Aphrodite

Rating:
Summary: delightful police procedural
Review: In East End, Long Island local reporter Susanna Morgan dies in what seems to most of the police department as an accident. The one hold out who knows a murder was committed is former big city homicide cop Justin Westwood. However, Justin would prefer to ignore his gut and keep writing silly traffic tickets and drinking alcohol as he never recovered from a family tragedy.

Still once one a homicide cop one is always a homicide cop (sort of like the marines). Justin begins scrutinizing what he realizes was set up to look lie an accident. His inquiries lead to wealthy mad scientist Douglas Kranston who works on developing a Fountain of Youth elixir to arrest the deterioration of aging. Justin also finds the Feds seem to hinder his investigation and any one he finds remotely linked to the reporter's death is killed. He begins to believe that a powerful conspiracy to control the Aphrodite project is planning to make him the next victim if he is not ultra careful.

Not just conspiracy buffs will appreciate this delightful police procedural as the investigation is top rate and the support cast well written to make the town seem real and more important the anti-aging project genuine. However, the key to the tale is Justin, who might be dead before he finds redemption. His actions keep APHRODITE from turning banal and turn the novel into a powerful and enjoyable story.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Impossible to Put Down
Review: Justin (Jay) Westwood of Providence, Rhode Island, was a legendary crime-solver, until the Mafia murdered his daughter before turning their guns on him. Left for dead, Jay managed to kill the intruders, stopping the rape and murder of his wife. One year later, his wife committed suicide, bringing to an end the life Jay knew. Added to this mess is Jay's father, who blames Jay for the loss of his granddaughter.
Six years later, Westwood is a cop in the resort town of East End Harbor on Long Island, NY, where his days are spent writing traffic tickets and putting up with the scorn of two, twenty-something, summer cops. Westwood is mocked for being out of shape and spaced out, while he drowns each day in booze and fogs his mind with old song lyrics. Crime is so rare in East End Harbor that police carry cell phones instead of guns. But everything changes when the dead body of a reporter is found.

At first glance, the reporter's death looks accidental, but Jay is nagged by something not quite right about the murder scene. Against his better judgment, Westwood investigate, and happens across a witness that saw the murder. Fortunately, the murderer is not aware of the witness, until bratty cop Brian gives a television interview, and he, too, turns up dead.

Jay takes the witness, Deena Harper, and her daughter Kendall on a race to outwit the killers, determined to keep them alive while unraveling the puzzle of more unlikely murders that keep cropping up:

• Cranky movie buff, Wallace P. Crabbe
• The mistress of a prominent government official
• Nursing home residents who coincidentally have the same niece or nephew, one of which is missing and the other dead after the FBI is called in.

If that's not enough, Westwood and Deena are then implicated in some of the murders and become fugitives, forcing them back to Jay's hometown of Providence for the help they desperately need.

Throw in some creepy identical twin males whose hobby is killing people, an FBI man torn by his conscience, a brilliant scientist, the FDA and some top-ranking political figures and Andrews has written a true, not-to-be-put-down thriller.

Rating:
Summary: be prepared for some twists
Review: Police detective Justin Westwood has a painful past he is trying to escape. He has come to East End Harbor to take a low-level position with the police department there. He is content writing parking tickets and his after hours drinking. A reporter for a local Long Island newspaper is murdered. Justin is sucked into the investigation of her murder. The reporter was well-liked and respected. The most controversial piece she had written recently was an obituary with seemingly wrong facts in it. There are several deaths that seem related and Justin works to solve the puzzle.

The protagonists in this book were very well developed and engaging. The plot is somewhat complicated, but very suspenseful. It made for a page-turning book after a few slow beginning chapters that set up the story. I liked that though there were a lot of characters and a more complicated plot than a standard whodunit, it was still easy to follow. The ending was a bit of a letdown so I can only give APHRODITE an qualified recommendation. It is still one of the better thrillers I have read lately.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Read by Pseudonomous Author
Review: Russell Andrews may be a pseudonym but that's irrelevent when examining his novels. His latest title I read focuses on a mysterious disappearance followed by some mysterious deaths in a small town in Long Island. East Harbour's police force do not recieve much respect, as they mainly direct traffic and are thought to be overrated meter maids by the general populace. Justin Westwood however was not always a glorified meter maid he was a former top-notch detective whose instincts begin to resurrect themselves when a popular reporter is killed, and tied to a movie loving buff who also dies shortly afterward. While trying to protect an eye-witness to the reporter's death, and keep himself alive Justin is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.

This is another sharply written offering from Andrews. I could debate this is his tightest most plot driven title yet. The pages virtually turned by themnselves as I read through the novel. Even though there are hints of where he is going around the halfway mark I found myself intriqued enough by his literary route to that destination to read on.
This novel is far from perfect though and in some key elements does not measure up to his earlier books in my opinion. While Justin was more than another angst driven cop with a dark past, but was instead a fleshed out well'drawn character I found some of the supporting characters lacking when compared to his well penned supporting casts in other stories. As I said the plot was good, and maybe Andrews drifted slightly from character driven techniques into plot driven books. The "bad guys" were interesting, and the ultimate villian was good but both could have been better.

Otherwise this is an author whose prowess I continue to admire as I am continuously enteretained by each new novel I read.

Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 stars
Review: Russell Andrews will satisfy most thriller fans with this scientific thriller. It was well paced with a good storyline. It did seem that cruelty came a little to easy to the protaganist (Justin Westwood). Overall a very satisfying thriller (I wouldn't categorize this as a police procedural) that wrapped up a little to quickly.

"If you stumbled onto the fountain of youth, what would you do? Jump in or board it up so no one could find It?"

Recommended.