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Red Hearts

Red Hearts

List Price: $6.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: OK, OK ... I'm saying "Uncle"
Review: Here is THE book to buy if you need something to put you to sleep. After reading some 230 pages, I'm finally throwing in the towel and trashing this one.

The author, Barlog, is soooo amateurish. Right from page one you get a taste of his/her (probably a her) romance-novel style. The hero bears the unlikely name "Dakota" and is described with terms like "lean six-foot quarterback frame" and "icy sweat trickled off his granite chin". That should have been warning enough of what was to follow.

The book simply drags. She spends four pages writing about the murders and three pages writing about Dakota's wife's worsening cancer battle. Over and over this pattern is repeated. The wife angle is little more than a sad attempt to add some "filler" pages to a very weakly presented story.

In the first 230 pages there is absolutely no development of the serial killer's persona other than to give him a name. In most novels, one chapter leads to the next and pulls you along. There is no such compelling continuity in this book. I found myself flipping two pages at a time, hoping to get to a real story.

Trust me, you could pick up the book cold and begin at page 200 and you'd miss very, very little. The first 200 are like a slow water torture in which you keep hoping to find just a little meat on this puny bone.

To add insult to injury, the author appears to have no real understanding of (1) Indian culture (2) the New Mexico scene or (3) how police investigations actually transpire. It is almost as if you or I just sat down one night and decided to write a novel about something completely foreign to us. It is difficult to connect with such a lame effort. Tonight at page 230, I just put the book aside. It is not even interesting enough to page to the end to see the outcome. This is one case where you may end up cheering for the serial killer.

footnote: I too recevied an unsolicited approach online by a stranger who encouraged me to buy the book as a "Hillerman" substitute. Now I suspect the recommender was either the author or someone connected to the publishing effort. A shame, indeed.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: OK, OK ... I'm saying "Uncle"
Review: I am a relatively new Barlog fan, and this is the best book of his that I have read so far. I plan to read more of his books.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good but long
Review: I liked the book however I let misspellings & missed words divert me. The story of his wife's battle with cancer & seeking the killers were good but felt could have been condensed into about half the size of the book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good but long
Review: I liked the book however I let misspellings & missed words divert me. The story of his wife's battle with cancer & seeking the killers were good but felt could have been condensed into about half the size of the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "...and I thought Deaver couldn't be beat!"
Review: J.M.Barlog has given us a love story within a gruesome tale of murder and mutilation. On leave of absence from the Albuquerque Police Department to care for his dying wife and two little girls,a homicide detective is horrified to learn that a serial killer has resurfaced after a two-year silence. Dakota Blackwood, the original investigating officer, was never able to solve the earlier murders. He is torn between the needs of his family and his desire to resume charge of the investigation. Barlog's writing weaves the pieces of the story together like the dreamcatchers Dakota made for his daughters. We share in the passions and fears of Dakota and his family, searching for a cure to the monster (cancer) that is destroying the body of his wife.Through Dakota's thoughts, we follow the search for another monster that is destroying the lives of innocent people. The tale bogs down slightly in the middle right before a second victim is discovered, but picks up intensity again. Though reference is continually made to the Apache heritage of the main character, the association to the book title was never fully expressed. (My opinion is that the "red hearts" mean those who love and support the Apache culture and understand Dakota's need to hunt the killer. I felt the reference to it by the wife was like a last minute attempt to explain the title,and didn't). The book was referred to me by another reader, and I was thrilled to have found a copy signed by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it to anyone with a passion for murder and a penchant for the macabre. "Thanks, Jack! "

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Oh please....
Review: Someone read a review I had written for Amazon and emailed me suggesting I would like this book. So I bought the book and read it. Please don't let this happen to you.

The writing is so cliché ridden that for the first ten pages I wondered if the book was a spoof. The hero, Dakota Blackwood, has a granite chin, a lean quarterback frame and, heaven help us, a hammering Apache heart. He also has fire in his eyes and shoulder length raven black hair, which is a good trick if you consider the dress code for the Albuquerque Police Department. In total, the author tells us, this gives him a "fierce renegade warrior appearance". It gives me a headache.

Why shouldn't the hero be a little mixed up? His parents came from reservations in two different states, yet he was raised by Anglo parents and given a Sioux name. Perhaps this is why he seldom thinks during a crisis and seems to rely more on his emotions.

This book is nothing like Sanderson. I am so grateful that I cannot think of any book like this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More than your run-of-the-mill serial killer slasher story
Review: What I think this book is really about is a man trying to hold his life together as it is coming apart around him. While cancer slowly destroys police lieutenant Dakota Blackwood's wife, a serial killer resurfaces after a two-year silence. Because he led the task force during the first investigation, he feels compelled to make up for his past failure. I thought the fact that he is an Apache Indian only made the story more enjoyable. Having to face the very real prospect that he might have to raise his two daughters without his wife, Dakota Blackwood, still feels a responsibility to the people of Albuquerque, despite the fact of the prejudicial undercurrents in the story. I loved the story's opening. I'm from Sacramento, CA where the original real life drama occurred that appears in the opening chapter. If you want to read something that deviates from the standard serial killer slasher yarn, read this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More than your run-of-the-mill serial killer slasher story
Review: What I think this book is really about is a man trying to hold his life together as it is coming apart around him. While cancer slowly destroys police lieutenant Dakota Blackwood's wife, a serial killer resurfaces after a two-year silence. Because he led the task force during the first investigation, he feels compelled to make up for his past failure. I thought the fact that he is an Apache Indian only made the story more enjoyable. Having to face the very real prospect that he might have to raise his two daughters without his wife, Dakota Blackwood, still feels a responsibility to the people of Albuquerque, despite the fact of the prejudicial undercurrents in the story. I loved the story's opening. I'm from Sacramento, CA where the original real life drama occurred that appears in the opening chapter. If you want to read something that deviates from the standard serial killer slasher yarn, read this one.


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