A Slow Burning

Rating:
Summary: A genius of a book, not for the light-hearted!
Review: This is an extremely complicated book, that is hard to read if you are into simple straightforward stores. It contains violence, action, mystery, social and romantic drama and lots of medical detail. What is most amazing about it is that it has so much atmosphere that you feel it is taking place in a very different world. It is dark and mysterious and at no point does it relieve the tension. The characters are no heroes - they are ruthless, self-centred individuals each pursuing their own aims. It is disturbing, and at times filled with medical jargon you can't grasp, but it is gripping and brilliant, and takes us beyond the boundaries of our imagination and beyond all humans' capabilities, just like "Fourth Procedure". I reccommend it to anyone who likes to think and wonder.

Rating:
Summary: REALLLLLY DESERVES 10 STARS!
Review: This phenomenal, intelligent thriller truly has something for everyone! There's love and romance mixed in with mystery, suspense, exceedingly graphic violence tossed in with a bit of time travel and even nano-technology! Pottinger is a brilliant writer who really needs to quit his day job so he can devote full time to his rare talent. I just hope that we don't have to wait another 5 years for his 3rd book to appear. When you start reading this amazing book, be prepared to forget about the rest of the world because it completely grabs you with the very first page and doesn't let you go until the shocking and most satifying conclusion! You'll not be disappointed in this book which is destined for the bestseller list immediately upon publication....hopefully! Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: More fun than brain surgery!
Review: This story starts out with three separate story lines. First there is Cush Walker who, as a young boy, watches as white men lynch his father. This is in the 1960's, then we jump back to 1929 and meet Comilla, a 15 year old girl who falls in love with her black piano teacher and finds herself pregnant, and finally to 1977 where 11 year old Nat Hennessey is witness to the violent beating death of his father by a black man. Now it is the present and all 3 of these stories from the past come together. Nat Hennessey is a detective for the New York police department, Cush Walker is a brilliant neurosurgeon, and Commilla (the granddaughter of the 1929 Comilla) is engaged to Nat. The day before their wedding Comilla is shot in the head by the same man who killed Nat's father years ago. It is up to Cush to save her life with cutting edge technology that he has developed. Here is where the story takes a turn as Nat finds out that his fiance used to be in love with Cush. Between trying to catch the killer, J.J.Jackson, and volunteering to be the guinea pig for Cush's brain scan, Nat stays pretty busy.Adding to all this is the issue of racism. Cush has always had a prejudice against whites and Nat against blacks, now they must come together to save Comilla who they discover is part black. This story has some great twists and leads the reader in many different directions. It is a romance, medical thriller, and murder mystery all rolled into one. My only complaint was that the ending seemed to drag on a bit more than necessary, but all in all it was a really fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Truly a full circle novel. The writing style itself is great. In my opinion this is one of the best novels I've read in the last 2 years and I am an avid reader. It does get graphic at times but so does life. The squeemish will shudder. If you want a truly exciting read this year, I highly recommend 'A Slow Burning'.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: What a story! Nat Hennessey and Cush Walker are the two main characters in this un-putdown-able crime/murder/love story, who really don't like each other much at all - they are fighting over the same woman who is in a coma.

The story is brilliant - so many twists & turns that I never ever saw coming. This has got to be one of the best novels I have read..the only negative aspect - it is a bit long & because all the characters are interwoven within in each other, it gets a bit confusing but definately keep reading...it is well worth the ending!

I can't wait to read another Stanley Pottinger book, these are the sort of books I love - not just a boring whodunit, or why they did it or even a boring romance..it has everything a good book should & heaps more! If only there were more like this...

Rating:
Summary: This is a strange book
Review: When Pottinger twice in the matter of a few pages says that a person has lowered her eyelids to half-mast, I could tell that this book was in trouble. As I moved further and further in, things only got worse.

Having enjoyed The Fourth Procedure, I picked up this book with anticipation, but Pottinger is apparently suffering from a sophomore jinx. This book, while it has some moments, has a considerable number of problems.

Perhaps the most serious problem is the lack of focus. Even now, I am uncertain what the main idea behind the story is. It may be a suspense novel about the hunt for a killer; it may be a tale of race relations; it may be a mystery about an incident that occurred seventy years earlier; or it may be a science fiction story about radical brain surgery and a method to detect and remove racial prejudice. Done properly, these threads could be sewn together into a nice blanket, but this winds up being just a frayed rag.

After what is supposedly the main plot is resolved, the story drags on for another fifty or so pages, solving the seventy-year old mystery in excessive detail; since this mystery means so little to the story, this winds up being a big waste of time. The villain is boring, the main characters are not very likeable, and, for a story dealing with prejudice, Pottinger indulges in a few stereotypes of his own.

If you enjoyed Pottinger's previous work, approach this novel with great caution. If you have never read anything by him, this is not the place to start.

Rating:
Summary: Starts okay but weakens
Review: When Pottinger twice in the matter of a few pages says that a person has lowered her eyelids to half-mast, I could tell that this book was in trouble. As I moved further and further in, things only got worse.

Having enjoyed The Fourth Procedure, I picked up this book with anticipation, but Pottinger is apparently suffering from a sophomore jinx. This book, while it has some moments, has a considerable number of problems.

Perhaps the most serious problem is the lack of focus. Even now, I am uncertain what the main idea behind the story is. It may be a suspense novel about the hunt for a killer; it may be a tale of race relations; it may be a mystery about an incident that occurred seventy years earlier; or it may be a science fiction story about radical brain surgery and a method to detect and remove racial prejudice. Done properly, these threads could be sewn together into a nice blanket, but this winds up being just a frayed rag.

After what is supposedly the main plot is resolved, the story drags on for another fifty or so pages, solving the seventy-year old mystery in excessive detail; since this mystery means so little to the story, this winds up being a big waste of time. The villain is boring, the main characters are not very likeable, and, for a story dealing with prejudice, Pottinger indulges in a few stereotypes of his own.

If you enjoyed Pottinger's previous work, approach this novel with great caution. If you have never read anything by him, this is not the place to start.