip from chapter 97 to 99 and miss nothing. Of course the pretty apartment neighbor the hero has sex with is the enemy. Obvious. But, the main story twist in terms of who is behind it all and some details abt why are not obvious. That saved the book from being a total cliche. The dorky sound effects and elevator music in the audiobook made me laugh. I'll read book two and see if it gets better.

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Some parts are predictable, but still a good, speedy read with exciting action.

Revisado: 08-25-24

I cannot believe that Lourdes wld steal the 3 instruments from the venerable people who helped and trusted him. In this, he became untrustworthy and the typical white treasure hunter
on a cultural appropriation track so he cld save a white woman that HE valued. The world of billions of people is at stake and he plays the Knight to an annoying damsel in distress regardless of consequences. Nope. That part tarnished the lead character permanently. FYI. If a man kept a secret spare key card for a woman's hotel room and did what the tv reporter did, it wld be sexual harassment. just sayin'. I will hazard book two in this series to see if my disappointments are misplaced. I enjoyed the audible narrator's voices and accents though they blended a bit in a few spots.

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Praise of "Rhodesia" and dog named "Zulu" are insulting, but I still wanted to like the hero character.

Revisado: 08-19-24

The book is an easy, but bumpy read and the author, though talented, is center-right politically. That is annoying in a few sections, but I've read entertaining books of left leaning authors that are also annoying in some sections. Carr's characters are visible; he writes them so well, that I can see them. If you can wade through Carr's love of colonialism in "Rhodesia" and the whites who stole Zimbabwe's land and subjugated black people in the first place, the story works well. Having lived in Southern Africa and seen apartheid and colonial terror firsthand, it is hard to see grasping white Zimbabweans praised as if they were any better than cruel Mugabe zealots (at least towards the end of the liberating dictator's life). Both groups, in general, were unjust, selfish, manipulative, violent, stubborn, and intolerant. To name the colonialists' dog "Zulu" is unnecessarily insulting. I knew many Southern African whites who named their dogs Mandela or Nujoma as a nasty joke expressing resentment of Majority Rule and free elections. Would Carr name a dog Apache, Navajo, or Choctaw? is that ok? I think not. I want to follow Reece's adventures, but books 2 and 3 and the problems I noted above are too much. I cannot buy book 4 in the series. Also. the Tom Clancy-like technical names for every piece of military equipment are over the top. My goodness! It does not advance the plot to give the lengthy numerical product code of a .22 that someone used to commit suicide. It is the suicide that adds to the storyline, not the order number and manufacturer's name of the gun! I guess that readers with a military/weapons background probably love that kind of minutae. You can't please everybody! Still, Carr has skill and talent as a prolific, best selling author and has earned his kudos with hard work.

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Enjoyment of story tainted by distractions

Revisado: 07-08-24

I like Reece's storyline and the narrator was ok, but it fell down when rhe main character praises white supremacists in "Rhodesia." Arab and European colonialism in Africa, like slavery or Nazism, was evil, plain and simple. To be revisionist and pick it apart to find something good to say about those who benefitted from it is a painful thing to read. To say an apartheid-like military unit in "Rhodesia" during the independence war (which the colonials lost by the way), greatly offends millions of blacks who suffered from decades of stolen land, horrific torture, rape, inferior hospitals, schools and jobs, and were slammed into jails without trial. Sorry, Mr. Carr, I had a hard time digesting Reece's admiration of military units supporting evil. Also, the "redacted" spots all over the story were annoying and unnecessary. This is fiction, Mr. Carr shld have just created other places and names acceptable to the censors! Caution to readers: this book is for weapons lovers and military folk, not the general public in search of an exciting hero story. The people who gave the author the research details about weapons (or his own experiences) impressed him so much that a .45 can't be a .45. it has to carry its maker, year, batch number and serial number. The outcome of that weapon's use in the story is the same, but the litany of brands and serial codes is tiresome. Not sure, I'll hazard book three in this series.

