Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Fabulously exciting to the final page! Review: "Every Step You Take" by exciting writer Judith Kelman had me glued in one spot for hours on end as I got lost inside the world she so masterfully created in her wonderful novel.When writer Claire Barrow realizes that someone has slowly been stealing her identity, her newest novel dealing with identity theft could become a memoir of the deadliest kind. Highly Recommended Novel!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A fantastic read! Review: Author Kelman delivers the goods with this intriguing thriller. I stayed up until the wee hours, eager to see how the story ended, and I wasn't disappointed. Great plot, fascinating quirky characters, and an ending that left me stunned! Every Step looks at identity theft, and the author really knows her stuff!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A fantastic read! Review: Author Kelman delivers the goods with this intriguing thriller. I stayed up until the wee hours, eager to see how the story ended, and I wasn't disappointed. Great plot, fascinating quirky characters, and an ending that left me stunned! Every Step looks at identity theft, and the author really knows her stuff!
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: A comfortable, fast read that will keep readers interested Review: Claire Barrow is a single stepmother, a struggling writer, and the widow of a good cop driven to suicide by a bad case and police politics. Noah's daughter Rainey, from his first marriage, is now fourteen and rebelling against life. At lunch with her sister, Claire asks for some advice: "Rainey isn't a kid right now, she's a vat of boiling hormones. Think microscopic messengers in neon helmets and spandex bike shorts careening through her veins, running lights, bowling down pedestrians, charging wild." Claire tells her she will to try to be patient. But the sisters don't address the fact that neither Claire nor Rainey have gotten beyond Noah's death. The shadow of his suicide lurks around every corner without anyone wanting to talk about it. Then, to add to her already over-stressed existence, Claire decides she is ready to put her next book together. With one phone call she learns that her editor of many years has disappeared. Her new editor is a young shark whose tough veneer and fast talking sarcasm only adds to Claire's despair. Editors are loath to take on authors who have worked with other editors, and this one is no different. She refuses to mollycoddle this mid-level author whose work she thinks stinks. After Claire's first devastating lunch with the now despised disperser of rotten reviews, she comes home to find a threatening dunning notice from a collection company. She is the victim of identity theft. First her credit cards are maxed out, then her bank accounts are emptied, and then a rental car in her name is involved in a hit-and-run. She is afraid to go to the police for help because she thinks Rainey may be helping the hacker who has invaded their lives. She turns to Duff, her husband's ex-partner on the force, and he brings some stability and common sense to the rather discombobulated Claire. He too is still grieving for his friend and feels responsible for the family he left behind. While all of this is going on, a serial killer has been released from death row on a technicality. He had been convicted on the strength of DNA evidence vouched for by The Calibre Club, a highly prestigious, invitation-only think tank. Their newest member reviews Noah's case and has a gut feeling that something is not kosher. His area of expertise is extremely intense handwriting analysis from which he gathers clues to the personality of the writer and interprets the shape, style and content of the words. Nobody at The Calibre Club believes that the DNA in the B. B. LeBeau case was inaccurate. Thus, they are shocked when the owner of the laboratory where the tests were done claims he falsified the results of several capitol cases because he says he doesn't believe in the death penalty. Unfortunately, everyone involved in those cases, especially the LeBeau case, is now in danger. The scientist cannot be questioned because he has mysteriously disappeared. Thus the court has no choice but to let a mad killer go. And almost immediately after his release, he starts taking care of business: he murders in the most shocking and tortuous ways. EVERY STEP YOU TAKE is an aggregate of several interwoven storylines. Judith Kelman has a clever way of moving from one thread to another without disrupting the flow. Claire and Rainey are the heart of the novel. The assorted characters who enrich their lives come and go. The story is not without humor, and some of the situations are very funny. But overall this novel is dark, and had Kelman focused on either the identity theft or the forensic group's work and their efforts to catch the madman, the book would be much stronger. Both topics are so fascinating that readers may find themselves feeling not quite satisfied. Nevertheless EVERY STEP YOU TAKE is a comfortable, fast read and will keep readers interested. The good characters are charming, the bad guys are pure evil, and even though the plot is not as tight as it could be, the surprise ending makes up for any lost stitches in the fabric of the story. --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Could,ve been a contender! Review: Claire Barrow is trying to please her demanding editor with a new book proposal, so she details her own chaotic life. She is constantly battling with her stepdaughter and trying to stem the theft of her credit accounts while learning to live with the grief of being a new widow whose husband suicided. All a good premise for a gripping novel... Lots of potentially fascinating characters appear and just as quickly disappear, never to be heard of again. The villain of the piece is so evil and deranged that NO court in any land would release him under any circumstances and the ending reads as if an enthusiastic 10 year old wrote the final scene of a pantomime. I just can't understand why such a usually good writer went beserk!
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: WORST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ and I read a LOT! Review: Ditto to everything negative everyone else said about this book. Insulting to the reader's intelligence. If I could give it 0 stars, I would. Recommended only for insomniacs.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Judith Kelman does it again! Review: EVERY STEP YOU TAKE is a wonderfully chilling novel. Ms. Kelman makes all the strange and terrifying things that befall Claire Barrow believable. As always, the razor-sharp suspense is leavened with Kelman's darkly humorous observations about life's absurdities. Highly recommended.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Great concept Review: Forever lasted for five years for Claire and Noah before he allegedly killed himself after getting suspended from the New York City Police Force pending an Inter Affairs investigation. Noah was alleged to have tampered with a witness and obstructed justice in an effort to get B.B. LeBeau convicted of killing five children aged eight to eighteen. When Le Beau is convicted in a multiple homicide case in Arizona, Claire finally gets a sense of closure until his guilty verdict is overturned. Claire is too busy with her own problems to pay attention to the cause. Her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter Raine acts like she hates Claire and somebody is slowly stealing her identity, running up credit card bills and accessing her bank accounts and pension plan. When she almost gets arrested for a crime she didn't commit, Claire goes on the offensive by setting a trap using herself as bait to catch who is behind the identity theft. EVERY STOP YOU TAKE is a fascinating, exciting and enthralling thriller that cleverly links the plot to catch Le Beau with the protagonist's identity theft story line. Judith Kelman keeps the surprises happening so the audience never becomes complacent or able to predict what happens next. The climax is a total shocker yet it pulls all the various loose ends together into one believable package. This reviewer hopes that the author writes a sequel starring the heroine who engages the reader empathy because she is a genuinely likable and endearing character. Harriet Klausner
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Disappointing Review: I had high hopes for this novel when I saw that my favorite author, Harlan Coben, found it to be "a powerhouse of a thriller". His recommendation was all I needed to pick up the book. However, after reading "Every Step You Take", all I can say is that Coben may be a brilliant author, but when it comes to reviewing novels, he is far too generous.
This novel was not worth the work it took to read. There were so many subplots mixed in that all I was left with was a flurry of inconsequential characters to muddle through. Although the character of murderer B.B. Lebeau had the potential to be fascinating, the author never fully developed this.
This novel continuously hinted at there being more to its plot, but never reached its potential. The ending was especially unsatisfactory, as it was implausible and even ridiculous. Motives given for crimes committed were weak and absurd.
This novel was, unfortunately, a letdown.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Another Kelman gem!!! Review: I have been a long time fan of Kelman's and - once again - she has exceeded my expectations! Every Step You Take gripped me from the first word; characters I could really care about and a story line that kept me in suspense. Yet another reminder as to why Judith Kelman is a star in this genre!
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