Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Second Book
Review: After months of no new murders in Minneapolis, suddenly holocaust survivors are being shot, one a day. Each victim is a beloved member of the community.
Another elderly man is tortured to death.
Homicide detectives Gino Rolseth and Leo Magozzi race to figure out the connection before another elderly citizen is murdered.
They get help from Grace McBride, of Monkeywrench, and the new computer program Grace and her partners have developed.
Fast paced, very witty dialog between the detectives, well plotted, and best of all, you don't necessarily have to have read Monkeywrench to thoroughly enjoy the book.
I couldn't read this one fast enough. Hope to see more of detectives Rolseth and Magozzi. Will definitely recommend Live Bait to our customers.
Rating: 
Summary: An OK read but I liked Monkeewrench much, much better
Review: After reading and skimming LIVE BAIT - I had to think about what didn't work for me this time around. I enjoyed MONKEEWRENCH and the Monkeewrench crew who took center stage and helped Gino and Leo solve the Monkeewrench murders. In LIVE BAIT, the crew is more secondary and the story this time focuses on solving of the crime and trying to guess the culprit. Well, it wasn't that hard to guess the suspects. The authors didn't have many red herrings and certain secondary characters just stuck out.
What didn't work in this novel for me were several things 1) the withholding of information to build suspense. It didn't work here. The prologue and the last 25 pages were the most gripping. I skimmed the middle. 2)The story started to wander and become repetitive. More than half the book was read and there were still obvious holes in the plot that were not coming to light. At that time, I was disgusted and just started skimming. 3) Solving the crime took too long and the motive behind them were over the top. It was just unbelievable to me.
The strength of the novel is in the writing but the problem was the disjointedness of the plot and that barely there presence of the Monkeewrench crew who are more on the periphery of the story this time around. What did I like about this novel? I liked the interactions between Grace McBride and Leo Magozzie. I hope their relationship will fill up the sagging middle section that was the problem with this book. I have high hopes that the next book will be better. My grade, C+. Overall, they had a great debut but a ho-hum follow-up. I'd like to see how they do with the third book before moving on to somebody else.
Rating: 
Summary: Sensational Sequel!
Review: Although this is a sequel to the two authors' novel Monkeewrench, Live Bait could easily be read as a stand alone novel. Monkeewrench is also a great book though, and the outcome and some key events of that novel are given away in Live Bait so I would highly recommend reading Monkeewrench first because once you've read this book you'll want to check out the authors' previous work and you'll enjoy Monkeewrench so much more without knowing the outcome.
In Livebait, Minneaolis homicide detectives Magozzi and Rolseth have their boredom relived by a serial killer who is murdering the elderly night after night. These sweet old people seem to have no enemies and are loved by the community, either have a cat, love baking for the grandkids, gardening or other typical retired generation activities. Most of these victims also have survived concentration camps in World War II Germany meaning the killer seems to have no heart at all. Minneapolis police want this murderer bad and enlist the help of grace MacBride and her Monkeewrench computer invention to find a motive and help catch the killer.
This novel is extremely well written and full of great plot developments. I liked Monkeewrench, but this novel is an even higher literacy league. I can easily seeing this becoming a box office smash movie down the track, of course a movie will never be as good as your imagination reading it in this book. This novel could have probably been written as a stand alone novel outright not including the Monkeewrench element and giving away the plot of that book for people who have not read would be my only criticism. But they'll probably sell more copies of this book being that it is a sequel which means more people will get to read this literacy masterpiece which is maybe for the greater good.
Rating:
Summary: terrific crime thriller
Review: As improbable as it sounds, there have been no homicides in Minneapolis for months and the detectives that work on homicides are reduced to working on cold cases. The terrific dry spell breaks in a horrific way when eighty five year old Morey Gilbert, a victim of the concentration camp, is killed outside his home. Homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth (of MONKEEWRENCH fame) are assigned the case but they have little to go on because the victim's wife messed up the crime scene.In the same neighborhood Mr. Fischer's living room is a sea of blood but there is no body. It is later discovered that the corpse is tied up at the railroad trucks but Fischer has a heart attack before the train could hit him. At first the two homicide detectives believe there is no link between the two killings but learns much later that there is. In the meantime, two more eighty-something victims, a man and a woman both living in Morey's neighborhood, are murdered and the only thing they have in common is that they are survivors of the camps. P.J. Tracy is an expect at writings crime thrillers with so many unexpected twists and turns in the storyline that readers find themselves totally absorbed in the book and will want to read it one sitting. The works of this mother-daughter writing team will be enjoyed by readers who like Patricia Cornwell, Christine McGuire, and Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. The action scenes are very realistic as is the plot but the characters take LIVE BAIT out of the ordinary into the sublime. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Fun...if a bit absurd...
