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At the Stroke of Madness (Mira)

At the Stroke of Madness (Mira)

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good summer read.
Review: "At the Stroke of Madness," by Alex Kava, breaks no new ground. Maggie O'Dell is a recently divorced FBI profiler about to go on a much-needed vacation, when she gets a phone call from her friend, Gwen Patterson. Gwen, a psychologist, would like Maggie to look into the possible disappearance of a patient.

When Maggie agrees to help, she finds herself embroiled in a very ugly case. It turns out that there is an extremely sick man on the loose in the quiet town of Wallingford, Connecticut. This individual has been killing people for a most unusual reason. Will Maggie catch the killer before he strikes again?

If all this sounds routine, it is, but Kava's nicely depicted characters place this book a notch above the ordinary. There is Luc Racine, a retired postal worker who may have seen the killer. Sadly, Luc is afflicted with Alzheimer's, and his memory is unreliable. Dr. Adam Bonzado is a young and good-looking forensic anthropologist who has been called in to analyze the victims' bones, and when he starts working with Maggie, he finds himself attracted to her. Sheriff Henry Watermeier is close to retirement age. He would prefer not to get bogged down in such a difficult case when he should be taking it easy. Meanwhile, Maggie has some painful emotional baggage that troubles her, but she is determined not to let the past ruin her future.

"At the Stroke of Madness" moves along very quickly, and I finished it in less than a day. I recommend this book for readers who like a skillfully written, fast-paced, and entertaining mystery with an engrossing plot and well-drawn characters.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very good mystery with an unforgettable conclusion
Review: AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS is Alex Kava's newest Maggie O'Dell novel. It continues Kava's quiet --- actually almost understated --- development of the semi-loner FBI agent. Kava is content at this point to slowly develop O'Dell's background and personality, while carrying the novel primarily with the introduction of interesting, dangerous and frightening antagonists.

O'Dell is starting some long overdue vacation time when she receives a call from her friend Gwen Patterson. Patterson, a psychologist, is concerned about Joan Begley, a patient of hers who left Patterson a cryptic voice mail message and then promptly went missing.

Begley's last known location was Meriden, Connecticut where she was attending her grandmother's funeral. O'Dell does not take the disappearance seriously until the body of a woman is discovered in an industrial waste drum in an abandoned quarry near Meriden, a quiet, scenic community primarily known as a tourist stop at the turning of the leaves each autumn. O'Dell, motivated by guilt, travels to Connecticut on an unofficial basis to see if the murdered woman is, in fact, Begley. By the time O'Dell arrives, more bodies are unearthed and it becomes obvious that there is a serial killer at work in the area.

Kava really does her forensic homework in AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS, and it should be noted that you don't want to be chomping down on a burger or steak while reading some of the passages. She also does an excellent job of misdirecting the reader as to the ultimate identity of the killer while providing a couple of clues as to who the fiend really is. With respect to O'Dell's personal life, Kava provides one bombshell and sets up the potential for another.

AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS continues Kava's slow but sure development of O'Dell while continuing to demonstrate her ability to create unforgettable yet realistic monsters for her to apprehend. The conclusion of AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS is particularly unforgettable and may set the stage for a future O'Dell novel.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS
Review: AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS
Alex Kava

Mira Hardcover
August 2003
A Maggie O'Dell Novel

FBI Agent Maggie O'Dell is looking forward to a few days off from her job when her friend, psychologist Gwen Patterson, asks her to try to find one of Gwen's patients, Joan Begley, who has disappeared. Joan had gone to Wallingford, Connecticut for her grandmother's funeral and left a voice mail to Gwen that she had met a wonderful man; that was several days ago and no one has heard from her since.

A reluctant, off duty, Maggie is drawn into one of the most bizarre cases in her career when she arrives in Wallingford. Bodies sealed in barrels have been unearthed in a deserted rock quarry; each body has a different vital organ removed. The good news is that none of the bodies found is Joan Begley; the bad news is that a serial killer has been at work in the area for several years.

