Hen's Teeth

Rating:
Summary: Novels as good as this one are scarce as ...................
Review: "Hen's Teeth" is a darned good novel. Scott is a fine craftsman of the written language: her evocative descriptions of animal life, of nature, of the world of science, and of human relationships is fresh and intriguing. The plot is complex and intellectual and involves the reader up and through the surprising ending. And the heroine, Kellen Stewart, is a delight. After I post this review, I'm going to order Manda Scott's next book!

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the reviews would lead you to believe
Review: "Hen's Teeth" by Manda Scott is an attempt at a mystery-thriller. In this novel, Dr. Kellen Stewart is awoken in the middle of the night by her long time friend Caroline. Caroline has found her lover, Bridgette dead. Stewart, who is a medical doctor is called to the scene and the story unfolds from there. How did Bridgette die? What caused her death? The scene does not seem to be true. Stewart is on the job.

This book, from my view has many problems. While the story is interesting and could have been a great ride, I feel like it is lacking a lot. Take for instance the believability of the story. In the course of the tale, Stewart becomes a cat burglar. She is able to break into a securely guarded building with another one of her doctor friends, Lee Addams. When did Kellen learn to be a cat burglar? How does she know how to do these things. Is medical school now teaching students to break into buildings and steal things?

The writing also jumps back and forth. You are stuck in between flashbacks, narrator changes and confusing rants. Plus, since Scott is from Scottland, she uses a lot of vernacular. Sometimes it is hard to understand.

I felt that this book was ok, but it had a lot of things wrong with it. If you are looking for a good book stay away from this one. Perhaps I'm just being very picky, but I think that this is something that you should avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Novels as good as this one are scarce as ...................
Review: "Hen's Teeth" is a darned good novel. Scott is a fine craftsman of the written language: her evocative descriptions of animal life, of nature, of the world of science, and of human relationships is fresh and intriguing. The plot is complex and intellectual and involves the reader up and through the surprising ending. And the heroine, Kellen Stewart, is a delight. After I post this review, I'm going to order Manda Scott's next book!

Rating:
Summary: Manda Scott's first thriller novel...
Review: ...had me searching for more. Her gift for pinning her audience to each page leaves you nothing to do but read until you turn that final leaf...and still want more.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful writing
Review: Although there were parts of the plot where I needed to suspend belief a bit and, liked the characters, although I couldn`t visualize them as much as I would have liked, what really got me was her discriptive writing. I could smell the woods and the river. Feel the horses and the dog. This is what, for me, made it such a good read. Her knowledge of animals and plants is extensive as is her science. I thought I might be a bit uncomfortable with the lesbian angle but wasn`t at all. Relationships are just relationships. All in all I really enjoyed the book and am about to order her others.

Rating:
Summary: Recommend this
Review: I am her brother... so I am biassed <grin> But her next book is out in the UK and is called NightMares.

Rating:
Summary: Best on nature and animals.
Review: Original and readable. So much mourning about the saintly brillant murder victims that it was depressing at the beginning. Excellent on dogs and horses. Characters tended to be either very good and talented or very very bad. I did not find the science plausible. We can already biosythesise insulin commercially. An orally active insulin would be an advantage - not something you'd want to change. The climactic action scenes are good. As a heterosexual male I'm probably not qualified to rate the sex. High quality writing - not a cliche in sight.

Rating:
Summary: I'm not a big mystery fan, but I *loved* this book!
Review: This is one of the most emotionally gripping novels I have read in years -- and I'm an English professor who rarely reads mysteries or crime fiction. The plot was page-turning and pulse-pounding, but what I loved was the characters and the emotional tone, and the excellent writing. I love the protagonist, Kellen, and found myself caring greatly about her and her relationships. This is one of the few novels I've read that, without making a big point of it, captures the intensity of lesbian *friendships* (and ex-lover relationships) in a way that evokes my own life and that of the women I know. It's also one of the only novels I can think of in which animals are fully present as characters -- it also captures the human-animal bonds that are such a central part of the lives of most my friends. After I galloped through Hen's Teeth in a day or two, I kept going back to it repeatedly -- and bought several more copies to send to friends. For quite a while I found it hanging around my psyche like a powerful dream.

Scott's next novel, Night Mares, is out now, and it's also excellent.

Rating:
Summary: I'm not a big mystery fan, but I *loved* this book!
Review: This is one of the most emotionally gripping novels I have read in years -- and I'm an English professor who rarely reads mysteries or crime fiction. The plot was page-turning and pulse-pounding, but what I loved was the characters and the emotional tone, and the excellent writing. I love the protagonist, Kellen, and found myself caring greatly about her and her relationships. This is one of the few novels I've read that, without making a big point of it, captures the intensity of lesbian *friendships* (and ex-lover relationships) in a way that evokes my own life and that of the women I know. It's also one of the only novels I can think of in which animals are fully present as characters -- it also captures the human-animal bonds that are such a central part of the lives of most my friends. After I galloped through Hen's Teeth in a day or two, I kept going back to it repeatedly -- and bought several more copies to send to friends. For quite a while I found it hanging around my psyche like a powerful dream.

Scott's next novel, Night Mares, is out now, and it's also excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Dire, turgid nonsense
Review: Three years ago I had my wallet stolen in Las Vegas and had to drive my van into the desert to wait three weeks for new cards to come through from New York. After getting food and water I had only enough cash to buy one book. I took two hours to choose, and settled on Hen's Teeth because it was set in England and I thought I might get through the ordeal thinking of home. I have never made a worse decision in my life. An appalling, two-dimensional crawl through the most laughably implausible situations and the most idiotic stock characters (complete with dashing copper, mad scientist and wilting-flower lesbos). It made a difficult time for me incalculably worse. I will hold this 'book' in contempt forever.