Rating: 
Summary: Could NOT finish....TOO Boring
Review: I bought this book based on other recommendations and find that we really are all very different! I could not finish this book. I didn't care about the characters and even the story line didn't tempt me.
I read at least four books a week and can't remember the last time I put a book down without finishing it! I've also deleted all the other Iles book's on my wish list.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I find it hard to swallow that anyone would pay $1000 int. fee and a $500 monthly fee for a porn website. And of
course the main character is young and wealthy married to a doctor. Lives an a nice big farm. Everything was brand
named. His computer is always called the Gateway 2000, he drinks Tab....and on.
Rating: 
Summary: A dark novel
Review: This is what one of my friends would call a slasher novel. It is a fictional story of a serial killer. It is not for the faint at heart. The killer has invaded an adult Internet forum to search for his victims. He is obsessed and wants to be a God. It becomes a deadly game of wits between the killer, the company's sysops, and the police. Victims are mutilated and it becomes clear that the killer is harvesting a body part.The sysops' personal lives are dragged into the investigation, and their own dark secrets come to the surface as they attempt to trap the killer. In some respects they are not overly bright (looking through a glass window when you expect something inside to explode? Isn't that a little numb-brained?) The novel is a little long because of long conversations between characters. The white hats win, more or less, but there is a lot of collateral damage. It has strong sexual content and violence. I would give it an R rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Intense Reading!
Review: Although this book contains more prurient sex and more gory violence than I prefer in a novel, instead of putting it down in disgust, I couldn't stop reading. This is testament to Greg Iles very strong plotting skills, as the tension in Mortal Fear never abated. It is also testament to his even stronger characterizations. The characters in this book are real and smart and likeable, even if any one of them could be the one who is killing off women from EROS, an online erotic discussion service and taking a surgical momento from each victim. Harper Cole, the Systems Operator who connects the killings and comes forward, is ensconced in the turmoil surrounding his very Southern family. They include his physician wife Drewe, who has a great deal of hostility towards EROS; his ex-cover model sister in law Erin and her surgeon husband Patrick, whose marriage difficulties are spinning out of control; and a father-in-law with friends in high places who makes Jesse Helms look like a liberal crusader for civil rights and racial relations. With his friend and fellow SysOp Myles, whose brilliance is unparrelleled in Harper's experience, there are plenty of suspects for the serial killings. Iles's writing is very intelligent and always at least three steps ahead of the reader. This book sucked away three days of my life, which is my way of saying: read it! Although there is little socially redeeming value in this novel, it's a very smart thriller and intensely escapist.
Rating:
Summary: So much better than John Grisham
Review: For those of you who would be interested in reading a book that keeps you going, surprises you at every turn and yet doesn't deplete your brain, this is a very good read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan on reading many more by the author.
Rating:
Summary: Whew! Get ready for a ride!
Review: Harper Cole trades commodities over the Internet from his isolated Mississippi farmhouse. He is also an accomplished guitarist, singer-composer, and married to a successful doctor. Nights he spends on his computer, as a systems operator for an internet sex site that guarantees its affluent clients total anonymity. Harper stumbles across some facts that indicate a stranger has infiltrated the security system and is killing off women subscribers to the site. When he reports this to the authorities, Harper and his long-time friend and associate, Miles Turner are the prime suspects. In order to prove their innocence they come up with an ingenious plan to lure the killer out into the open, but not without great personal risk to Harper and his loved ones. He has sexual secrets of his own and this puts Harper in a situation of inner conflict that reels the reader in. All the characters in this story line are great and believable. The novel builds to a fast pace, but will appeal more to a computer literate reader, as the trap to catch the killer is "tech" oriented. The computer dialogue is intense and the killer absolutely scary in his intelligence, strength and manipulative abilities. It has a little bit of everything - mystery, sex, humor, romance and suspense, but also goriness. The squeamish reader may cringe at the descriptive crime scenes, but it is definitely well written and may very well give a reader second thoughts about entering a chat room. An intense, good book.
Rating:
Summary: such beautiful prose
Review: "Mortal Fear" is so beautifully written that I would have enjoyed it without the superbly crafted mystery, but Iles has given us both. Harper Cole, a successful trader and computer aficionado, is the protagonist and narrator of this tale. He is a flawed but nice guy who is trying to hide the mistakes of his past and by so doing is allowing himself and his family to be drawn into the dangerous games of a psychopathic genius. The more he tries to protect himself the deeper the hole he digs. We are allowed to understand Coles motivations and feelings so completely that I did not object, as I usually do, to the poor decisions he made that drove the plot and created the relentless suspense in this novel. I found myself staying up into the wee hours of the night to find out what would become of the characters that I had come to know and like. However, what separates this book from other suspense novels is how beautifully it is written. The conversations between Cole and his physician wife, Drewe, between Cole and his strange friend, Miles, and all his on line conversations are such beautiful prose that they alone are worth the purchase price.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for a Long Trip
Review: This was a great trashy novel, and it really is trashy. There were many places in the book where I laughed out loud because of the terribly clichéd dialogue and general stupidity of the characters. For instance, the FBI cannot discover that a quote left by the killer was written by famous author Henry Miller. However, Harper Cole, stockbroker and porn site systems operator, recognizes the quote at a glance. In fact, every law enforcement agency in the country is made out to be a bunch of complete idiots in this book. Harper also feels the need to rehash explicit details of his sexual escapades in the name of therapy...and the reader's voyeurism! A simply summary never suffices in "Mortal Fear." We get to hear every steamy detail, even when it's completely unbelievable that Harper would go into so much detail. But that's really what's great about this book. It doesn't take itself too seriously. It's just a fun, mysterious, gory, sexy read that would be wonderful for a long plane trip. The plot is fast paced. The mystery kept me guessing. The characters aren't necessarily likeable, but they're believable in the context of the world the author creates. Just a note though-if you know anything about computers, most of the complexity attributed to them in this book will seem really silly. EROS is made out to be an amazing creation, when it doesn't seem like much more than a chat room and some message boards. This isn't "War and Peace," but I couldn't finish "War and Peace" anyway, because it got too boring in the middle. "Mortal Fear" is far from boring and I'll happily pick up another book written by Greg Iles.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Well written, excellent book. First time reader of Iles and now I'm trolling for more of his work.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping -- A Wonderful Re-read!
Review: Its philosophical beginning turns suddenly into a heart-stopping race against time to find a psychopathic killer of great intelligence, one who selects victims through an online service. As Greg Iles spins the tale through Harper Cole's point of view, we get to experience Cole's life, his memories of his wife's haunting sister Erin, his determination to capture the real killer and clear his name--and his fear. Its philosophical beginning turns suddenly into a heart-stopping race against time to find a psychopathic killer of great intelligence, one who selects victims through an online service. As Greg Iles spins the tale through Harper Cole's point of view, we get to experience Cole's life, his memories of his wife's haunting sister Erin, his determination to capture the real killer and clear his name--and his fear. To lure the killer into showing himself, he must play the killer's game...a plan that places everything he has ever loved into the killer's embrace. For the woman he chooses will be one he has crossed paths with before, a woman with whom he once held a passion for, a woman so hauntingly tragic and beautiful that no man has ever denied the right to her body--his wife's sister. MORTAL FEAR is more than just a heart-stopping account of a man trying to save those he cared, more than just one of my favorite books--it was heartrending too, a no-holds-barred narrative of one man's life, his loves, his stakes in a dangerous game of "being bait"....and most of all, his fear, motivating him to match wits with a killer, to protect those he loved. Greg Iles created the ultimate humanifestation ever in Harper Cole. MORTAL FEAR is, without a doubt, great reading.
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