Rating: 
Summary: One of RN Patterson's best!
Review: A little complicated at first but it all comes together and is a terrific read. Hard to put down once you start reading. Keep the books coming.
Rating:
Summary: compelling
Review: This book was very compelling, intriguing and creative. It reminded me of another novel, Next: A Poetic Odyssey, by Lee Frank.
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Summary: The maestro has done it againn-great thriller
Review: In the late nineteenth century, Steelton, located where the Onondaga flows into Lake Erie, was a booming factory town that hosted the region's top steel manufacturing industry. Today, the steel industry is gone and the city remains depressed even though some urban improvement has occurred.A debate has broken out among the politicians over whether to construct a modern baseball park for the Steelton Blues, whose franchise in the city is nearing the century mark. Mayor Krajek sees the stadium as something good for the community, especially minority workers. His opponent in the mayoral race, Arthur Bright, condemns the project as a waste of public funds needed elsewhere. However, the controversy on Steelton 2000 turns ugly. The supervisor of the project Tommy Fielding of the Hall Development Company and a Mafia lawyer influential in the project Jack Novak are found dead. Though Jack was once her lover, Assistant County Prosecutor Stella Marz leads the investigation that she thinks should be considered two homicides. Stella and the police weed through layers of deception, corruption, and avarice trying to resolve the double mystery. DARK LADY is Richard North Patterson's best tale to date as he paints a vivid yet depressing picture of a midwest city. The story line is entertaining as the driven Stella does everything to uncover the truth. Stella's obsession feels genuine and the support cast augments the tale by making Steelton seem like a real American city. The plot suffers from the real success stories of Jacobs Field and Cameron Yards, and from a not-to-believe villain. Still, fans will feel the passions as a debate occurs when a city decides whether to construct a new stadium. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: An absolute winner and must-read!
Review: This wonderfully layered story is a perfect blend of suspense, intrigue and emotions. It features an array of psychologically complex characters and totally believable human relationships and still delivers a story line that will grip you from page one. Don't miss this one!
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Summary: Fantastic
Review: Richard North Patterson does it again. A delicious mix of suspense and intrigue!
Rating: 
Summary: Overlong for its substance
Review: Mr Patterson -a normally reliable and entertaining writer -has seemingly entered a period of persiflage and ponderousness if this novel is any guide as to his future literary development .A basically routine story of political intrigue and corruption is here larded over with excess of detail and a moralistic sententiousness that makes reading it a wearisome experience .
The eponymous heroine is Stella Marz , a prosecuting attorney in the fictitious town of Steelton ,once a prosperouus town founded on heavy industry ,now in recession and split on ethnic grounds .
When her ex lover ,Narcotics cop Jack Novack is found dead in bizarre circumstances suggestive of deviant sexual practices ,it seets in train a series of events that threaten to impact on the Majoral race and to potentially sabotage her chances of becoming City Prosecutor .The current ,white ,Major is Krajek whose grand regeneration scheme for the city encompasses a new baseball stadium and he is oppoosed by Stella's boss the balck Prosecutor Arthur Bright .The battle over the stadium project is the key to the book
and more killings are on the way before the book is over
The story is too thin to justify the 500 plus page length but it does have ,in Stella an interesting a complex heroine , one by no means wholly likeable .She is driven to seek out her roots within thje Polish community from which she sprang and this gives her a touch of humanity that she would otherwise lack
The portait of industrial decline and the inexorable split of the community between reacial groups is pessiimistic .
Please Mr Patterson -keep it shorter next time around .
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Summary: Just promotes seterotypes !
Review: I read Silent Witness by JNP and loved it so I moved on to this one. Boy what a waste of my time. The story moved S L O W. First of all it gives the impression that the construction industry is just ripe with scandels and corruption. I work for one of the oldest land developers in the nation and am here to tell you that is just not true. It seems to be the reputation that the industy has gotten over time but it is not the norm. Another thing I was offened by was that MBEs just show up to collect a paycheck and not to work - once again FALSE.
I think the book does more to promote sterotypes than to entertain.
Rating: 
Summary: Dense thriller
Review: On the whole, I liked it; the writing's good, the heroine's real, with what read like real problems, ambitions, and moral dilemmas. The plot is the dense part; almost too many main characters, although again they're mostly well enough depicted. The true villan (as opposed to the venal and otherwise corrupt) is however disappointingly glossed over, it seems to me. The conclusion is satisfactory; certainly not a onventional "happy" ending. and the story's about the right length. It's a low 4, but a 4 nonetheless...
Rating:
Summary: Good but not Great
Review: This is the first book I ever read by this author and it was a page turner. The plot reads like a NY Post headline and takes the reader on a roller coaster ride on the insider politics of a fictional town where a gruesome (and I mean graphic and icky) murder occurs. Some of the scenes had too much of a realistic ring for my peace of mind. I liked the anti-hero protagonist. Hugely entertaining. I highly recommend this book as long as you aren't easily offended by violence, sex or reality.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Patterson's best
Review: I have always though Richard North Patterson was an underrated writer. He's a bestseller, true enough, but not exactly in the same league as Grisham. I find his books to be tauter, grittier and with more believable character development than Grisham's often lazy prose. Not all Patterson's books are equal, however. DARK LADY is by no means terrible, and fans of Patterson's will be reasonably satisfied. But the plot is, frankly, just a bit too much. So MUCH corruption is exposed in the fictional city of Steelton that it becomes unbelievable. True, a major city might have one or two major political figures who are corrupt, but in this book EVERYONE is corrupt. The question becomes HOW, not WHO? It just gets to be too much like a soap opera. And towards the end, so much hell has broken loose that Patterson simply can't make the behavior of the characters believable. It's simply TOO MUCH. I would say the first 75% of the book is good fun. 100% of the book is fast-paced. It's just that Patterson works too hard to shock the reader, I think. The plot is thick enough already without the overblown help. I therefore cannot recommend this book for beginners in Patterson, because it might put them off some of his better books like DEGREE OF GUILT or EYES OF THE CHILD.
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