Rating: 
Summary: Final Justice
Review: It was Griffin's usual good read. Although he appears to be well versed in law enforcement protocol and hierarchy, Mr. Griffin is a little remiss in his American history. Neither Stonewell (sic) nor Stonewall Jackson participated in the Battle of New Orleans. Rather, our troops were led by Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson. This certainly won't stop me from reading his stuff, however.
Rating: 
Summary: Real Heroes Do Exist
Review: Like most people, I prefer books about areas in which I have personal experience, but my lack of experience with Police work does not prevent me from enjoying this excellent book, Final Justice, in this great Badge of Honor series. The author again shows us that there are as many heroes in the police department as there are in the military. Final Justice again highlights the skills of newly minted Detective Sergeant Matt Payne, using him as one of many examples of the intelligence and dedication of the members of the police department. The author always talks about the good and bad of every organization, revealing the humanity and the problems of someone who is dedicated to public service. Mr. Griffin writes about people he knows, and he tells you marvelous inside stories about what happens behind the scenes. This is another great story with dedication as its base. This author knows people and he knows how to make them come alive. He does it so well that many of my friends forget that his books are fiction, so they expect every fact in the books to be completely accurate.I like fiction that teaches me something, at the same time I get a great story. A friend of mine calls this 'faction'. I get this from Mr. Griffin's books, directly and indirectly. I love his books because Mr. Griffin is a great, natural storyteller, and he forces me to research what is real and what is not. I have purchased 100-200 non-fiction books to check out his characters. His stories always point out how many heroes we really have in America. For me, some of his books are five plus, and some are five, but they are never less than that. You will enjoy this book at least as much as all of the author's other books, because it is a great story about the good guys versus the bad guys. The good guys work very hard, creating a lot of strain and stress on their personal lives. I wish all authors could write stories this good. As a Navy Brat, a draftee and an Army Reservist, I identify more with Mr. Griffin's books about the military, but these police books are equally enjoyable. This author's books are the only ones I reread on a regular basis, and I give them as gifts to others who are doing a great job, or in the hope that they will emulate the good guys. We need more authors writing about the heroes in this world, to continue to encourage people to do these tough jobs, in spite of the personal adversity they face daily.
Rating: 
Summary: Not everybody gets along . . .
Review: Most of the mystery writers we frequently read, Elizabeth George, Crais, James Crumley, DeMille, feel free to discuss the petty irritations, resentments and sometimes out and out disregard for the people surrounding the main characters. Not so with the Griffen series (any Griffen series.) Here is the criteria for all of the characters central to the plot, as I understand it to be. The heroes are surrounded by a group of 'special friends' of different races, Church habits, drinking habits, wives, and (oddly enough) ranks in the Department, Marine Corps or the Army. These 'friends' all get invited to the same mansions for elegant, servant-staff served parties, and reaffirm that they all see life the same way the hero does. There is order and then there is retribution. Here's the key: intelligence, sexy wives or girlfriends ('she looked just as good walking away from me as she had walking to me'), a love of Scotch or other alcohol, loyalty for procedure, and an agonizing amount of simultaneous inner thoughts written in italics while someone else is speaking. The Griffen books are the most sexist books in print while at the same time being unrealistic in what conversations people who work with eachother will tolerate in eachother. The closest friends are Black, Irish, 'wasp'ish, whatever that is now, Jewish, Middle Eastern, (ditto 'whatever that is now'), Italian, Episcopalean, Catholic and Methodist. All the wives know eachother and more remarkably, like eachother, drink heavily, and know (in this case) as much about police procedure as the husbands/boyfriends do. Everyone drinks an enormous amount of booze. And along the way they solve terrible crimes. If you want a taste of how people really get along, I vote for George Pelecanos. He writes brilliantly of the anger, resentments, confusion and dislike we find for people in our every day walk through the nine to five. Read 'Shame the Devil' or 'Soul Circus.' That's real. This is not real. I found more obscene language frivolously spoken in "Final Justice" than in the other Griffen novels. Additionally, Griffen, like any popular writer, has a cult-like following. I'm certainly one of the members, having read all of the series. So if you're going to radically alter the timeline of the series, like three decades, didn't Griffen think someone was going to notice? Didn't he want to offer up an explanation? Or did he just feel that his fans would read it anyhow and didn't deserve an explanation? I guess we didn't. I read it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait!! A+ want more soon!!!
Review: Of all the works of WEB Griffin, I like the Men in Blue series best. However, this is the series he is least prolific in. Every 3 years or so, we have another chapter in the Philidelphia Police Department. This latest is worth the wait. The reader learns more about the interaction of the police/the press and those influencial people in the public eye. In this offering you learn the pressures police live under and the interdependence they have with fellow officers. If you haven't tried the previous titles, do so. As an avid fan I hope the title isn't a forshadowing of the future. Please, WEB Griffin, more of these great characters.....sooner than 4 years!! The MORE the BETTER!!! SOONER would be ever better!!!
Rating:
Summary: Well Done! Back in Style!
