Rating: 
Summary: A confusing mishmash with a very weird ending.
Review: The only good thing that I can say about "Every Step You Take," the new thriller by Judith Kelman, is that the author had the germ of a good idea at the beginning of the novel. The heroine, Claire Barrow, becomes a widow after her police officer husband, Noah, apparently takes his life. It seems that Noah was despondent after being accused of witness tampering and obstructing justice while investigating an important case involving a vicious serial killer. Claire's life subsequently goes from bad to worse. Her teenaged stepdaughter, Rainey, becomes increasingly rebellious, and Claire, who is under contract to write a new novel, gets a new editor who resembles Attila the Hun. So far, so good. Unfortunately, Kelman is not content to explore the themes of Noah's death, Claire's struggle to be a competent single parent, and her efforts to write a new novel. The author brings in a host of other plotlines, including one about a scraggly dog that Claire takes in, another about the theft of Claire's identity, still another about a club of forensic experts who are looking into the same murders that Noah had been investigating, another about a disreputable boyfriend of Claire's stepdaughter, and yet another about an aunt who tries to civilize Rainey. This book becomes increasingly busy until it reaches an ending that is so outlandish that it left me scratching my head in bewilderment. I have nothing against surprise endings, as long as they flow logically from previous events. That is not the case here. "Every Step You Take" loses its way after a promising beginning and never recovers.
Rating: 
Summary: Good premise that rapidly goes south
Review: There was way too much going on in this overplotted mess-- as another reviewer wrote, characters and incidents are thrown in and nothing becomes of them. They're not so much "red herrings" which have a use in a good thriller, but irrelevant points the author meant to use and seemingly forgot about. The ending is ridiculous and by then I hated all the characters so much I just didn't care. This is the first book I have read by this author and I'm pretty sure it will be the last.
Rating:
Summary: Poor editing
Review: This book was an annoyance from the beginning...from the Judge's name on page 21, contantly changing from Montrose to Mizzoner to the labored story line and the ridiculous ending, a great disappointment! Rarely do I feel any book was a waste of my money, but this was one. This was my first and last read of this author.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book!
Review: This is a thriller in the grand tradition. Twists, turns and endless surprises. Kelman knows how to hook a reader from the first page and keep it coming.
Rating:
Summary: Pass on this one!!
Review: This is the first and last book by this author I have read. This is without a doubt the worst book I have read in years and I read a lot. While the premise of identity theft is both interesting and contemporary, the execution is awful. Filled with trite phrases, pointless wordiness, and characters without character, Every Step You Take is simply a painful and unrewarding read. Pick a book at random and you are practically guaranteed to be better off. How Kelman became a bestselling author and winner of some sort of award is incomprehensible. Pass...Pass...Pass..
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