E. Allison

A very unusual protagonist

Revisado: 08-15-23

This first novel certainly surprised me – at first glance, it’s your standard UK police procedural. Once you get going though, it’s the character of DC which makes the difference. A very quiet, contained, polite man who manages to gracefully find paths through diplomatic and political minefields, and manages to get solutions to complex issues without overly treading on toes. This has a classiness to it that I don’t remember noticing in other books, and has made me immediately want to read the rest of the series. He’s got a very unique way of approaching a case which doesn’t make friends among his colleagues, but gets impressive results. He’s very mindful of the intricacies he’s dealing with and has a very diplomatic and discreet way of handling them. I can honestly say I don’t remember another book with a character like this.

The reader is well suited to the character, capturing the nuance of a very unusual character and the novel just flew by.

All in all, a really interesting mystery combined with a very unusual protagonist. I will be reading the rest of the series.

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Solid and interesting police procedural

Revisado: 08-08-23

Rick Mofina is always a good choice for a solid, interesting crime procedural. Interesting, fleshed out characters with an interesting and relatable serial killer and with lots of backstory and different points of view. Can't go wrong with this one for either a police procedural or a serial killer novel.

Honestly, the author hit home with the framing of the story - lonely, wary women just looking for some social interaction while also trying to avoid the weirdos... this made me question my own online interactions so kudos to a male author for nailing the topic in a believable and accurate way.

The reader is superb - doing various distinguishable voices which makes following conversations easy, and even does decent female voices too. I'll be keeping an eye out for his work going forward.

A great read that moves at a good clip and doesn't lag anywhere, I was engaged throughout and liked the characters, with a great reader, and a very relevant topic (especially for women) - you can't ask for more.

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Great police procedural

Revisado: 07-21-23

A fantastic translation, it's impossible to hear it's not originally in English. The benefit of a non-English language book is a look into other cultures and this is no exception.

A very solid police procedural, interesting with enough tangents and suspects to be engrossing. It's been a while since I've listened to a murder mystery novel and this was very enjoyable way to get back into Audible.

Great reader, I'll have to look up more of her work, very pleasant and realistic to listen to.

I will definitely be buying any others in the series.

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Incredibly dated, just awful

Revisado: 03-24-21

I used to be a big Michael Crichton fan but haven't read his books in a long time. I saw this on sale and since I hadn't read it, bought it.

I can’t remember that last time that a book made me this angry and frustrated. I understand that this book is now decades old and the long list of issues I have with it are probably stemming from that, but that excuse only goes so far. It was difficult to finish because it put me in an incredibly bad mood every time I listened to it.

The entire book is filled with obnoxious characters making staggeringly dumb decisions and comments. I’m a complete layman, no science background whatsoever, and even I was constantly incredulous at the number of stupid things the characters do.

Like how Beth keeps touching technology which is completely unknown then whines how the military guy keeps shouting at her – five minutes into the ship and she presses a random button, having zero idea what it does. Not the last time she does it either. As a woman, I’m offended at the only female character being portrayed in such stereotypical and stupid ways (like when she starts crying, seriously?!). Or how they take their helmets off immediately, trusting that their equipment results are 100% correct for an ‘alien’ ship that is thousands of years old - that’s how people died opening Tutankhamun’s tomb, breathing in ancient air containing who knows what.

The other characters are equally bad – the entire party is an awful choice, from dogmatically entrenched beliefs to outright stupidity. I know they weren’t the preferred candidates, but surely there were better options than these? Gee, it’s almost as if this party was designed to cause various issues for the plot to progress…

Norman is dumb as a box of rocks (why is he even here??), Ted is more interested in fame than even basic security precautions (on top of his idiotic alien obsession, and constant credit stealing), Harry is so stubbornly against the craft being alien that he is like talking to a brick wall, Beth is a walking female stereotype who likes to touch random things to see what they do (despite her being a biologist, not technological!). And that’s just them separately – put them together and all they do is bicker to the point where you want to shoot all of them just so they’ll shut up! I’m not going to list the number of times I wanted to punch these people in the face, it would be several pages.

There are also fundamental things that just don’t get explored at all. Like where the sphere was found – I feel like that would be critical in figuring out what it’s purpose is. It’s likely intended only for civilisations that are capable of understanding it – like handing a nuke to monkeys – and everyone immediately wants to open it. This is literally Pandora’s Box. No hesitation, no investigation, just immediately “How do we open it?” and of course, when someone gets it open, that person immediately walks into it. Seriously, how can scientists be this dumb??

