When Evil Changes Face

Rating:
Summary: Complicated thriller!
Review: I liked everything about this book, so much more than the previous ones in the series. Brett is a hard woman trying not to get hurt in a world that has knocked her around. She wants to play the field but has fallen in love. More than the mystery I like Brett's dilemma and how realistically she is pulled between her overt butch sexuality and her love for one woman. I can't wait to find out how Brett continues to walk that line.

Rating:
Summary: Best in series
Review: I wasn't all that fond of the first 3 Brett Higgins mysteries. [...] seemed to be included just for shock value, and the mysteries themselves were forced. The love relationship between Brett and Allie didn't ring true. They seemed all physical and no emotion.

This installment seems like its almost written by a different person. Perhaps moving to a new press made the difference, but When Evil Changes Face was both a fast-paced, well-scripted mystery and a complete character study of Brett and Allie. For the first time I felt as if I knew them. Even the [...] seemed like an extension of their characters rather than just tacked on for reader titillation.

Suspend your disbelief that Brett and Allie can pass for high school students. Just believe, and then enjoy the story. I also got a little tired of how "beautiful" and "good-looking" a woman had to be to interest Brett. A woman can be attractive without being beautiful and Brett's too smart not to know that.

After the very disappointing When Some Body Disappears, I was going to give up on Brett Higgins, but When Evil Changes Face complete restored my interest. I look forward to the next installment with great anticipation.

Rating:
Summary: Szymanski does it again!
Review: I've read all the books in this series and they keep me guessing until the very end! Despite the problems with transitions and continuity (the jumping from one character's viewpoint to another with no warning can be a little confusing), Syzmanski's writing is fast paced and stark, and Brett always reminds me of a grownup Legs Sadovsky: tough, afraid of nothing, and when she loves it's with her whole heart. It's enough even to make a die-hard monogamist, anti-looksist feminist like me forgive the fact that Allie is the prototypical blonde bombshell and that despite Allie's good looks, intelligence, and strength Brett STILL has a great deal of trouble being faithful.

I also like it that Allie is a well-developed character in her own right, more than capable of dealing with Brett and not just some silly bimbo. When I first began reading the books I didn't think I'd like her much, but I did. She's smart and strong and not at all dependent on Brett for love, money or self esteem.

Yes, the idea that Brett and Allie can pass as teenagers requires some suspension of disbelief, but the action is so fast and exciting I was more interested in trying to figure out who the bad guy was than in seeing how realistic the story was! A great book to pass the time with!

Rating:
Summary: Szymanski does it again!
Review: Politically incorrect author Therese Szymanski strikes again with the latest Brett Higgins novel. In this one, Brett and Allie go undercover as a high school age brother and sister to get to the bottom of a drug ring. Szymanski is a master of creating suspense and full rounded characters. And her sex scenes rock. She is, without a doubt, one of the most underrated writers publishing today.