Review: Ok, sometimes some of Mr. Butterworth's books drag. The characters in the latest books in the "Men at War" series don't seem to do much but drink and travel. But, in "Final Justice" Mr. Butterworth brings Matt Payne back for some good action and interaction. Surprisingly, the setting is suddenly "present time" (more or less)and Matt has a laptop, cell phone and all the things we wished he had earlier! (Even a Glock!) If you know William E. Butterworth lives in S. Alabama, then you'll get an additional chuckle out of some scenes in the book. Don't read it out of sequence. Go get the earlier "Badge of Honor" books. If you were ever in the military, the "Brotherhood of War" series is superb! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Another decent entry into a great series.
Review: Once again, W.E.B. Griffen has released a novel following the exploits of officers of the Philadelphia police department. Matt Payne, newly transferred to Homicide gets caught up in several cases including a robbery at a fast food store and a murder of a young woman. He is also assigned to "babysit" an actor that is coming to town for a benefit. The action moves fast in the book and you definitely will be glued to the book... if you are a fan of the series. The biggest problem that I have with this book is the shifting of the time. What I mean by that is that the prior book took place sometime in the early to mid 1970's. The new book takes place now, in the present. So in the prior books, the officers were using typewriters, now Matt carries around a laptop. It seems to detract from the book to have all of these high-tech gadgets. This is not a reason not to read the book, but it is a problem. There are other issues that I have with this book. Other books in the series had a varied cast of characters. This book is the same, but the other characters seemed to be not as important as Matt Payne. They almost seem like a afterthought, a hurried addition. Plus Matt never seems to grow as a character. It just seems to be the same thing almost every book. If you are a fan of the series, you know what I mean. And one more criticism, why do we need a recap of every person's life history in every single book? I've read the account of why Matt joined the police department so many times I could almost recitie from memory. Final Justice is a good book. Fans of the series will like it, even with some quirks. Others should start with the first book in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Absoloute Junk!
Review: The characters have been weakend. The plot is so convoluted, it's not even funny. Don't even get me started on the total lapse in continuity! The time line has progressed 30 years with no aging of the main characters. The series has gone from the rich vibrant atmosphere of 1970's Philly to 2003 cliches! They even made a refrence to the Soprano's for God's sake! This book is a joke! It was obviously written not only by an author who is not W.E.B. Griffin, but this guy didn't even read the previous books in the series for character details! As the title of my review states; ABSOLUTE JUNK!
Rating:
Summary: Could have been excellent
Review: The Devil is the details. As usual for Mr. Griffin's books, once I picked it up, I didn't put it down until I was done. I am sorry to say that this book was a huge disappointment. The series started in the 1970's, and finding decent typewriters, Xerox machines, etc. was difficult. Now, everybody has cell phones, laptop computers, Buick Rendezvous SUVs (introduced in 2001), etc. Nobody has aged, the previous book supposedly happened six months prior, but we are in The Twilight Zone with the current setting. What happened to Amanda?
When special Ops started, S-Sam was changed to W, but we're back to S.
What happened to the mayor?
Matt's eyes are the problem, not his ears
Matt just made detective, how did he get this promotion so soon?
Everybody is now back in Homocide?
If you set the darn book in 200x, don't have the characters act straight out of the 1970's! The story was OK, but it just wasn't the same. I love Mr. Griffin's historical fiction, but this was a huge let-down.
Rating:
Summary: 30 year time warp?
Review: This is nothing special in the Badge of Honor series. The story line isn't particularly interesting or suspenseful and there is no character development. As usual, there are many repeated text passages from the preceding novels. 30 year time warp? In the opening scene, 2 robbers walk into a restaurant and one of the workers takes out his cell phone. Cell phone? Up until now, this series has been set in the 1970's. Not any more! It's now set in the late 1990's with no explanation. The mayor has disappeared but all the other characters are the same age and positions they were 30 years ago. What's going on here? The main problem I have with this is that Griffin has always threaded his novels around actual historical events. When he's dealing with 1970's events that I'm not familiar with, they make for enjoyable reading. When he's dealing with events that got national attention 2 years ago, I already know what happened and the results. It makes his writing even more predictable than usual.
Rating:
Summary: How Things Work
Review: W.E.B. Griffin is at his best as a writer when he explains how things work. As a young writer, he was very successful in juvenile fiction, explaining how the world works to teenaged readers. Nowhere is his talent better served nowadays than in his police procedural series. We look at all levels of the Philadelphia Police Department, from the cop on the beat to the commissioner. The focus is on Matt Payne -- rich kid turned hero homocide sergeant (think Noah Wyle playing Dr. Carter on "ER"). We get to see him do what he does best -- drive fast, shoot straight, drink hard, catch bad guys, bed babes. As always with Griffin, we get the entire multi-generational cast of inter-related characters -- there's always somebody to identify with, no matter who you are. Matt's main problem is that he has no real friends -- he has rich acquaintences, more mentors and father surrogates than you can shake a stick at -- but no real friends. Freindship has always been an underlaying part of all Griffin's books, and it is curiously absent from the heart of the "Badge of Honor" series.
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