Review: As usual, the book is great fun to read, even if the reasons for the murders (which I shall not reveal) are quite serious. The book is not as good as Monkeewrench. This is far more a dectective story--which I usually love--but tends to slow down in the last 75 pages. There are some nifty twists, but I figured a lot of them out. These books usually sink or swim on the strength of their characters--Leo, Gloria, the Monkeewrench gang, charlie the dog, the Chief (when was a chief actually made out to be a good guy and not a heartless bureaucrat!) etc. And these are great characters...I hope the next one is a bit more exciting...but this is still fun...
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining - an excellent and unsual story
Review: Entertaining fiction. P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of a mother-daughter writing team. In "Live Bait," they have crafted an entertaining mystery. The characters to a certain extent are more caricature, than character. They are a bit overblown and far from believable. But they are fun. Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are Minneapolis homicide detectives. A lengthy drought of murders comes to an abrupt end when a seemingly harmless old man is murdered at his plant nursery. Why would anyone murder this local saint? Before that question can be answered, the bodies start piling up. All elderly, all leading seemingly innocuous lives. As Magozzi and Rolseth and cases work their cases, we learn that not all is at it seems to be. The plot twists come thick and fast. The pacing is excellent - and the ending may come as a surprise. In all, a delightful read, even if the characters aren't overly believable. Jerry
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining - an excellent and unsual story
Review: Entertaining fiction. P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of a mother-daughter writing team. In "Live Bait," they have crafted an entertaining mystery. The characters to a certain extent are more caricature, than character. They are a bit overblown and far from believable. But they are fun. Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are Minneapolis homicide detectives. A lengthy drought of murders comes to an abrupt end when a seemingly harmless old man is murdered at his plant nursery. Why would anyone murder this local saint? Before that question can be answered, the bodies start piling up. All elderly, all leading seemingly innocuous lives. As Magozzi and Rolseth and cases work their cases, we learn that not all is at it seems to be. The plot twists come thick and fast. The pacing is excellent - and the ending may come as a surprise. In all, a delightful read, even if the characters aren't overly believable. Jerry
Rating:
Summary: Highly entertaining!
Review: I began this book without having read the first one, "Monkeewrench." There were times when explanations hinted at previous events, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the action in this one. The dialogue between the cops was so entertaining! Was it real? I haven't a clue because I've never met a real homicide cop. Does it matter? Not a bit; this is fiction, after all! Having lived through WWII, I found the subject matter still pertinent, still interesting, still emotionally touching. The authors wrote of believable people to me, each a blend of some good, some bad -- sadly real. And as in life, you're torn between hating people's actions and weeping for the people themselves. Other reviewers have given specific criticisms, both thoughtful and valid; and I don't disagree. This is not a darkly deep book. But I recommend it to anyone who enjoys sharp, entertaining dialogue; clever plotting; smart, interesting police procedures; and flawed people who are still appealing (some of whom I've met as neighbors!) and human. Kudos to the authors.....
Rating:
Summary: Loved Live Bait!
Review: I read the first PJTracy book, "Monkeewrench" & thought it was quite good, but IMHO, this book outranks it. I loved the premise, the snappy dialog, the developed relationships, the ongoing suspense & unpredictability; it was simply an extremely enjoyable read all the way around. I am anxiously awaiting the next installment from PJ Tracy! They are definitely on to something with this series!
Rating:
Summary: Another great book by P.J. Tracy
Review: I recently read the first novel in this series, Monkeewrench, and was thrilled to see this new book, by the great mother-daughter writing team. I adore the characters and couldn't wait to get involved with another story that involved them.
I am not going to explain the plot, Amazon always does that, but I will tell you I couldn't figure out who did what and why, until the authors wanted me too, and it made for a great ride. Really interesting premise....and I am again looking forward to the next book in this series. I think the author was setting up a situation that will bring some of the characters from the first book that were not around much in this one, back, and I can't wait. Read this book, but read Monkeewrench first if you havn't read it. It is out in paper and well worth the read, plus it will really help to know the background.
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