I never got around to this book before, I quite liked the movie and when I saw this on sale, I thought it was time to finally read it. Wow, that a train wreck. While the ship and it’s origins are very interesting, the characters make the entire book unbearable, they are absolutely awful. I’m stunned that this is actually Michael Crichton, did he hire a ghost writer for this? That’s the only explanation I have.

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Another great entry

Revisado: 03-24-21

You can't really go wrong with these books - they're an enjoyable, relaxing read and this is no exception. Well written with well defined characters.

The reader is the ideal person for these books and just adds to the experience.

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My first Rick Mofina, very impressed!

Revisado: 07-13-20

My first Rick Mofina book and I’m deeply impressed – complex story, lots of mysteries which slowly unravel, interesting characters, moral and emotional explorations.

The author actually does something I can’t remember ever seeing before. He tackles how misleading appearances can be. How the little white lies that are automatic and defensive, can result in appearances which are damning. How misconceptions and personal experience colour our assumptions. How things taken in the wrong context can create completely false interpretations. How all of these things can combine to create an avoidable tragedy. I’ve never seen perception handled so deftly before and it’s impressive. This is an insightful look at human nature.

One odd thing – this series is literally called ‘Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski’ – Sydowski isn’t in it for more than maybe five minutes, and Tom Reed is a completely irresponsible jerk. He destroys a woman’s life, based mostly on hearsay and insinuations, and takes zero responsibility for it. They’re both technically in it but they’re not exactly central to the plot, which was a surprise. Sydowski seems nice and I’d like to read more about him, but Reed is a cockroach.

If I have one complaint, and it’s very minor, the epilogue could have been fleshed out more. It’s very short and I feel like there were several things that needed addressing, just for closure’s sake. It’s all just a bit too neat and tidy. It felt like there should have been consequences for certain parties involved, which just isn’t even mentioned at all. I’d be more explicit but anything I would say is spoilery.

The reader was fantastic – did a great job with voices and accents, even the women.

Very impressed. I will definitely be reading his other books, this was excellent from start to finish.

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Not perfect but worth reading

Revisado: 06-19-20

This is a tough one to review. It’s not the best murder mystery I’ve read, but it is solid enough to be interesting, and the end is believable enough to work.

I did think it was a bit long – around the 9 hour mark, I started to feel it needed to wrap up only to realise I was still 3 hours from the end. That said, I didn’t ever feel that there was unnecessary padding, everything felt like it was pretty necessary to fully explain the story.

Most of the characters are pretty well fleshed out and you get a good feel for them. There are some, like Hollis who despite the amount written about her, comes off as pretty one dimensional. I found her particularly odd given a significant amount of motivations revolve around her.

I’m also a little torn about the reader – while she does excellent accents, and the emotional sections are well done, I did think she came off as a bit robotic at times.

This is a solid enough mystery, it’s not perfect but I don’t feel at all like I wasted my time reading it. This is one of those books where my review is going to be lacklustre because it didn’t make me feel anything strongly enough to have firm opinions about. I got it on sale so got my money’s worth, it’s worth listening to.

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Not a fantastic first book, but pretty good.

Revisado: 05-07-20

I'll be honest, not impressed by the first book in the series. It's slow, boring, and the story gets unpleasant with dirty cops (a topic of fiction I despise). It picks up from about half way and becomes pretty good, but the first half is very slow going to the point where I nearly abandoned it.

I feel I should mention that the characters are well done - solid and believable, and Bliss has a detailed enough 'tragic backstory' to flesh him out very well, without harping on about it.

I usually hate criticizing a reader, but he does the story no favours, he made the whole thing seem far more boring than it actually was. A more animated reader would have significantly improved my opinion of the book.

I see the reviews are better on the rest of the books and I would consider reading another one. Overall, I found this first book a bit of a weak offering, and the audiobook to be diminished by a very bland reader.

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Very pleasantly surprised.

Revisado: 03-20-20

Having read most of her non-crime novels, I was wary of starting this series, not sure how good they'd be. I'm relieved to find this was very good, I was immediately annoyed when it was finished as I don't have the next one. a very good sign.

The reader is excellent and I'm pleased to see she reads the rest of the series.

If I have one criticism, the sex scenes with Roark are too explicit. It really wasn't necessary to that extent and I ended up fast forwarding some of those bits. I felt the sex related to the murders seemed more balanced, she just went overboard with the romance sex scenes. Which is weird because the romance sections and relationship were very good and believable.

I like the characters, the murders are interesting, and I liked the slight futuristic setting which makes this fresh. looking forward to the next one.

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Very solid sequel to the first book.

Revisado: 03-20-20

Solid story, sympathetic and believable characters, interesting all the way to the end.

The reader does the same excellent job as previously, great accents and voices for male and female characters, very immersive.

I wouldn't hesitate to read more of this series.

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