Rating: Summary: Eve Either has to Grow Up or Go Review: Eve Duncan is back and she's still grieving. Author Johansen has brought back Eve, Joe, Jane and Galen in this Robert Ludlum type adventure that is so much better than her last book ("Final Target") that I can't believe it. I was worried about Iris, afraid she'd lost it, but clearly she can still tell a story. Now if only Eve would get over her loss. And how come Joe puts up with it? Maybe it's time Johansen retired Eve, maybe a story centered around Sean Galen.Still, I found the book an exciting read, loved most of it and am giving it four stars. The book was exciting, as Johansen fans have come to expect, but that Eve, she's either gotta grow up or go. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating: Summary: Eve Duncan is Back. Hooray! Review: Johansen has reprised some of my favorite characters. Eve Duncan is back, doing what she does best, sculpting the dead. Joe is back, doing what he does best, walking on egg shells around Eve. Jane is back, precocious as ever. Sean Galen is back guarding Eve as she takes on a dangerous reconstruction in the bayous of Louisiana. There is murder, there are bad guys. There are plot twists and turns that are both confusing and intriguing. Our characters are flawed and sometimes not very pretty, in short, human. I loved this five star thriller and would recommend it to anyone, though perhaps it might be better if you read the first three in the series first. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
Rating: Summary: More like a passing grade 3 and a half. Review: Iris Johansen's "Body of Lies" is a fairly entertaining novel. The cat and mouse aspect is well done, as the hunted do not use super human powers to keep on the move. As the story progresses, a ticking clock subplot propels the action. A secret society lends an almost credible conspiracy theory to the mix. Throw in a resourceful hardboiled British bodyguard with a dubious background, a corrupt Senator, a seemingly average reporter, a skillful assassin and a covert research project involving fuel cells and things move rapidly. Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan is terrific when doing her job recreating the face on the skull of an unknown murder victim. When fretting about her romance everything bogs down and becomes a pitiful soap opera. Colorful villains, some wolves in sheep's clothing and the nefarious secret organization keep Eve and Atlanta detective Joe Quinn hopping and the pages turning. The ending was too pat.
Rating: Summary: Proficient but routine thriller Review: The book centres on a forensic sculptor ,named Eve Duncan who is living in Atlanta with her lover, Joe, a cop, and her adopted daughter.She is slowly putting her life into some semblemce of order following the death of her young child ,Bonnie ,whom she sees in dreams (or are they visions from the other side ? the question is kept open ) She is a driven woman ,obsesssive where her work is concerned and determined ,as a mission statement almost ,to ensure the unidentified dead are given face and form by her work. She is pressured by a Presidental aspirant Senator Melton to take on a job in Baton Rouge -identify a skull recently uncovered that may have implications for his career.When she refuses someone goes to great lengths to ensure her relationship is placed in jeopardy and ,under duress she takes on the job .Soon two people are murdered and she herself almost dies from poison. She together with Joe .and a Liverpudlian hit man ,named Galen ,not to mention an environmentalist/journalist set out to strike back at those responsible -a secret society ,named with stunning lack of imagination ,the Cabal ,and it all build to an implausible climax in Florida It is solid second string work and its major drawbacks for me where a lacklustre plot and the stylistic unremarkability of the prose .Eve is given more than her share of neuroses and traumas but is a likeable heroine although for me as a Brit the most interesting figure was Galen.A working class guy from Liverpool,he is not the conventional cold and cynical hit man nut a gregarious gastronome with a sly and at times inappropriate sense of pich dark humour I want more of these two and hope that a stronger plot can be found as a basis for additional Eve Duncan books
Rating: Summary: Body od Lies Review: Image your life is just starting to settle down; life is turning up for you. Then disturbing things start to happen around your house and you get a letter that brings back your cold and chilling past. Life is turned upside down and you don't know what to do next. Well, this is what happened to forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and her family in the book Body of Lies by Iris Johansen. In the story, Eve has finally found peace living with Joe Quinn and her adopted daughter Jane. Eve gets a haunting reminder of her past which promps her to leave her home in Atlanta and go to Baton Rough to do a project that no one will tell her what it is about. Eve is not even there a day when the first death occurs. All of Iris Johansen's books are filled with dangerous adventures and murders. Along with many plot twist; Body of Lies is no exception. In one incident there was a bombing and then a high speed car chase. What happened was this: while Eve and Joe were hiding from the bad guys while working on the skull, her daughter Jane went to stay with her grandmother. The bad guys wanted to hurt Eve so the bombed the apartments where Jane was staying. Everyone was safe except Eve and Joe because now the bad guys knew where they were. Joe and Eve decide to flee the safe house, but before they could get out of the driveway they saw headlights coming their way. The booked it on to the highway with the bad guys right on their trail. There was some bumping and grinding and Joe decided to take matters into his own hands. He told Eve to get out and wait at the gas station and before she could say "no" he was off back on the road. It was not for another hour until Joe came back again with the car just barley holding together. If you want to find murder, mystery, and dangerous adventure go pick up this thriller. It is filled with explosions, plot twist, trained killers, and murder. The intrest level is so high you will be done with it before u know it. Iris makes the characters fit the book so well. You'll love Body of Lies.
