Rating: 
Summary: Walking the walk....
Review: Seven years ago, Lacey Sherlock's sister was brutally murdered in a maze of horrors. Since that time Lacey has devoted herself to finding the murderer, quipped by the media as the String murderer. After finishing college and receiving her Master's degree in Criminal Psychology, she immediately applies and is accepted into the FBI program. Finding the job of profiling to much to handle, she is routed to the Criminal Apprehension Unit, whose director, Dillon Savich has developed a unique computer program to capture serial killers. Dillon is an intelligent man who senses that Lacey has deep secrets. And as Lacey secretly uses the Predictive Analogue Programs to find the String Murder, Dillon must join in her crusade to eliminate the killer, before Lacey becomes the next victim.. What a great novel!!! I enjoyed the suspense, character development and budding relationship between Lacey and Dillon. My only gripes with the book were with the secondary characters and the unanswered questions. For example, did we really have to have Hannah's character, the bitter and obsessed ex-girlfriend?? Alright, so it is done in every romance novel, but it is time that female authors move beyond this predictable character . The flow of the book would not have been interrupted or slowed if Hannah's character had been deleted. Ms. Coulter's attempts to introduce secondary characters to paint a convincing line of suspects were successful in some areas (Douglas and Candice) . However, extensively including Sherlock's parents in the story was confusing. There were also many questions left unanswered, such as Douglas's relationship with Lacey's mother, which was hinted at but never explained. How did Lacey's sister meet the murderer? But the saving grace of this book, and maybe the reason why so many people enjoyed it, was the relationship between Lacey and Dillon. I enjoyed reading through their debates and even smiled at some of their attempts at humor. In this novel, intelligence wasn't just tallied as a positive attribute and then never mentioned (or more importantly, demonstrated) again. You have a real sense that you are dealing with intellectual persons instead of cardboard personas with a "Hey, I'm smart" button. Great job!! On top of that, kudos to any author that can write an intelligent, confident female character without making her into a "B". I can't wait to read more by the author.
Rating:
Summary: The best.
Review: I read all of Catherine Coulter's contemporary novels in this series except The Edge. It is a good thing I read this one first! I did not like the other two at all, but from the moment I started reading The Maze I was hooked. It is an incredibley good book and second in my list of favorites only to Jeffery Deaver's The Bone Collector. I liked Sherlock a lot, she is probably my favorite female character. However, it was Savich that made the book remarkable. You can't help but fall in love with Savich, with his karate and his country-western-singing and his easyness with Sherlock. Not to mention his dreamy blue eyes.. LOL Savich is in fact so memorable that I am going to name my Siamese cat after him when I get it. You have to admit, also, that Dillon is a great name. I like Catherine Coulter's style of writing in this book, it is unusual but good. The novel is very suspenseful and has a climatic ending. The tension between Savich and Sherlock as their relationship developes from work to friendship to love is intense. I loved this book, and I just wish the other two were as good...
Rating: 
Summary: Oh Puh-Leeze
Review: I didn't like this book - not the premise, not the characters, not the writing. It was ludicrous from beginning to end. The dialogue was not well written at all. The "plot" (if you can even find it) had huge holes in it. The intimacies would not be allowed. Lacey's maverick behavior would have been nipped in the bud right quick if this was anything close to real. None of the serial maniac stuff was even close to convincing. And a real cop out ending. And it all happened in a week or two???? Give me a break.
Rating:
Summary: FBI with a vengeance!
Review: Dillon, from The Cove, is back with his own story! Now he is the head of the FBI's Criminal Apprehension Unit (CAU). Using his computer, MAX, he uses gathered information to solve crimes.
Lacey Sherlock entered the FBI for one reason only. She wanted to hunt down the serial killer who murdered her step-sister seven years ago. This killer chose women who used foul language and bad mouthed their husbands. He would hit them over the head, drag them to an abandoned warehouse, and make them search their way through a maze. Once at the center, instead of being set free, he would "punish" the woman by multiple stab wounds and then cutting out her tongue.
