Rating: 
Summary: Hollywood flack victimizes net freedom
Review: Cannell proves himself master of the exploitative hack job, and I don't mean hackers. He totally ignores the value and positive use of anonymous remailers in his rush to pander to the prevailing ignorance.For a far better, informed, thoughtful suspense, read Backslash by Wm. H. Lovejoy.Cannell only tries to feed the prejudice of the keepers of the nanny state. It may win him points in Washintgon, but the novel sucks.
Rating: 
Summary: Great start....but it runs out of gas fast.
Review: Cannell should be ashamed of himself. After 300+ pages of a terrific (and often terrifying) cyber- duel between two antisocial computer geniuses, his payoff scene is just another lowest-common- denominator knife fight in a dark room....which the heroes find virtually (no pun intented) by accident. Real television stuff, from a master of that medium. A huge letdown.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 stars - Uneven
Review: Final Victim grabs the reader on the first page, by putting us right inside the mind/world of the killer. A great start. Maybe that's why it's such a jolt when we're introduced to the main character (think Bruce Willis) and all action stops as we're given seemingly endless detail about his career in Customs. This book was an improvement over his first novel, The Plan. The killer was a truly scary guy. The book was most interesting when it dealt with the killer and his motivations. This could have been a 4 or even 5 star book if Cannell had just concentrated on the killer and the investigation. The "chase and capture" scenes were well-done; and there's even a nice little twist at the end of the chase. As always, Cannell knows how to write an action scene. The biggest problem with this book is that it takes far too much time examining the three main investigators and their interrelationships. The fact is, they're just not very interesting, and there's not a whole lot to examine. One is a 'rogue' Customs Agent - your basic guy who won't play by the rules, etc. One is a woman genius - she's brilliant, she's beautiful, she's lonely/vulnerable, etc. One is a convict released to help with the investigation. The convict turns out to be the most realistic character, since he's pretty much just out for himself. These fairly two-dimensional characters are given far too much time and attention. At perhaps the lowest point in the book, this female genius attempts to examine her feelings about the convict. Just a painful, poorly-written little interlude that might belong on a soap, but not in the middle of a thriller. Overall, a decent thriller. The killer is sufficiently interesting to keep up interest; and the action scenes keep you turning the pages. With a little more fine-tuning, this would have been a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars - Uneven
Review: Final Victim grabs the reader on the first page, by putting us right inside the mind/world of the killer. A great start. Maybe that's why it's such a jolt when we're introduced to the main character (think Bruce Willis) and all action stops as we're given seemingly endless detail about his career in Customs. This book was an improvement over his first novel, The Plan. The killer was a truly scary guy. The book was most interesting when it dealt with the killer and his motivations. This could have been a 4 or even 5 star book if Cannell had just concentrated on the killer and the investigation. The "chase and capture" scenes were well-done; and there's even a nice little twist at the end of the chase. As always, Cannell knows how to write an action scene. The biggest problem with this book is that it takes far too much time examining the three main investigators and their interrelationships. The fact is, they're just not very interesting, and there's not a whole lot to examine. One is a 'rogue' Customs Agent - your basic guy who won't play by the rules, etc. One is a woman genius - she's brilliant, she's beautiful, she's lonely/vulnerable, etc. One is a convict released to help with the investigation. The convict turns out to be the most realistic character, since he's pretty much just out for himself. These fairly two-dimensional characters are given far too much time and attention. At perhaps the lowest point in the book, this female genius attempts to examine her feelings about the convict. Just a painful, poorly-written little interlude that might belong on a soap, but not in the middle of a thriller. Overall, a decent thriller. The killer is sufficiently interesting to keep up interest; and the action scenes keep you turning the pages. With a little more fine-tuning, this would have been a very good book.
Rating: 
Summary: A perfect 10!!!
Review: Final Victim is one of the most cyber-kinetic, energetic, compelling books I've read in a long time. I loved it! The characters jump off the page and interact in a thoroughly entertaining triangle. The hacking and cracking is fascinating and well researched. I hope to see this story up on the big screen reall soon..
Rating:
Summary: a very unique serial killing novel
Review: Good story, good characters, good plot. This is a writer not only just up and coming, but should be widely appreciated and topped the bestseller lists every time he published. You should read his THE PLAN, and especially his 3rd new novel, KING CON. Then you would become one of his loyal fans like me
Rating:
Summary: Another Dull Rogue Cop Hero
Review: How many time have we seen this? A dull rogue cop collecting unlimited favors from a bottomless well of previous hero-deeds to pull off the impossible in front of an astonished beautiful dumb female partner.
Hey Guys, Dirty Harry is dead, so bury him and start writing real hero stories.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books I've Ever Read
Review: I think that Steven J. Cannell did a wonderful job at writing this book, maybe its because I love computers and I am interested in serial killers and what makes them tick and probally because I like to write screenplays, but I really loved this book. "Final Victim" kept me interested all throughout it and it kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. Even with some of the charcters that you start to hate because that are so mean or because they're so nieve or because they take advantage of people, but Steven manages to see each side of the characters and fell compasion for them. Even for Lenard Land who decapitates woman and brutaly kills them, you realize that maybe none of this would be happening if it wasn't for his abusive and psychotic mother who always told him that he was worthless and that he was weak. I just loved this book and because of how well-writen it was I could actually visualize the events that were happening.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: I thought this was an excellent thriller book. I have never read any other books by Stephen J. Cannell, a friend leant me this to read and I absolutely loved it, could not put the book down. If you are into computers a little you will enjoy this book as it adds a bit of a twist to the novel that you don't see in other thrillers. I read Patricia Cornwall & James Patterson as well, most of their books are great but I found this one to be alot more scary, I actually screamed in one section. I must admit that the ending was not the best, it really didn't finish with the thrill you normally receive. Overall this book is worth picking up.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading. One of those "hard to put down" books!
Review: I too enjoyed the book, "Final Victim". The story line was excellent and suspenseful. One of those books that's hard to put down. Cannell is definitely a good writer. I only wish he could have left some of the gorier details to the imagination. He gets a little too graphic in my opinion. This is definitely not a book for the light-hearted! But, I guess since that's what sells movies, it'll sell books too. I still highly recommend it. I look forward to seeing what else this author has written
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