Rating: 
Summary: Another great tale from a great storyteller.
Review: "...Workshop" is a page-turner from the get-go. Cannell's dialogue and characters entertain us in that amazing Cannell style. This is a writer who is at the very top of his game. Very visual... bioweapons are a fact of life. Be paranoid... be very paranoid. If Hollywood has any brains, "Devil's Workshop" is next summer's blockbuster.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thrilling Adventure Among Deadly Bioweapons
Review: After microbiologist Stacy Richardson gets shocking news that her scientist husband killed himself at Fort Detrick, she finds that he knew of illegal work being done there by the Military. Suspecting that he was murdered, she teams with former Marine officer Cris Cunningham to find that a secret lab at Detrick is producing deadly prions that target specific races. It is testing the prions on human prisoners. Admiral Zoll, in charge of the project, orders Stacy and Cris killed. But a complication arises when a white supremacist preacher sets out to steal the prions to use to wipe out minorities. All in all, it's a rousing thriller that will keep you turning pages.
Rating: 
Summary: A Whole Lot of Moving
Review: As I finished this novel (it is a novel, it's part of the title) I was struck by how many times the author "moved" his characters. These characters never ran or walked, the always "moved." As in, Cris moved to the door. Not a big problem but after several hundred pages it became annoying.The story is ok, nothing special, more like a TV movie. The real problem is the timing. On one page Cannell says it is 8:30am and a bright crisp day and on the next page it is pitch black with dark clouds covering the moon. Later the evil folk outrun a train, on foot, and through mountains. So, if you can get past the moving and timing then the story is passable. Not award winning, but with some character changes it could have been an A-Team episode.
Rating:
Summary: A Whole Lot of Moving
Review: As I finished this novel (it is a novel, it's part of the title) I was struck by how many times the author "moved" his characters. These characters never ran or walked, the always "moved." As in, Cris moved to the door. Not a big problem but after several hundred pages it became annoying. The story is ok, nothing special, more like a TV movie. The real problem is the timing. On one page Cannell says it is 8:30am and a bright crisp day and on the next page it is pitch black with dark clouds covering the moon. Later the evil folk outrun a train, on foot, and through mountains. So, if you can get past the moving and timing then the story is passable. Not award winning, but with some character changes it could have been an A-Team episode.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining.
Review: Cannell seems to take quite a beating from the critics on this one (see editorial reviews). It is certainly true that this is not great literature: the characters are somewhat cartoonish and there are certain factual errors that I found annoying (Ph.D. biologists referring to a raccoon as a "rodent." It's a carnivore!). However, the story was fast-paced, tightly woven, and entertaining. I also found the ending to be atyical of this kind of story and unexpectedly poignant. In most action tales of this type, the hero and particularly the heroine come out virtually unscathed. Not so, here. I would definitely recommend this book based on its entertainment value, although I would probably give it three and a half stars, if that option were available.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkably similar to "World Order"
Review: Devil's workshop is not only your typical government conspiracy novel, it is remarkably similar to "World Order" by Andrew Goliszek, a 1998 novel about all things: bioweaponry, ethnic cleansing, a scientist whose husband presumably committed suicide, a secret government project, an attempt to rid the world of certain ethnic groups! Did Cannell read Goliszek's book or is it all coincidence?
Rating: 
Summary: Cannell mailed this one in...
Review: Far & away the worst of all his books. Boring story with characters you could care less about. Would have been better off re-reading King Con.
Rating:
Summary: A great action-thriller that is extremely well researched!!!
Review: Great characters kept me absorbed throughout, and the book has some great science without getting too dense... I highly recommend it!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Little People Fight Back
Review: Here is a great example of microbiological experimentation and the dangers of dealing with what is essentially a weapon in which no one really has total control. In this case, during the testing phase in which the virus is to be delivered to the test subjects via mosquitoes, some escape the test chamber, beginning a chain reaction of human devastation. The saviour of the world comes in the form of two people who are seeking vengeance after their lives are touched by the creators of the new bio-weapon. The first is Stacey Richardson whose husband was a microbiologist working on a military installation. She wants answers after her husband is murdered but his body has been set up to look as though he committed suicide. The second is Cris Cunningham, an ex-marine and Gulf War hero who now carries a devastating virus thanks to an American-made bio-weapon used by the enemy. He's after vengeance, but is hampered by a serious drinking problem. The action really takes off after a series of suspicious events in east Texas which lead Stacey and Cris to return to the scene of the disastrous test. In Cris' former life, he was a hobo, catching rides on passing freight trains and it's this means of transportation that they use as they chase a group of renegade killers who have gotten their hands on a batch of the deadly virus. This is the classic underdog scenario where people who have been terribly wronged by those with power take matters into their own hands and fight back against the odds. Throw in a few off-beat characters and an unusual chase sequence and you've got a non-stop thriller that provides for very entertaining reading.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen Canell--I love you
Review: Here's to a woman whose husband supposedly committed suicide...a woman who investigates. A woman who challenges the U.S. government. Here's to hobos on the tracks.
| 