Dillon chose Lacey straight out of training because she was able to "kill" him in Hogan's Alley (the final exam where he had played a bank robber). She had the instinct for the job.
***Figure out this one! It is a real puzzler. Had me doubting Lacey a few times.***
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have EVER read!
Review: My mother got this book out of the library for me. I had only read Catherine Coulter's historical romances & thought that those were the only type of book she wrote. When I got the Maze, I was stunned. It is one of the best comtemporary thrillers I have EVER read - and I read all the time, I have read thousands of books & the Maze rates up there w/ the best of them! The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, to use a hackneyed phrase. :) I adored Savich & Sherlock, they have become two of my favorite characters & I hope Coulter continues to develop them in future books. I was pleased to see them return in "The Target". Catherine, your thrillers are AMAZING, please keep them coming! So many women can write the historical romances but not many people can write a thriller as well as you can! I would highly reccomend this book to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have EVER read!
Review: My mother got this book out of the library for me. I had only read Catherine Coulter's historical romances & thought that those were the only type of book she wrote. When I got the Maze, I was stunned. It is one of the best comtemporary thrillers I have EVER read - and I read all the time, I have read thousands of books & the Maze rates up there w/ the best of them! The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, to use a hackneyed phrase. :) I adored Savich & Sherlock, they have become two of my favorite characters & I hope Coulter continues to develop them in future books. I was pleased to see them return in "The Target". Catherine, your thrillers are AMAZING, please keep them coming! So many women can write the historical romances but not many people can write a thriller as well as you can! I would highly reccomend this book to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Oh Puh-Leeze
Review: I didn't like this book - not the premise, not the characters, not the writing. It was ludicrous from beginning to end. The dialogue was not well written at all. The "plot" (if you can even find it) had huge holes in it. The intimacies would not be allowed. Lacey's maverick behavior would have been nipped in the bud right quick if this was anything close to real. None of the serial maniac stuff was even close to convincing. And a real cop out ending. And it all happened in a week or two???? Give me a break.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable premise and childish writing
Review: This was a truly terrible book. I've never been a fan of Catherine Coulter, as I find her style of writing simplistic and silly. But I picked this book up in my sis-in-law's place out of sheer boredom and was quite disgusted at the end of it. The serial killer's method of killing was completely far-fetched and unconvincing. Lacey's character was immature and the contrived dialogues didn't help one bit.
Rating:
Summary: E for Effort and Earnesty , J for Juvenille
Review: More often than not (unfortunately) you read a poorly written novel by a bestselling author and wonder if the book got by the editor/publisher just because of the author's name. This is a perfect example. Why? 1) Great writers pay attention to detail without going overboard. In this case "less is more" is NOT more. Nothing here rings credible except for the mention of Hogan's Alley (which turns what seems to be a Keystone Cops routine into a trite, unfunny incident.) It's like the author declined to do anything more than superficial research. 2) Dialogue should flow and realistically represent how a character would talk (in this case FBI agents). In the MAZE, dialogue often sounds stilted and grown adults talk like teenagers. 3) Complex cases (i.e. serial killers) are not solved so easily as by the stroke of a computer key and a "oh gee, it must be someone who hated them" attitude. 4) The "Sherlock" shtick got old REAL FAST. Once is cute, EVERY time Lacey meets someone (and is kidded about her name) is corny and downright annoying. It's not that you expect great literature from all thrillers but for a pleasant, well-researched and well-executed light romantic suspense read, check out the Harlequin Intrigue line. You'll fare much better!
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: I had a lot of trouble putting this book down (and I tend to be hard to please when it comes to finding a book that will keep my attention!). If you're a James Patterson fan or a Patricia Cornwell fan, I think you'll love this one! The story lines are similar and it is just as fast-paced.
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