Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: My first read by this author. Fast pace thriller that targeted some real-life, thought provoking headlines surrounding a segment of our homeless and disadvantaged, our relevant fears about undisclosed germ warfare research, and concealed covert operations by our military that was hard to put down once you start reading. The villians in this book are scary because we strongly suspect that their prototypes might really be out there. The hobo "Lucky" and the brilliant, lovely scientist "Stacy" have you pulling for them to succeed. The moderate "James Bond" action gives way to bitter reality as the story progresses. By book's end, our heros face a lot of physical healing but "Love" prevailed. The world was saved once more, a lot of personal anguish was resolved, the bad guys got paid-back,(as did some good guys we wish had survived). Critics say this author borrows a lot of ideas from other published writers. If so, he succeeded in creating an interwoven story-line that stands on its own.
Rating:
Summary: I really liked it. Just fast, fun reading!
Review: Ok, I feel like I should apologize, but I absolutely love Stephen J. Cannell. I can't wait for The Tin Collectors to come out! He writes easy to pick up, hard to put down, good ol' fiction! What I appreciate is the way he writes his books all on vastly different subjects, like Michael Crichton does. He doesn't follow just one template and re-vamp it for every novel.The Devil's Workshop is a novel of biological threats, a mad scientist, a beautiful woman, and Trains! I loved the train part! I was suprised by the revelation about our rail-riding friend in the book, but I'm sure not everyone was. Plot twists, engaging dialogue, and action from start to finish make this a book I highly recommend for an entertaining weekend read.
Rating: 
Summary: Ho-Hum
Review: OK, so an ethnic-specific elimination bug is in the hands of a Mad Scientist. That ain't too bad an idea, particularly if it could be set to bite the brains of telemarketers, shyster lawyers, politicians, and assorted do-gooders. But, this book and the "beautiful" heroine (oh my, is that politically correct to use heroine?), just isn't all that believable. Does anyone here honestly believe that a nut-case member of the US Government could keep anything that secret? I mean, like brain-busting whole towns full of Hee-Haw critters doing their Last Dance in a Mad Cow Spindizzy Rumba? Puullllllleezzzeeeee ..... Hey, and another thing: Fort Detrick, Maryland already has had it's Day of Doom -- check out the area called "Building 200", that has been sealed up since the mid-1960's and won't be open for Business as Usual until the Anthrax Bugs are All Dead (sometime in the year 2400 or thereabouts). Guys and Gals this book is OK; it's thrilling, it's exciting, and OK, sure I wouldn't mind getting horizontal with Frau Doktor, but it is written as a clip and paste job intended for comic book action fanz. As for me, I liked the idea ("Oh Yeah, Gimme some of dat Ethnic Elimination") ... but the book was kind of lame on depth, if you can dig that ...
Rating: 
Summary: Total predictable crap
Review: OK, was the first review written by a publisher's flunky or what? You'd think with the MILLIONS Of dollars corps. spend in promotion they'd be smart enough to NOT write total marketing blather. I got ahold of an advance reader's copy of this book by pure chance in an airport-- undoubtedly some poor reviewer had left it behind in order to go be airsick-- and would like to say it is a boring, utterly predictable, and cliche-ridden piece of hooey. Thank you very much.
Rating:
Summary: Comic Book Cliche
Review: Sophomoric writing, passive voice that an English 101 student would thrive on (Cannell was was-wasing to death). Implausible characters doing implausible things at implausible times. I counted three occasions wherein Cannell had written himself into a dead-end impossiiity and skipped over the literary deadlock by the use of the word "miraculously." How cheap. The characters have the depth of a highly evaporated foot-rinse bucket, drawn in broad strokes. It's simply amazing that the military can vanquish Vanishing Lake without this little thing called radar picking up what's going on. The transparent attack on the history of bio weapons and nuclear weapons is time-worn, adding nothing, and over-simplified. Is there anyone who didn't know the ending with two-hundred pages to spare? The genre for Devil's Workshop is called comic book.
Rating:
Summary: Love the A-Team??
Review: Stephen Cannell created the televison series "The A-Team". If you loved that show with its implausible actions and its predictable results, you'll also love this novel. If you're not yet convinced, maybe the fact that Cannell constantly and repeatedly referred to "Heidi Fleiss" (the Hollywood madam) in the book to such an extent ...
Rating: 
Summary: BIO-WEAPONS & RIDING THE RAILS--DO I HEAR A HALLELJAH?
Review: Stephen J. Cannell, while one of the most prestigious writers and producers in the television industry, is quickly making a mark for himself as a novelist. In his newest book, THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP, he takes the reader into the world of microbiology and the apparent dangers a bio-weapon can represent in the hands of the wrong people. The story deals with Stacey Richardson, a graduate student in the field of microbiology at USC. When her husband, Max, supposedly commits suicide while on a sabbatical at Fort Detrick, Maryland, to do research with the famous Dr. Dexter Demille, she doesn't buy it for one moment. In fact, Stacey believes that her husband was murdered to cover up something at Fort Detrick, and that Admiral James Zoll(the man in charge of the military facility) and Dr. Demille were behind it. She's determined to get to the bottom of her huband's death and punish the people responsible for it. This leads her to Vanishing Lake, Texas, where Zoll and Demille are conducting experiments on prisoners. An error on Demille's part leads to the accidental release of the deadly bio-agent into the air around the nearby town, thereby infecting, not only Zoll's men, but the town's people as well. Zoll quickly decides to destroy to town in a futile effort to downsize the mistake. Stacey and two hobos manage to escape before the soldiers surround the town. One of the hobos is Chris "Lucky" Cunningham, a former Recon Marine who experienced tragedy several years before when he returned from the Gulf War with a deadly bug in his system that had been created year's earlier by Dr. Demille..a bug that would eventually be passed on to his baby daughter and kill her. Chris and Stacey decide to join forces in an attempt to stop Zoll and Demille from killing anymore people, but the challenge they face intensifies when they realize that the fanatic hobo priest, the Reverend Fannon Kincaid, and his small army of zealous followers were also at Vanishing Lake, and now they want the bio-agent for themselves so that they can do a little ethnic cleansing around the country. All that I've described so far is just the tip of the iceberg and doesn't even begin to cover the complexity of the plot and the large number of characters moving in and out of the story. Mr. Cannell does offer the reader a good bit of information regarding the subjects of mircobiology and the art of being a hobo, as well as how to ride the train rails. Though THE DEVIL's WORKSHOP is a "fun" book to read, at no point did I ever buy the premise of the story. This, however, isn't necessarily bad. I would call this type of novel a "Saturday-morning" read. It's fast and entertaining, but it does require a large suspension of belief. Think of a made-for-television movie, or a two-part mini-series and you get the idea of what I'm talking about. Still, I've enjoyed other of Mr. Cannell's books and have just recently purchased KING CON in paperback. If you know what to expect, I don't feel you'll be disappointed with this book. Simply take the novel for what it is and have some fun.
Rating: 
Summary: An Exciting Thriller
Review: The Devil's Workshop is an exciting thriller that was hard to put down. I really enjoyed it, especially the main character of Stacy Richardson. She was put into a terrible situation, but was tough and clever enough to take on the bad guys. Lots of fun!
Rating:
Summary: This book is a must read!
Review: The Devils Workshop is my all time favorite book. It ties together so many different subjects: science, love, action... It's so easy to get hooked on, I've read it at least ten times...and I'm still not bored of it. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who loves to get lost in the action and emotion of a great book.
Rating:
Summary: COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!
Review: This book was TERRIFIC! I finished it in one sitting. Great and likeable characters; a real page-turner!
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