Rating: 
Summary: One of the best yet
Review: Absolutely one of the best. I should have been getting the house ready for company but instead read this book all day long. (And I'm not sorry so there.) Really really good, a perfect pace.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best yet
Review: Absolutely one of the best. I should have been getting the house ready for company but instead read this book all day long. (And I'm not sorry so there.) Really really good, a perfect pace.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining, easy read
Review: As always with Edna Buchanan's Britt Montero novels, this one is a fun read, quick and easy, and not exactly thought-provoking. Though the plot isn't as strong as some of her other books, the ending is powerful, and the characters are as interesting as ever. However, if you haven't read her other Britt Montero books, I wouldn't start with this one. Buchanan doesn't bother with very much character development for the main figures, and this isn't one of her strongest books.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best mystery Edna Buchanan has to offer
Review: Britt Montero, Miami's top fiction crime reporter, is back on the scene and her beat -- crime in South Florida - is still hot, hot, hot. However, in Edna Buchanan's latest mystery, Miami heat comes face-to-face with chilling conditions.When Britt goes to a jewelry store where police have found a dead body, it seems she has an interesting story about a jinxed burglar. But nothing in her Miami is that simple. The deceased burglar's scarred body sparks a detective's memory, leading Britt and the cops on a journey for truth and justice. The detective, Craig Burch, is part of the Cold Case Squad and his mission is to solve old crimes. Years before, as a homicide detective, he investigated the kidnapping and murder of a teenager, Ricky Chance. Chance didn't survive, but his date, Sunny Hartley, lived to tell about her beating and brutal rape. Part of her survival meant leaving the memories behind and immersing herself in her sculptures of ice and stone, leading Britt to dub her the Ice Maiden. It's up to Britt and the Cold Case Squad to draw her out to get closer to the killers. During their hunt for the truth, Britt gets on the wrong side of the cops and has to navigate newspaper politics to keep the story alive. She continues to throw all of her energy into the story and solving the mystery, and she takes compensatory time off to finish the job. In getting the job done, Buchanan paints a vivid image of Miami's underside and the contradictions of the city. Her tales of the city weave together Santeria, Miami's wealthy elite, Cubans, Anglos and African Americans. Buchanan's penchant for including all of Miami's people is one of the strengths of the series. She also brings her realistic style to each of the twists in the novel, making each murder and crime seem as if it's excerpted from your morning paper. Buchanan's style and experience (she won a Pulitzer as a Miami crime reporter) make her novels stronger than many mystery series. For Britt's fans, this outing, which ties up some of the loose ends in her life, will be a bittersweet read. The usual suspects in Britt's life appear, including Kendall McDonald, Lottie, Onnie and the her newsroom nemesis, Gretchen. Those new to Britt's world of deadlines, corpses and subtropical drama will find it a good, topical novel. However, it is not the best Buchanan has to offer. She, as I imagine many contemporary authors have, refers to September 11th and the national crisis throughout THE ICE MAIDEN. Since it has so little bearing on the Miami crime scene, the references are shallow and distracting. There's also a bit of a hole left after the case is solved, and it's disappointing to catch that in an otherwise surprising tale. The surprise, which I won't give away, makes the hunt for the killers worth following. As is Britt Montero, a worthy amateur sleuth and heroine. Buchanan's shocker of an ending hints that there are new directions in store for the character and the series. Let's hope what follows is worth looking over the flaws in THE ICE MAIDEN. --- Reviewed by Bernadette Adams Davis
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story, excellent book
Review: Edna Buchanan does it again! She's put together a top notch book with a believable story and first rate characters. A must-buy for any crime fan!
Rating:
Summary: Not Buchanan's best
Review: I have read all Edna Buchanan's Britt Montero books, and I eagerly looked forward to reading The Ice Maiden. It was a quick read, perhaps too quick. The primary mystery is taut, but the secondary plot falls flat. The last 15 pages of the book seem to have been written by the author just to finish the book and give it a wingding ending, a tease to make us look for the next chapter of Montero's life in the next book. It made the book seem shorter than it really was.
Rating:
Summary: One of her best
Review: I just finished reading this wonderful book. Ms Buchanan is up to par again. This was a great novel. Very hard to put down. Keeps you going.
Rating:
Summary: Good diversion but Nothing Special
Review: I think I should start off and say that I am not a "mystery reader" as such. I don't follow a particular series and this is the only mystery I have read by Edna Buchanan. I found the read to be quick and diverting. However, I found some of her "fringe" characters more intriguing than her main characters. In fact---I wanted to know more about Sunny's parents and what makes them tick. Also Ms. Buchanan never made me care who raped Sunny and killed her boyfriend. I had no problem setting this book aside a while and coming back. Also I couldn't help but see her detective as a watered down version of Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta. And when the "bad guy" is finally found, I found it very unlikely in the sense that it wasn't solved by the police years ago. Short way to put it: Not believable. But the book is worth a read if you want something light and quick. If you want to almost grieve when the book ends----this is not a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: Good diversion but Nothing Special
Review: I think I should start off and say that I am not a "mystery reader" as such. I don't follow a particular series and this is the only mystery I have read by Edna Buchanan. I found the read to be quick and diverting. However, I found some of her "fringe" characters more intriguing than her main characters. In fact---I wanted to know more about Sunny's parents and what makes them tick. Also Ms. Buchanan never made me care who raped Sunny and killed her boyfriend. I had no problem setting this book aside a while and coming back. Also I couldn't help but see her detective as a watered down version of Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta. And when the "bad guy" is finally found, I found it very unlikely in the sense that it wasn't solved by the police years ago. Short way to put it: Not believable. But the book is worth a read if you want something light and quick. If you want to almost grieve when the book ends----this is not a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: Not Her Best
Review: If the author was going to go down the path she chose to end the story, I wish it hadn't seemed so haphazard and rushed. When the case was wrapped up and Britt was packing for her trip, there were still enough pages left to know that something was going to happen, but few enough pages to know it was going to be weak. I'm not a fan of this type of plot device because I don't like feeling "forced" to buy someone's next book -- if I like their work I will anyway. Other than that, while not her best, I thought this installment in the Britt Montero series was very good, and I would've given it 4 stars on its own.
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