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Interesting, but maybe book two will be better

Revisado: 04-15-24

This book is for those who have some ideas about the life of voodoo practitioners and their client community in New Orleans and around that area. Even if you have a stereotypical, TV-fashioned idea, that's enough to get a slight handle on what is happening and the dialogue involved. But I didn't get excited about the story, i.e., the murder mystery. I was ok with the main character (Murder She Wrote meets Papa Legba) and the protective "magic" she casts to defend herself and get information; I will read book 2 to get to know her better. Sorry, Mambo Reina didn't grab hold of me in the first book. Though I loved the tough female character, who is sometimes her bodyguard and a friend, and I liked Reina's relationship with the police detective, I couldn't fall in love with her world or understand why the victim was killed.

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Silencer has lost his luster. Book 17 is a dud.

Revisado: 03-15-24

The story is shallow and predictable. The author contrived to make sure the usual characters were on the scene. I am surprised at how silly this episode is. It is like no real thought went into creating the kinds of plotlines from the earlier books. I'm done. I will not spend good money reading a sophomoric story like that again. Oh...and please let Maia be killed off. She is Wrecker's totally predictable weak link. How many times will she be threatened at that hospital? I now skip over all parts involving her. I know what will happen anyway. Someone will kidnap or threaten her life. Wrecker will do stupid stuff to save her. She will be Miss Demanding Bossy Pants and place herself in harm's way in spite of all begging for her to stand down. Plus, Wrecker is supposed to be a star, badass spy guy, and he waltzes into traps like a rookie. Nope. Do not buy this book! Perhaps a ghostwriter did this book? It is sooooo bad! At least the narrator is GREAT in the audible version.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A weak, illogical, blah, blah book

Revisado: 07-18-23

Sorry, but this book is sophomoric, with little value for money. The lead character is too soft. Easy read, because it is completely preditctable. This a milktoast, cookie cutter, elite caste, evil puppeteer, presidential power broker story. You are a former badass secret service guy and are set up for killing a former CIA chief, but you touch the body, leave your prints, drive your own car to the scene, and keep the murder weapon with you! You are tagged by powerful bad guys, and you go home like all is well, go to your office, do nothing to get real story out online or in print, and drive your secretary's traceable car, doo-dah, doo-dah. The generous hero only knocks people out when they are trying to kill him. The wife should have been a bad guy to give a painful twist for a hero. Not sure abt the relevance of the title. I am from DC, and I loved all the references! Is this a treatment for a PG rated television movie that will not offend potential viewers? No intrigue! Low tension! Not enough scene development. No dash, elan, no OMG moments. A blah, blah book.

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assembly line detective story, not worth it

Revisado: 06-05-23

Was this one written to cater to Amazon's parameters as per a contract with the author or to tell a good story? I think the former is the case. The characters are not developed and and the plot is a Tweet. Don't waste your money on this one.

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Harding not redeemed, Wilson thoroughly trashed

Revisado: 05-27-23

Harding is not redeemed via this author's efforts. Spotlighting Harding's opposition to lynching and highlighting his actions in support of equal rights intrigued me enough to finish the book. Those painful truths are often downplayed in books abt that time period, but this author did well to weave them into his book.

The book's introduction compares Trump's MAGA to Harding's 'Put America First' slogan. This hurts the author's goal to redeem Harding.
Downplaying Harding's DNA-proven adultery to say that the claims were from tainted women or that other presidents did it too, are shallow mansplaining.
It is insulting to refer to governments of Latin American or Caribbean countries that regained sovereign duties as a return to 'Native Rule.' When France was liberated in WWII, wld the author call that a return to 'Native Rule?' The author spends most of the book slamming Woodrow Wilson, and I resoundingly agree, but I fail to see how that redeems Harding. The laundry list review in the last chapter of things that happened during Harding's presidency is not redemptive evidence. I expected a proven list of things done specifically by Harding, which wld not have been done otherwise.
The author repeats that Harding was only in office a short time, and yet three huge scandals happened on his watch in that same short time. This is not explained by the author. Saying that Grant's administration was more corrupt or that by today's standards, those scandals weren't so bad, doesn't cut it. To me, the majority of learned and mainstream conclusions abt Harding, as an uninspired, unintelligent, adulterous, lackluster, compromise-chosen president still stands. However, I agree that no one is all bad, all of the time.

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