Called to Kill

Rating:
Summary: Twice is nice!
Review: Of all the accolades I could offer...all the complimentary adjectives I could bestow...and there are plenty...the highest compliment I can give for any book is this. I read it twice. Each and every page. I hadn't intended to. I wanted to do up a review as soon as I read it the first time, it was that compelling. Time passed and some months later I picked it up again, meaning to just leaf through it...re-acquaint myself with the characters, you know. Anyway...next thing, I'm right back into it. Nikki, Trang, Ginni, Magpie...each and every character, no matter how small their role, is captivating and entertaining. Ms. Albarella jam packs each page with riveting action, complex relationships and, yes, even the odd sexual romp! A wonderful book by a woman who obviously has great insight into the human condition and leaves the reader feeling satisfied and uplifted.

Rating:
Summary: Twice is nice!
Review: Of all the accolades I could offer...all the complimentary adjectives I could bestow...and there are plenty...the highest compliment I can give for any book is this. I read it twice. Each and every page. I hadn't intended to. I wanted to do up a review as soon as I read it the first time, it was that compelling. Time passed and some months later I picked it up again, meaning to just leaf through it...re-acquaint myself with the characters, you know. Anyway...next thing, I'm right back into it. Nikki, Trang, Ginni, Magpie...each and every character, no matter how small their role, is captivating and entertaining. Ms. Albarella jam packs each page with riveting action, complex relationships and, yes, even the odd sexual romp! A wonderful book by a woman who obviously has great insight into the human condition and leaves the reader feeling satisfied and uplifted.

Rating:
Summary: CALLED TO KILL is the second Nikki Barnes Mystery
Review: Thank you for your interest in my mysteries. In CALLED TO KILL, Nikki Barnes is back and she's right in the middle of a murder that reaches all the way from war-torn Vietnam to the strip clubs of Fort Erie, Canada. Nikki makes A dangerous promise to Trang, the prostitute turned business executive. A promise that puts Nikki's heart and life in danger. This book also introduces a new character, Mary Magpie York, a small feisty London Associated Press photographer during the Falkland War. Her ability to fast-talk her way out of tricky situations and her connection to the Canadian mafia make her a perfect foil for "Leftenent Barnes." Nikki's old buddy, Max Mullen is also back. His cool head and instincts help run interference when Nikki becomes the number one murder suspect and next target for someone called to kill. There's a lot of action and some great characters in this one. Hope you like it.

Rating:
Summary: Quirky Characters Make the Story
Review: The book read like a play. It lacked rhythm. It lacked passion. It was a pretty good story, but the absence of rythmic flow took away from the content.

Rating:
Summary: Decent but not great.........
Review: The book read like a play. It lacked rhythm. It lacked passion. It was a pretty good story, but the absence of rythmic flow took away from the content.

Rating:
Summary: Quirky Characters Make the Story
Review: The story is an essential part of the human experience. The person who held the tribe spellbound by the fire knew that. The teacher who calms a disruptive class with the words, 'Once upon a time...' knows that. And so does Joan Albarella, in her second Nikki Barnes mystery Called to Kill. What makes a story, any story, engage or disengage its audience is its characters. In Called to Kill, Albarella gives the reader an assortment of characters to care about. It's not just the central character who resonates with the reader (Nikki Barnes is a unique detective -- lesbian Vietnam vet, Episcopal priest, and university professor), it's also the series' supporting characters (Max, Nikki's fellow vet turned detective, and Ginni, the doctor who is Nikki's partner) and a wonderfully quirky Falklands War photographer named Magpie York. Magpie, in fact, is one of the best quirky characters I've encountered since Buddy Bustamente, the dim-witted, outrageously dressed mobster in Les Roberts' Full Cleveland. A slight woman, she has a personality that expands beyond her size to change the chemistry of any room she enters. Also impressive is Trang, the Vietnamese woman Nikki saved, in a flashback, in the first book, Agenda for Murder. She has exactly the right combination of toughness and humanity one would expect in a person who's endured a horrific war and made a grand new life for herself. The story begins with Trang's plea to Nikki for help and moves at a rapid clip through Western New York, the Buffalo area mob, and the toples-bottomless dancing industry in Fort Erie, Canada. There's murder, betrayal, frank eroticism, and more murder in a fast-paced mystery that skirts the line between a cosy (Agatha Christie, Murder She Wrote) and hard-boiled (Kinsey Milhone, Spenser, V.I. Warshawski). Called to Kill is time well spent.

Also recommended: Darkness Peering by Alice Blanchard (a strong woman detective) Agenda for Murder by Joan Albarella (Nikki Barnes' debut) The Wheel of Desire and Other Intimate Hauntings by Gary Earl Ross (short stories both erotic and macabre)