Rating: Summary: Based on Unabridged Audio Review: I listen to audio books when I go for walks and this book kept me walking long after I was tired every day because I didn't want to put it away until the next day.... At first I thought there were too many characters but I then I realized they all played an important role in this story. Story is about three women who were victimized by a rapist and the club they create. The convicted rapist is killed and detectives try to find out if one of or all three victims had a role in the death. What I loved about this book is that just when you think you have figured out what is going on, another twist is introduced. I felt like I was on a very winding rollercoaster. A must read or even better, a great book to listen to on tape.
Rating: Summary: Best Book Yet! Review: This book is definitely Lisa Gardner's best. There is not a single page that does not captivate you. It has an amazing plot and keeps you guessing! Very well written!
Rating: Summary: Absolutely gripping! Review: When I picked up this book, I should have known better. I have never been able to read Lisa Gardner's books without putting it down ~~ and this book is no exception!The book centers around a state detective hot on the trail of a double murder. Griffin had just returned to work after a bereavement leave ~~ he had just lost his wife to cancer ~~ only on the day he arrives to work, an accused serial rapist, who was on his way to court for the first day of trial, was shot to death by a sniper. Then a few blocks away, the sniper was blown up as he entered his car. The suspicions soon focused on the three "survivors" ~~ three women who were raped by the accused serial rapist, Eddie. And that was just the first chapter. This book will be hard to put down ~~ Gardner strings you along with tempting bits every chapter ~~ and no matter what you do, you can't resist it. She delves into the psychological aspects of the rape victims as well into Griffin's mindset as he tracks down the mystery of the rapists and murders. You find yourself relating to the darker sides of the story and you really shouldn't read this alone at night ~~ it will spook you! She delivers this book with a fast-paced, page-turner story ~~ and I highly recommend this book for everyone's summer reading. It's fabalous and she's also a great writer to boost. You can't beat this one! 7-9-03
Rating: Summary: Lisa Gardner does another great job Review: What an exciting book. Just when you think you've got it figured out, here comes a twist! She does a great job with the violence without making it too graphic. I had a hard time putting it down until I thought something bad was going to happen to a little girl (near the end). Read the book to find out if I was correct.
Rating: Summary: Great book Review: I've read all of her books. This one was as good as they come. The characters are interesting. The story has everything. I'd highly recommend this book as well as her others.
Rating: Summary: Superficial, Predictable, Cliched Melodrama! Review: Ms. Gardner writes fairly well. Nevertheless, her plot, and particularly her characters, are shallow, unpersuasive and totally uncompelling. For me the concept of a feminist-soaked "club" of victims going after their rapist just doesn's work. Superwoman Jillian is offensive and unreal. She is complemented by lawman Griff (Is he buff? Gee, I don't remember). In any dimension of reality Jillian and he would have been making love by page 75. Actually the story screams for Jillian to be a lesbian. An honest ending would have Jillian and Meg living together at the beach, wrapped sensuously in each other's arms. No man will ever hold them again. Griffin will have another breakdown, unable to cope with his second contact with the charismatic and high intelligent (if perverted) villain. All the plot twists stagnate and are mind-dullingly predictable. There are only two interesting characters: the hit man who is killed off early in the novel and the "villain" who can't survive lawman Griff, the other cops, and the intrepid girls. Finally, this story is actually just a maudlin romance, ala Harlequin with a thin veneer of soft-core suspense and with clunky hues of feminism, a novel unable to face the "other" within today's modern woman that jettisons hetersexual love and clings to the truth of homosexuality and anti-male attitudes. Readers, please read M. Connelly's masterful Void Moon, with a genuine and strong female protagonist, or read T. Cook's Breakheart Hill, with perhaps the most fascinating and complex female lead character in all of suspense fiction.
