Rating: 
Summary: Been There Done That
Review: All of the elements are here, from the gritty anti-hero to the post-industrial city to the femme fatale, you'll immediately recognize this world. However, if O'Connell were merely peddling in cliche, then "Word Made Flesh" would not be worth your time. Thankfully, O'Connell brings a little psychosis, urban fantasy, and flat-out horror to the table--think Mieville's "King Rat," Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Gun, With Occassional Music," just about anything by Ellison, and Lacan's "Ecrits." Yeah, it's that ecclectic. The amazing thing is that O'Connell is able to make it all work without being pretentious or dense. The balancing act alone is worth the investment, and the Hitchcockian plot will grab you by the throat, shake you like a stoolie, and leave you lying in a ditch by the side of the road.
Rating: 
Summary: Noir at Its Finest
Review: All of the elements are here, from the gritty anti-hero to the post-industrial city to the femme fatale, you'll immediately recognize this world. However, if O'Connell were merely peddling in cliche, then "Word Made Flesh" would not be worth your time. Thankfully, O'Connell brings a little psychosis, urban fantasy, and flat-out horror to the table--think Mieville's "King Rat," Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Gun, With Occassional Music," just about anything by Ellison, and Lacan's "Ecrits." Yeah, it's that ecclectic. The amazing thing is that O'Connell is able to make it all work without being pretentious or dense. The balancing act alone is worth the investment, and the Hitchcockian plot will grab you by the throat, shake you like a stoolie, and leave you lying in a ditch by the side of the road.
Rating: 
Summary: An unusual but thrilling chiller
Review: Gilrein quit the police force when his wife, a fellow cop, died during a raid on a bomb factory. Three years later, he drives a cab in the rundown town of Quinsigamond. His fare that night turns out to be a steady customer, Leonardo Tani, a fence who dies that night courtesy of August Kroger's thugs. This gang also viciously beats up Gilrein as they seek a book allegedly possessed by Tani. Gilrein decides to investigate, especially after he connects the Tani death to the murder of his spouse. Gilrein searches his deceased wife's notebooks looking for clues that might connect Inspector Laczze and his "Methodology" to the Kroger gang. He also begins inquiries into the most dangerous areas of a dying town where death potentially awaits Gilrein at each corner. WORD OF FLESH is a weird, dark, but absolutely superb tale. The story line is filled with a dark landscape as nightmares abound under the guise of justice and crime. Gilrein is a wondrously tortured soul and the eccentric support cast augment the novel that will leave readers wanting to go Krogering. Jack O'Connell has written one of the most exciting, fantastic, but sobering tales of the year. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Do you like detective novels?
Review: I find this book interesting, but I do not know if I would buy anything else from this author. I was expecting more sci-fi and less of a detective novel. It is a detective novel wrapped inside of a descriptively written suspenseful thriller. If you like detective novels that are a bit on the dark side...buy this book. If you like sci-fi or horror and were hoping for a darker Blade Runner, don't buy it. The book took a long time to grab me. Around page 190 it started to pick up and become interesting. Remember that I do not like detective novels. If you do like that genre, you would be captivated after the first few pages.
Rating:
Summary: Talk about a book getting under your skin...
Review: I initially picked up this book looking for a quick, mindless horror story. I was immediately sucked into this intriguing story of darkness, despair, and pain in the world of a underground, rare books trade ring. Jack O'Connell has a great grasp of language taking a simple "detective story" and turning it into a tale of human cruelty and moral depravation. This is a great book, and creepy as hell.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT AND ORIGINAL WRITING
Review: I just finished WORD MADE FLESH tonight. It took me a little while to get into it, the writing was something different from what i usually read, and that was why i wanted to read it. If you are looking for something new, fresh, original, and just a good thriller with writing by probably one of the best writers arround, read WORD MADE FLESH. I was captivated and totally hooked on the story. It's a wonderful mixture of beautifully chosen words in a story that will have you shocked at it's ending. An excellent book, and worth the price. (I actually got it out of the library but if i had bought it, and read it.. it would be one of the many classic books on my shelf) Jack O'Connell is one of the most daring and original writers. This is the first book I have read by him, and I am going to be sure to read his entire library.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: I live near Worcester,Mass., which borders a lake- Quinsigamond, The city also houses a Jesuit college and a railroad station, once in disrepair and the scene of crimes.And a bar named Gilrein's. Take the familiar and throw it into a brilliant twisted mix of fact and horror, and you get one angle on this work. Work your way through and you will be haunted. The nature of humanity, its inhumanity, the destructive nature of revenge. All this and more. It ain't easy- but wow.
Rating:
Summary: "Dark"?-You Ain't Seen Dark
Review: I'd call this book "dark" if I didn't think that there are a few black midnights that would be offended by the comparison; O'Connell has created a world out of an imagined rusted-out New England mill town that swarms with the seedy leavings of every diaspora from every tragedy-rich old world hell-hole that never was. He's mixed them up with a heavy dose of local mythology and a horrific murder mystery to leave a place so creepy, so filled with the bent and the broken of humanity, that keeping score is ultimately pointless and a net of fears seems to settle on everyone. Great Fun, actually! O'Connell writes so noir that Chandler comes across as a sissy, while his two-fisted hero suffers stoically perhaps the most improbable and unpleasant torture outside of "Marathon Man" Not his best, but fans of O'Conell have to ride the rap that he's created over the last few years in "Box 9", "Wireless" and "The Skin Palace".
Rating:
Summary: "Dark"?-You Ain't Seen Dark
Review: I'd call this book "dark" if I didn't think that there are a few black midnights that would be offended by the comparison; O'Connell has created a world out of an imagined rusted-out New England mill town that swarms with the seedy leavings of every diaspora from every tragedy-rich old world hell-hole that never was. He's mixed them up with a heavy dose of local mythology and a horrific murder mystery to leave a place so creepy, so filled with the bent and the broken of humanity, that keeping score is ultimately pointless and a net of fears seems to settle on everyone. Great Fun, actually! O'Connell writes so noir that Chandler comes across as a sissy, while his two-fisted hero suffers stoically perhaps the most improbable and unpleasant torture outside of "Marathon Man" Not his best, but fans of O'Conell have to ride the rap that he's created over the last few years in "Box 9", "Wireless" and "The Skin Palace".
Rating:
Summary: Horror and being human
Review: If you can get through the first few pages of this book, (it took me three attempts to do it), you'll find much more than a well-written horror story.
O'Connell shows us the darkest side of humanity, in a fictional place that could well have been the German ghettos during the late 1930's.
Be warned, this book is emotionally exhausting and ultimately tells us something of the human condition that we ignore at our own peril.
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