Body of Evidence

Rating:
Summary: Less Flashy
Review: Catherine and Nick are working a case involving child pornography found in the print out tray at an advertising agency. Sara and Warrick work on the death of the secretary to the mayor of Las Vegas. I didn't like this one as much as I did the three previous CSI books. There is a lot of technical computer speak which many people might find interesting, but I thought was a little tedious. There was less humor too. I especially missed the frequent dry wit displayed by Gil Grissom in previous outings. All in all, it was less flashy, but still an entertaining read.

Rating:
Summary: Less Flashy
Review: Catherine and Nick are working a case involving child pornography found in the print out tray at an advertising agency. Sara and Warrick work on the death of the secretary to the mayor of Las Vegas. I didn't like this one as much as I did the three previous CSI books. There is a lot of technical computer speak which many people might find interesting, but I thought was a little tedious. There was less humor too. I especially missed the frequent dry wit displayed by Gil Grissom in previous outings. All in all, it was less flashy, but still an entertaining read.

Rating:
Summary: The show is better than the book
Review: I don't ordinarily come down on the side of video over print, but in this case, I must. I bought this novel at the airport, read it on the plane, and still find myself tempted to copyedit it and send it back to the publisher with red pen markings aplenty. Folks who watch CSI are smart enough to want books that are intelligently crafted and carefully edited. I couldn't make it through three pages of this one without finding a typo or some other bush-league mistake. The characters should give life to this tale, but they lie flat on pages riddled with errors. Yawn.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best examples of poor editing
Review: I'll have to say, whoever is proof reading and editing these novels over at Pocket Books must have English as a third language. I lost track of all the incorrectly spelled words, mis-use of words, and sentences that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I guess they must be sending the proofing overseas.

Was the story compelling? Well, no, not really. It read like a bad episode of the series, except for the swearing that they can't use on CBS.

Rating:
Summary: Turn off the TV and read a show!
Review: I'm a casual watcher of the TV show, and this is the first CSI book I've read. Since I'm not a die-hard fan of the show, I had a little trouble matching character names in the book with their image from my memories. This was a little distracting for me, but shouldn't be a problem for those who pay more attention to the TV show. Reading this story seemed much like reading a fleshed-out script for a show's episode ... a very cool effect.

As per the show, there are two cases in focus. First is the discovery of child pornograpy printouts at an advertising agency. Second is the discovery of the body of Las Vegas' Mayor's secretary who had been kidnapped several weeks earlier. I think the book spent more time with the first case, with just tidbits of the second case thrown in until the end. Once the child porn case is wrapped up, the book shifts the murder case into high gear and ends rather suddenly. One thread through both cases is that an innocent person is actively framed by the perpetrator.

Because of the heavy sexual content of these cases, I wouldn't recommend this book for younger readers. I havent yet read any other books from this series, but I will be picking them up soon.

--Lynellen.com

Rating:
Summary: If you like the T.V. show, you'll like the book.
Review: If you like the T.V. show, you'll enjoy this book. I do and yet I still had trouble keeping everyone straight for the first half of the book. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book.

The author has really captured the characters from the t.v. show and expanded on them. He has also captured the forensics aspect.

In this book Janice Denard begins to prepare for an ordinary day, but when she gets to work she discovers shocking photographs let abandoned in a printer. The CSI computer forensics expert helps the CSI team of Willows and Stokes track through hardware and software to find the culprit.

Grissom, Brown and Sidle uncover disturbing evidence in the brutal murder of the Mayor's secretary that has been missing. The media is all over this case, and the Sheriff who is running against the Mayor has to remove himself from the case.

There are a lot of twists and turns as the evidence leads them to the perpetrators in each case.

I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: If you like the T.V. show, you'll like the book.
Review: If you like the T.V. show, you'll enjoy this book. I do and yet I still had trouble keeping everyone straight for the first half of the book. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book.

The author has really captured the characters from the t.v. show and expanded on them. He has also captured the forensics aspect.

In this book Janice Denard begins to prepare for an ordinary day, but when she gets to work she discovers shocking photographs let abandoned in a printer. The CSI computer forensics expert helps the CSI team of Willows and Stokes track through hardware and software to find the culprit.

Grissom, Brown and Sidle uncover disturbing evidence in the brutal murder of the Mayor's secretary that has been missing. The media is all over this case, and the Sheriff who is running against the Mayor has to remove himself from the case.

There are a lot of twists and turns as the evidence leads them to the perpetrators in each case.

I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Child pornography and a dumped body
Review: The Las Vegas Crime Scene Investigation team faces another two challenging cases. While Catherine Willows and Nick Stokes have to find out who printed child pornography photos in an advertising agency, C.S.I. supervisor Gil Grissom and team members Warren Brown and Sara Sidle work on another explosive case -- the murder of Candace Lewis, Mayor Harrison's personal assistant. During their investigations, one of Grissom's axioms shows them the right direction: "First on the scene - first suspect."

Reading "C.S.I. Body Of Evidence" is almost like watching another episode of the original CBS drama "C.S.I." Max Allan Collins' description of the characters is true to their depiction in the TV series. The author does a great job of adding an emotional and psychological dimension. That way the reader learns more about the thoughts and motivation of the characters. Especially Catherine and Nick's case of child pornography touches a raw nerve for both of them, thus making their usual objectivity more difficult. Fans of the TV show as well as anyone enjoying thrilling murder mysteries will like this book.

Rating:
Summary: Read an episode
Review: This is the first book in the series that I have read. I purchased it at an airport bookstore. It is a quick read. It was for all intents and purposes, reading an episode. The good thing about READING the stories is that you get more insight into what the major characters from the show are thinking, you get more in-depth. The crimes are quite believable, the major and secondary, characters are developed enough so as not to be transparent, and the plot moves quickly. This is light reading, not much thinking involved. What you see is what you get. I wll read more from this series. You should also.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Forensic Mystery, But Not The Best in the Series
Review: When Catherine Willows and Nick Stokes catch a call at the end of their shift reporting "unknown trouble", it is all Catherine can do to drag herself down to the Newcombe-Gold Advertising Agency, knowing that her daughter will once again wake up to her regular babysitter instead of her mother. But, when Catherine and Nick discover that the unknown trouble involves graphic photos of child pornography printed from Mr. Gold's computer, they both are willing to do whatever it takes to find the person who would buy such filth. All of the evidence points to one man in the office, even though the computer forensics show that his computer was not used to print the photos, but Catherine's gut tells her that the obvious suspect is not the one who did this - but who did?

Meanwhile, Grissom, Warrick & Sara catch the case that could make or break their carriers outside of Nellis Air Force Base. They discover the body of an unknown woman, called in by a good Samaritan. The body was carefully wrapped and duct taped, but when they open up the package, they recognize the face of Candace Lewis, the Las Vegas mayor's personal assistant who disappeared a few weeks past. Grissom is forced to put aside his distaste of politics and deal with the mayor's relationship with Candace and the sheriff's political aspirations. With so much pressure coming from outside sources to solve the case and keep the details under wraps, Grissom is forced to walk on eggshells and use careful maneuvering in his investigation or ruin the wrong person's career...

This is the fourth book in the CSI series by Max Collins and, while it was not as entertaining as the first three, it was still a very enjoyable read. The endings of the mysteries were particularly interesting in that it reminds us that sometimes the simplest and most obvious solution is the correct solution, instead of the convoluted and complex hypotheses that investigators come up with while working on cases. Again, Collins does a superb job of keeping the TV personalities consistent and clear - I always feel like I am watching an episode on TV when I read his books, I just get more detail this way!