Rating: Summary: Kept me glued... Review: Excellent story line. This is the first book I have read by this author, and I can't wait to read the rest. Totally captivating from start to finish.
Rating: Summary: Iris...Iris...if you don't need the money, stop writing Review: I've been a fan of Johansen's for years...she has always delivered a good (sometimes great) light read. But she is really starting to telephone it in. You can almost hear her ticking off plot twists here--and what has been a compelling situation (Eve's anguish over her lost and murdered daughter) turns into a convenient way to get those plot twists...uh...twisting. I have always bought her books new--but having just read this one and seen what reviewers on Amazon say about the follow-ups...think I'll check one more out of the library to see if she can redeem herself.
Rating: Summary: Interesting plot with a heroine going downhill Review: Just to get this said...Eve, get over yourself or rather Ms Johansen get your character out of this poor me, I'm the only person in the world who has suffered syndrome. I found it rather shallow that Eve can forget all the support she has received by one ill conceived action by Joe. I can't figure out what she has ever, in previous books, done for him. Or when she has ever thought about any one else's situation first. I still rated this book 3 stars because I liked the plot. Scary enough in this world to be believable. It reminded me of some other mysteries where there are secret organizations and the forensic sculpting just adds another dimension. In fact, this is a first for me to like the plot but not the main character. I can't figure out what makes Eve so desirable to the men around her. She is selfish to a fault and certainly expects more than she is willing to give. She has become an unsympathetic character. I enjoy her conversations with her daughter Bonnie but even a ghost has to get a bit tired of always bolstering up the adult. Why Joe has stuck around is a mystery to me. Unless he likes being walked on and over. Galen's character brings the spark necessary and Jane, I disagree with reviewers who think she is too precocious. But unless Eve can become less whiny please don't make her the lead character in any more books. Not unless it's one where Joe finally leaves Eve and she has to become a less selfish individual.
Rating: Summary: A fast, fun read.. Review: As a Iris J. fan, I have to say that this book was certainly her most engaging. I picked it up in a convience store for the pure fluff of it. The pacing was fast (although there were a few pages I just had to skip outright), the characters were quick-witted and occasionally snippy and the story kept moving. My only complaint was that I couldn't stop reading it until it was done (cover to cover took roughly 2-3 hours). This is a book for folks who just want a quick whodunit for an evening of vegging out or a quick plane flight. Oh and to the person who compained about the lack of Southern accents - we Southerners all sound the same to one another...so why would we go through the trouble to write a "twang" in dialouge?? ;)
Rating: Summary: What Happened? Review: I am on page #110 and so far, the entire process has been painful. Has Ms. Johansen always written this poorly? There are no definingly manners of speech in her characters. One would think, -beings they's all from da South- we would hear a touch of a drawl on occasion. We really have to make sure we know who is speaking at the moment, because all the characters sound identical. The overall emotion is too bland-as though everyone is on some kind of prescription tranquilizer. I remember enjoying her past novels but this one just plain old hurts to read. If this was an attempt to meet a deadline it is a shame. Her writing has suffered for it.
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