Rating: 
Summary: Book has a split personality?
Review: The author obviously has writing talent, but is this book just too ambitious and too "literary"? Too many characters, subplots, moodswings, and shifts in viewpoints? What is this book trying to be? The portrayal of the psychiatrist and the doctor/client privilege is unforgiveable IF this is a Contemporary & Socially Conscious Thriller, but if its a Modern Gothic Horror Story, where everyone is off his/her rocker from the very beginning, then the Dr. Mortimer Cray character works. Melodramatic. Enjoyed weeping at the end. Odd and uneven book, but still glad I read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful plot, characters...bad therapist!
Review: Although I found the book extremely entertaining, the counterfactual material regarding legal and ethical behavior for a therapist kept this novel from being as good as it could have. This therapist would have been arrested and charged with obstruction or accesory/aiding and abetting, had his license revoked and been sued by the victims families.
Rating: 
Summary: beats the rest of mystery genre writers by a stone-cold mile
Review: First thing when you want to shell out the usual exhorbitant fee for a quick paperbook read - flip open the front cover, scan the reviewer's quotes quickly for something from the New York Times, the Washington Post, some big credible reviewer, not a two bit hack writer who's scratching backs with a few cliched praises... Not single words, either - publishers can draw "Astounding!" from "...an astounding piece of crap..." faster than Superman can change his suit. But something's gone seriously amiss when it comes to the quotes listed on the mystery-thrillers of Carol O'Connell - there's not enough to indicate how truly superior to the mass of the genre they really are. I don't have a television, so I end up consuming hundreds of mysteries a year - usually drawing the same amouont of cerebral stimulation from the pages as most people get from their evening dose of sit-coms and funniest home videos. But I curled up yesterday with O'Connell's Judas Child and - despite its pedophiles, savage guard dogs and scarred mystery women - I couldn't stop grinning with delight. Sure, strip the the plot down to its skeleton and it isn't particualry original - the same old 'lawmen trying to hunt down a serial killer.' Still, the flesh on those bones makes Judas Child a joy to read. Each character is superbly developed, original, interesting in his or her own right, not mere backdrop for the detective star. O'Connell's writing is poetic and precise, with truly unexpected plot twists and a pure sense of fun that radiates off each page. Judas Child is so good, in fact, that I forced myself to put it aside so that I could savour it for more evenings before I had to return to the mediocre writing of most of those who share her genre.
Rating:
Summary: Please read this book!
Review: Why is Carol O'Connell not a household name? I am an avid reader of the mystery, horror, and suspense genres as are many of my friends and acquaintances and not one of them has read any of her novels. I am only sorry I don't have a wider sphere of influence to promote her talent myself, though I am doing the best I can. This latest novel, Judas Child, is another example of this writers extraordinary ability to create a totally enjoyable and completely satifying reading experience. I will say no more about this particular novel. Previous reviews have adequately described it and anything I could add would be redundant. I will say only this: I did not rate it with the full 5 stars because I am confident that there are many more wonderful stories to come and I believe we have only tasted the appetizer to what will be a full 7 course feeding frenzy before we are sated.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, twisty, compulsive page-turner.
Review: An engrossing tale of kidnap and murder, and the varying flavors of guilt of surviving friends and relatives. This is a slightly over-ambitious, but compelling tale. I could not put it down. But a few flaws emerge. I think Ali Cray, one of the main characters of the novel, is never developed well enough that the reader can identify with her, and there are a couple of red herrings that are never clarified. A vanished ransom, and political sub-plot clutter the book to little purpose.But still a very good mystery, with a couple of beautiful surprizes.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: This book hooks the reader from start to finish - I stayed up all night to read it. Her characters are very real, her prose almost perfect - O'Connell reminds one of Caleb Carr with her poetic storytelling. The only difficulty is that all the characters are so interesting and yet there are so many that none seems to fully develop - there is almost no room for all of them in the story. Also, I was left with questions about what actually transpired in certain scenes even though I read them over and over again. Despite this, it was a fantastic novel, one I would highly recommend to any lover of the mystery or horror genre.
Rating:
Summary: My new favorite author!
Review: Haven't even finished the book yet and I'm already buying all her other novels! The characters are fresh, interesting and you actually care what happens to them. A stunner!
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, detailed, left me wanting more
Review: Are there 2 versions of this book? I can't understand how people found it dull. I also was late to work staying up to read it. Yes, you had to pay attention; but a good book will draw you back again and again to see the nuances you missed the first time. There are no easy answers in Carol O'Connell's books, you must make up your own mind sometimes about what has taken place, or what the characters will do after the novel ends. If O'Connell develops another line of books with Rouge Kendall as the lead, I'll buy them just as quickly as the Mallory novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Negitive -10 stars
Review: This book was poorly written! Instead of flowing from point A to B etc. it flit here and there in a herky jerky unreadable fashion. Full of irrelevant garbage. They could of edited out 150 pages and the book still would of been of questionable merit. Her writing style is best described as BACKWARDS!, cluttered, unclear, muddled. It was awash with cowflop. It was DULL...BORING.... No action, no thrills. No character interaction. The story was boring. The characters were dead & UNREALISTIC, to say the least! I felt absolutely NOTHING for any of the players. It gave me a headache. $7.00 down the drain.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, gutt-wrenching, rivoting thriller!!!!
Review: I loved this novel. It is the first by Carol O'Connell that I have read. I was pinned to this book. The girls, especially Sadie, are so resourceful and witty. What gumption! I was late for work for staying up too late reading this one! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a great thriller. Not too scary, not too gross--just the right amount of fear and creepiness! I've got to get hold of more of her novels!!
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