Rating: Summary: Pleasantly surprised Review: If pressed on the matter, I would have to characterize this book as an action-adventure crime novel rather than the typical adventure-romance such as one would expect from a lady writer. I was a little surprised that there was no heavy breathing between the two main "good guy" characters, Roan and Jillian. Not a bodice was ripped, merely exchanges of pregnant looks, supportive touching, and intelligent, emotional byplay, a refreshing approach for which Gardner gets high marks. Gardner seems to have a good feel for characterizations, for example a villain with a touch of Hannibal Lecterism and a group of (beautiful, naturally) women rape victims who are more complex than one would estimate at first glance, with deeper agendas than merely revenge and finding Donna Karen suits on sale at half price. The protagonist, Roan Griffin, immediately reminded me of Wick, the hero in The Crush by Sandra Brown, lean-waisted, blue-eyed, super-muscular, a manly man with a tragic past, but handicapped by a hot temper- well, you get the idea. One would almost welcome an occasional balding, fat and bespectacled hero named Wally or George in a novel now and then, but lady writers surely know what their target market wants. I found I enjoyed this book more than expected even though the plot was a bit trite in some regards and had a couple of major logistical holes in it, but overall was quite well organized. Gardner has a good handle on keeping the reader's interest with continuity of action, refusing to get bogged down in redundancy to make a point clear to those with the dullest perceptions, nor was there endless emotional venting dialogue between female characters harping on some cause de jour in which the author might be involved. Nothing irritates me more as a reader than to be repeatedly hit over the head with some author's pet obsession, whether it be abortion rights, saving whales, hanging chads or breast implants. Gardner, on the other hand, exhibits some exciting and creative wordsmithing in the course of the novel that makes one feel eager to pursue the next chapter, a sign of superior imagination and productive editing. I found only a couple of very minor flaws in Gardner's research, and in reading the "Acknowledgments" I figured out from whence they came. The boys with the badges were having a bit of fun with her, as it were, informing her that professional sniper/assassin would choose to utilize a variable-scoped semi-automatic "Winchester-Remington .223-caliber" AR15 assault rifle for a single blind pop-up snap shot at a mere seventy feet, and I suppose the perpetrators of that little joke knew any shooting enthusiast who read that would get a good chuckle. Logically, of course, very few pro snipers will ever read this book They'll be reading Guns N'Ammo while cleaning their bolt-action Model 70's or Dragunovs. But all the kidding aside, this is a very well-done novel of this type and well worth reading for its entertainment value. I hope Gardner continues to write in this vein, for I am now one of her supporters. -Barker Reviews
Rating: Summary: some flaws Review: I love a good detective story and this one was a nice puzzle. However, what irritated me was the chapter where the police were supposed to examine a prisoner's clothes and they missed the lockpick and Alka Seltzer sewn in the hem. Do we have to believe they're that stupid and incompetent?
Rating: Summary: Minority Report Review: Well, after reading the reviews of this book, I am definitely in the minority.... I once read that if you put a group of monkeys in a room banging on typewriters, eventually they would come up with a novel. This must be that novel. I found it contrived, too pat, illogical and unbelieveable. Not to mention boring and uninteresting. It read like a grown-up Bobsey Twins novel. Amateurish. What amazes me is that something like this can actually get published! I would think Ms. Gardner's publisher had higher standards than this. Maybe I should submit a book to them! Do yourself a favor and save your time, money and efforts for a more worthy and entertaining read.
Rating: Summary: NOT UP TO HER USUAL STANDARDS. Review: I have read all of Lisa Gardner's books up to this point and have seen her consistently improve with each subsequent book. I was, however, left with a sense of disappointment after reading the Survivor's Club. I found myself putting it down frequently and not being tempted to pick it up again. The story itself was reasonably good, although the ending was anticlimactic. This was also the case in this author's first two books although she improved on this dramatically by book three. My real issue with this book is the graphic nature of one of the rape scenes. There were also the flashbacks of the survivors. If you, like me, have problems reading graphic rape, then this is not the book for you.
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