Rating: 
Summary: Ordinary Read
Review: I love the first two books by Alex kava but this one seems so ordinary. The ending seems like it is rushed. Like the editor/publisher is rushing her to finish. There is no suspense like the two previous books. The characters are not well develeoped. Lillian, Calvin and Wally had so much introduction than basically disappeared into the story. The relationship between Gwen and Tully also seems to be rushed. This is not a great read, might as well borrow it from the library and not spend the money.
Rating: 
Summary: SHE'S DONE IT AGAIN, PURE BRILLIANCE !!
Review: I was lucky enough to recieve a review copy of Ms Kava's newest book and after the initail reaction - dumb founded shock not to mention the complete and utter disbelief - to the no NICK MORRELLI aspect I must say I was impressed. Ms Kava out did herself with her first two - Perfect Evil and Split Second - however I found her third - Soul Catcher rather lacking.
She definatley makes a come back with this newest Maggie O'Dell novel - At the Stroke of Madness. This novel has everything, murder, mystery and great ensemble of characters. It brings into play Maggie's half brother which she has never met and it also explores and develops the relationship between Tully and Gwen - Personally i havn't yet made up my mind whether i like that particular story line and in true Alex Kava fashion when dealing with relationships, everything is left open to follow up in the next book and the reader left hanging.
The book takes us through many twists and drops little hints before the killer is finally revealed and in this novel it is not so obvious - thank god.
I personally find that Ms. Kava writes a good strong solid female lead in Maggie O'Dell that we do not see in many books and in usually Maggie O'Dell style she does end up getting herself in a fair amount of trouble and unfortunatley this is becoming a standard event in every book, just once it would be great for her to catch a killer without almost dying it gives her an air incompetence when she really isn't
However I did thoroughly enjoy this book and would recommend it even if you did get a little turned off by Soul Catcher, I promise it is worth your money.AND PLEASE AS A SIDE NOTE IN CASE YOUR BROWSING MS. KAVA PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE HAVE MORE NICK MORRELLI IN THE NEXT BOOK
Rating:
Summary: lots of barrels with dead bodies!
Review: Love Alex Kava and her heroine Maggie O'Dell. Maggie is on vacation...not really, she is now on a quest to find a serial killer who has buried bodies in 55 gallon drums! Interesting read with a killer who has an unusual reason for his sick kills!
Alex, you manage to keep me enthralled!
Rating: 
Summary: At the stroke of badness
Review: Sharon Kava started out promisingly with A PERFECT EVIL then just got worse and worse as the series dragged on. Whether it's through a diminishing lack of native talent or the time constraints imposed by Mira (six months for every draft, is my understanding), ATSOM is a worthless piece of garbage that's about as tedius yet tragic as watching a brain tumor grow. More nauseating than the embalmed corpse with the missing brain was Kava's feeble attempt to drum up awareness for her old pal Patricia Sierra's now out-of-print book, THE PRETTIEST FEATHERS by rather ineptly trying to insert it organically into the narrative. In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST'd) version of OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK, Mike Nelson notes the playing of CASABLANCA in the movie and shrewdly says that an inferior movie should never have a better movie played in it. This is the literary equivalent: A marginally-gifted author should never make mention to a superior book. Making this even more irritating is that she mentions no fewer than six other authors, all her betters, in numerous further attempts to go shoulder-to-shoulder with thrillers that, unlike the last two or three O'Dell entries, are actually worth the money to buy. Don't waste your money on any more Kava books, especially if they have O'Dell's name on the cover, unless they reach their inevitable destination, which is the bargain bin at the book or drug stores at 3/4 off list price. Proof of its efficacy on the reading public is that this book, which has been out for over two months, has earned exactly two reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Mystery
Review: Sorry to disagree with all the enthusiastic reviews, but this novel has much more interest as a slight character study than any sort of mystery. The killer's identity is pretty much concealed by the author not by the story.
Kava does spend some effort building up sympathy for a large number of characters, and, in part, does it well. I found her description of life from the point of view of a victim of early onset Alzheimers to be quite haunting.
Rating: 
Summary: Thriller extrodinaire! Hitchcock Style!
Review: Thank goodness Alex Kava loves writing! Her fourth novel, At the Stroke of Madness is worth waiting for and spending your money on! I just completed it this week! Kava continues to deliver the thrilling psychological story we readers want without descibing the specific act...Kava leaves that to our own imaginations. Maggie O'Dell is, without a doubt, one of the strongest characters heroines I've ever had the pleasure of spending hours with! Maggie shows us that we are normal -- and that evolution allows us to conquer or adjust to our flaws. Readers around the world find it easy to relate to Maggie because of this character style. Not only is Maggie a great character, Maggie's closest friends and co-workers are the type of people we would want to have in our lives.
Keep up the great work Alex Kava! As shown by your recent standings on the New York Times Bestseller list for 4 weeks and your incredible climb to the top in Poland (#3), top 20 in UK, and top 20 in Germany,you Ms. Kava, have garnered the top spot with fans around the world! In all fairness of Amazon reviews, who would ever "out" an authors name unless it was someone with a lack of worldly etiquette or disregard of privacy or even a bit of jealousy -- certainly not someone I'd consider taking seriously. Shame on you for your significant bad taste sir.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious suspects, amusing love interest
Review: The small town of Meriden, Connecticut, doesn't see much crime, and that's the way Sheriff Henry Watermeier likes it. The former New York cop is looking to retire soon, and he would like to do so with an unblemished record--no unsolved cases. So when a body turns up in a rusted barrel at an abandoned quarry, he's not happy about it. He's less happy when an examination of the scene turns up several more bodies, each more hideously mutilated than the next. Someone is collecting body parts. FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, now through the worst of her divorce, is supposed to be on vacation. But her psychologist friend has asked her to look into a missing patient, Joan Begley, who was in Meriden when she disappeared. It doesn't look good for Joan. Henry and Maggie are just two of the players in this complex story of a twisted serial killer. There's Luc Racine, a victim of early-onset Alzheimer's who is trying to hold on to his sanity and avoid becoming the killer's next victim. There's Lillian, mystery-novel fan and amateur profiler, whose brother might be the killer. And all sorts of delicious suspects and an amusing love interest for Maggie who cooks up his vegetable beef soup on the same stove as the one he uses to boil down the bones of corpses (he's a forensic anthropologist). This story is fast-paced, absorbing, and lots of fun, with just enough gritty detail to provide realism. This author reminds me of Kathy Reichs or even Patricia Cornwell. Great characters, great mystery and a villain you love to hate.
Rating:
Summary: My first read of Alex Kava
Review: Thought it was great. I'm a James Patterson fan and this book reminded me of his works. I'm definitely interested in reading another by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Well, at least you can read it quickly.
Review: Unless Australia got a severely edited version, this book was extremely brief. But that's the best thing about it - you don't waste too much time reading something that isn't very good.
I found Split Second and The Soul Catcher to be books that improved on her highly average first novel A Perfect Evil. So I actually had high hopes for the fourth installment. While it was good to see the increasingly pointless Nick Morelli out of the picture, At The Stroke Of Madness is far too by-the-numbers to stand out. I counted no less than six highly obvious red herrings, so by the very nature of this genre, I knew the killer was none of them. Also, Maggie O'Dell is supposed to be some sort of genius maverick, but the climax of this novel makes her look like a complete idiot. One of the dullest, stupidest climaxes I've come across in a crime thriller.
It moves quickly, and it isn't dull, but it certainly isn't any good. Kava's next novel is a stand-alone, so I'm guessing a few people have told Kava that it was time Maggie O'Dell was given a (lengthy) rest.
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