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Chain of Evidence

Chain of Evidence

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: very good
Review: "Chain of Evidence" is the best thriller novel I've read since THE SHAPE by Craig Furnas. (Craig Furnas's novel, truth be told, is better. It is a "10". It deals with Nazis wanting to overthrow Peru, but there is a lot more to the book than that. It is a riveting page-turner that I could not put down. Before you read "Chain of Evidence," read Craig Furnas's THE SHAPE. You can buy it through Amazon.com. YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!) "Chain of Evidence" is a good pool-side read.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: OK
Review: Chain of Evidence can't touch The Testament or The Triumph and the Glory for intensity or suspense if you ask me. It was OK, but very weak in spots and flawed by some pretty convoluted sub plots.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good, but not extraordinary, mystery. very exciting
Review: Chain of Evidence is an exceptionally interesting and detailed story in a poorly written book. The plot keeps unwinding in surprising directions, while the forensic and high-tech details are interesting and entertaining. It's a good read, and it would probably make a good movie.

But the attempt to describe the tortured soul of the protagonist never really works. His relationships with women and his former mentor are not credible. His angst winds up feeling like heartburn. If you read novels for characters, skip this one. If you want an exciting plot, buy it now.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good, but not extraordinary, mystery. very exciting
Review: Chain of Evidence is an exceptionally interestingand detailed story in a poorly writtenbook. The plot keeps unwinding in surprising directions, while the forensic and high-tech details are interesting and entertaining. It's a good read, and it would probably make a good movie.

But the attempt to describe the tortured soul of the protagonist never really works. His relationships with women and his former mentor are not credible. His angst winds up feeling like heartburn. If you read novels for characters, skip this one. If you want an exciting plot, buy it now.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best high intense action book by Ridley Pearson.
Review: Chain of Evidence is stunning masterpeice of intelligence and high action suspese. In a quest for the truth behind a chain of puzzling suicides, Joe "Dart" Dartelli struggles between knowing right, and understanding wrong. As the pieces of the puzzle start to come together, Joe finds himself face to face with the murderur, but does he want to tell who he is? More and more, Dart learns a llitle more about the killer, and himself. Does Dart want to turn in his best friend, or can he find another way of convicting a killer. This book is a heart pounder. Don't be surprised when you find yourself up all night with this book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A detective has little time to solve the case of a life-time
Review: Detective Dartelli, a inquisitive young man has just stumbled upon a case that will rip open his past and tear his future apart. Supposed suicides keep turning up all over the city and within each there is an eerie connection. All of the men were convicted of heartless crimes. Someone is stalking these predators and "Dart" knows it. Should he pursue this killer even though he may being doing th world a favor? Or should he abide by the law and try and catch him? This killer may even be a lot closer than he thinks.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ridley's Earlier Books Better
Review: I discovered Ridley Pearson by reading "No Witness," then proceeded to read "Angel Maker" (creepy good), the one about a serial airplane bomber (the title slips my mind) and "Blood of the Albatross". Later, a friend loaned me "Undercurrents." It was then I realized I had read him ten years eariler. I remember enjoying his style then and do so even more now. Though "Chain of Evidence" was not his best, I'll read anything he writes

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I hope it was a joke
Review: I have not read any other books by Ridley Pearson and perhaps I should. I am hoping that this book is not an example of his finest work. Perhaps it just slipped through or maybe it was published as a joke!

This is not to say don't read it. If you are looking for a way to while away the hours I would say reading Chain of Evidence scores above an evening of watching sitcoms on TV.

I'm sorry, but the characters were made of cardboard. Devices are thrown into the plot just to make it work. Dart, the main character just doesn't seem to have the motivation to do what he does. His relationship with his mentor and possible adversary is hollow. I have to admit that I started marking the book in the margins when things bothered me!

Here is one tiny example. One of the women in his life, Angie, also works for the Hartford Police (as he does). She is divorced with kids. The kids never appear in the book, as they don't have to. But instead of using a plausible excuse for them being absent (and giving Dart and Angie a chance to, ahem, get it on) she ditches them (with the neighbor, it's not really clear). Wouldn't it be more likely that she shares joint custody with her ex and they are spending the time with him? And don't ask me about the non kid friendly loft she lives in.

It's little things like this that make the whole story not ring true. It feels like the author either didn't take time to think things through or perhaps this was the treatment for a screenplay. I could see it made into a movie where Hollywood could gloss over the little details that have to be spelled out in a novel for it to work.

Also, the stereotyping of minorities borders on being offensive.

This is just my opinion. Please do read the novel for entertainment. I guess my expectations are just too high. Who do I read and enjoy? How about Elmore Leonard and Ed McBain?

Now I'm going to see if I can find another Ridley Pearson novel and give it a chance!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: For the compulsive mistery book reader, only
Review: If, on the other hand, you have only normal interest in mistery books, skip this one.

It adds nothing. A five-year-old would find the plot predictable. Whenever you stumble on something you couldn't predict, the reason is that it is very hard to believe in anyhow.

I've had better pool-side stuff.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Forensic follies
Review: Ridley Pearson comes up with some of the more original serial murder plots - in Chain of Evidence, a legendary forensic scientist turns rogue - or does he? - against those he thinks are helping criminals like his wife's murderer.

Hero cop Joe Dartelli has everything a fiction hero needs - weirdly abusive childhood, the choice of beautiful and brilliant co-worker or beautiful and brilliant ex, ... and an annoying range of physical reactions. In just a couple of pages early on, he:

feels a worming sense of worry twist his gut, feels the constant din of his internal voice nagging, feels his words catch in his throat, his mind reels, the worry burns inside him again, he felt the need to spill his guts, his voice becomes too tight to answer... I kept hoping for someone to put him out of his misery.

The circumstances of the original cover-up aren't that clear, the computer hacking at the end is ludicrously fanciful, and seemingly every location in the book is

described as too dangerous for whites to go after dark, far more so than any book set in NY or LA. In between all this murk, there are also flashes of Mr Pearson's talent as a snappy crime writer. Still, you might want to skip this one, and read Beyond Recognition instead.


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