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Rating: 
Summary: Jack McCoy, Action Hero?
Review: "Law and Order" is one of the best shows on TV, certainly one of my favorites. This book is really a great continuation of the series, and you really don't have to know a lot about the show or the characters to keep up with what is going on. It starts out with Barbara Chesko's murder in a hotel. The investigation eventually leads to a couple of book editors/con artists. I really liked the behind the scenes of how the publishing world works, a real insiders veiw. There really isn't a lot to say about the book, it isn't a really deep book with heavy ideals. It is just an intertaining novelization of the TV show. All the characters act like their TV counter parts, with one minor exception. At the end there is some uncharacteristic on-screen violence, ending with Jack McCoy playing the hero. Not bad, in fact I kind of thought it was funny; just not the norm for "Law and Order". It is a really short, but smart murder mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Jack McCoy, Action Hero?
Review: "Law and Order" is one of the best shows on TV, certainly one of my favorites. This book is really a great continuation of the series, and you really don't have to know a lot about the show or the characters to keep up with what is going on. It starts out with Barbara Chesko's murder in a hotel. The investigation eventually leads to a couple of book editors/con artists. I really liked the behind the scenes of how the publishing world works, a real insiders veiw. There really isn't a lot to say about the book, it isn't a really deep book with heavy ideals. It is just an intertaining novelization of the TV show. All the characters act like their TV counter parts, with one minor exception. At the end there is some uncharacteristic on-screen violence, ending with Jack McCoy playing the hero. Not bad, in fact I kind of thought it was funny; just not the norm for "Law and Order". It is a really short, but smart murder mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing debut
Review: I had high hopes for this initial entry into the Law & Order series; unfortunately, "Dead Line" didn't live up to the quality of its parent.The book started out promisingly enough with the investigation of a woman's body found at the bottom of an airshaft. Bricoe and Green identify her as the ex-wife of a disgraced fund manager and determine she was trying to get a book of fiction published that thinly disguised real people in her life. Halfway through "Dead Line," however, the book's focus abruptly shifts from her death to the book publishing business and an associated scam. While the author treats the L&O characters with dignity and presents them pretty much dead on, overall the book reads as if it were two books struggling to be one. The more "minor" book seems to be the Law section (the investigation), which was marred by incredibly poor editing with blunders in the supposedly linear timeline, contridictions in stated evidence, and a scene about important evidence that was so badly written it was impossible to figure out what had happened. The Order part (the courtroom) seemed to be the author's favorite. This was presented in a competent, if somewhat convoluted, manner. McCoy and Serena come across very much as their series counterparts but unlike the series, there was very little drama in any of the courtroom scenes. While the underlying case being tried was probably very close to the author's heart, I think it would be difficult for anyone outside of the writing community to think it compelling. The final denouement -- when it came! -- seemed forced and contrived instead of shocking. The trademark L&O epilog tidies up loose ends and has McCoy and Serena exchanging information that illuminates their characters, but even this is over-long and over-written. Hopefully, the books that follow this one will be better conceived and better written. I haven't given up on this series. Not yet!
Rating: 
Summary: Lives Up to the Law & Order Franchise
Review: Purchased this book while on vacation--was browsing through the bookstore's mystery section and it caught my eye, because I'm a fan of the television series. So, let me say, that I felt this book lived up to what I expected of it--it was like reading an episode of Law & Order. Now, to the typical mystery reader, this may not be a good thing.
If you are not familiar with the series, you should know before reading this book that the mystery does not follow a neat and clear path (and I'm not giving anything away by saying this...I'm just generalizing the series, honest). And, only part of the book is the mystery of whodunnit; the rest is the cops and lawyers putting together their case. So, if you're not an L&O watcher, be prepared for more details than the ordinary off-the-shelf murder mystery.
Now, if you ARE a fan of the series, you will be pleased to know that the characters we know and love are drawn out, I felt, exactly as they are in the show. I could practically hear Lennie Briscoe's punchy remarks and Ed Green's computer know-how in the dialogue (Green even "Googles" something or other). Serena Southerlyn, Arthur Branch, Anita Van Buren, Emil Skoda, and--my favorite--Jack McCoy are perfectly portrayed as well. In fact, this is the best part of the novel, watching these characters interact. Because there is actually even MORE there than in the TV show. You get a few side glimpses into the characters, like McCoy's womanizing behavior when it comes to his assistant DAs, and you hear Southerlyn's thoughts as a suspect eyes her legs. This is more than what you get on the show, when the dialogue is all you have to go on.
For this reason, I know Law & Order viewers will enjoy this book. But I don't think you need to like the show to like the book. The storyline is solid. It's not world-class literature. But I didn't expect it to be so.
I hope I come across more Law & Order books. This one was gripping. I can't say that about many other books based on TV.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel From a Fine Television Show
Review: This was a book I couldn't put down. The plot was intriguing, teaching me a great deal about book publishing. The characters were well-drawn and true to the television series. If I had one caveat, it would be that there's a slight imbalance in the elements of the plot--instead of being 50-50 between the detectives and the district attorneys, it's maybe 60-40. I found myself wondering when we'd see Jack & Serena. As we know so little about Serena's private life, the last chapter provided some refreshing insight. I had been looking forward to this book for a long time, as it had appeared on Amazon with no publishing date. Now I hope another one will be forthcoming soon.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel From a Fine Television Show
Review: This was a book I couldn't put down. The plot was intriguing, teaching me a great deal about book publishing. The characters were well-drawn and true to the television series. If I had one caveat, it would be that there's a slight imbalance in the elements of the plot--instead of being 50-50 between the detectives and the district attorneys, it's maybe 60-40. I found myself wondering when we'd see Jack & Serena. As we know so little about Serena's private life, the last chapter provided some refreshing insight. I had been looking forward to this book for a long time, as it had appeared on Amazon with no publishing date. Now I hope another one will be forthcoming soon.
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