Luc Racine, father of D.C. Detective Julia Racine who we met in "The Soul Catcher", is a retired postman. Luc's little dog, Scrapple, unearthed a badly composed human foot and brought it home to Luc. The foot undoubtedly came from the quarry, according to Sheriff Henry Watermeier. Luc is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, a fact he is hiding from his daughter, and admits that Scrapple has brought home several bones in the past that he, Luc, believed were from dead coyotes. Luc was the last person to see Joan Begley when he gave her directions to an address she was looking for. The killer is afraid that Luc might remember more about the bodies that were dumped and about seeing Joan; Luc is now a target because his body contains something the slaughterer would like to have for his eerie collection.

AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS is another "wow" thriller by the talented Alex Kava. The killer walks among the cast of characters assembled in this superbly told story, and Ms. Kava deftly drops subtle hints as to his identity. Maggie is now officially divorced and is ready to get on with the rest of her life, which is looking good on the personal side in more ways than one. AT THE STROKE OF MADNESS is a fast moving, intelligent, intriguing, and vastly entertaining story spun by a master storyteller.

Betty Cox for readertoreader.com
Member of Reviewer's Intenational Organization

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Missing a Bit of Spark
Review: FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell travels to Connecticut when her friend, a psychiatrist, worries about a missing client. Bodies missing bits are discovered in barrels in an abandoned rock quarry. A good, fast read, bit missing a bit of spark. (A)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Weakest of the bunch
Review: I love Alex Kava, but this book is the weakest of the Maggie O'Dell series. People are forgotten in the book and never reapper, it seems as if the ending was rushed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SHE'S DONE IT AGAIN, PURE BRILLIANCE !!
Review: I was lucky enough to recieve a review copy of Ms Kava's newest book and after the initail reaction - dumb founded shock not to mention the complete and utter disbelief - to the no NICK MORRELLI aspect I must say I was impressed. Ms Kava out did herself with her first two - Perfect Evil and Split Second - however I found her third - Soul Catcher rather lacking.
She definatley makes a come back with this newest Maggie O'Dell novel - At the Stroke of Madness. This novel has everything, murder, mystery and great ensemble of characters. It brings into play Maggie's half brother which she has never met and it also explores and develops the relationship between Tully and Gwen - Personally i havn't yet made up my mind whether i like that particular story line and in true Alex Kava fashion when dealing with relationships, everything is left open to follow up in the next book and the reader left hanging.
The book takes us through many twists and drops little hints before the killer is finally revealed and in this novel it is not so obvious - thank god.
I personally find that Ms. Kava writes a good strong solid female lead in Maggie O'Dell that we do not see in many books and in usually Maggie O'Dell style she does end up getting herself in a fair amount of trouble and unfortunatley this is becoming a standard event in every book, just once it would be great for her to catch a killer without almost dying it gives her an air incompetence when she really isn't
However I did thoroughly enjoy this book and would recommend it even if you did get a little turned off by Soul Catcher, I promise it is worth your money.

AND PLEASE AS A SIDE NOTE IN CASE YOUR BROWSING MS. KAVA PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE HAVE MORE NICK MORRELLI IN THE NEXT BOOK

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: lots of barrels with dead bodies!
Review: Love Alex Kava and her heroine Maggie O'Dell. Maggie is on vacation...not really, she is now on a quest to find a serial killer who has buried bodies in 55 gallon drums! Interesting read with a killer who has an unusual reason for his sick kills!
Alex, you manage to keep me enthralled!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: lots of barrels with dead bodies!
Review: Love Alex Kava and her heroine Maggie O'Dell. Maggie is on vacation...not really, she is now on a quest to find a serial killer who has buried bodies in 55 gallon drums! Interesting read with a killer who has an unusual reason for his sick kills!
Alex, you manage to keep me enthralled!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not a Mystery
Review: Sorry to disagree with all the enthusiastic reviews, but this novel has much more interest as a slight character study than any sort of mystery. The killer's identity is pretty much concealed by the author not by the story.
Kava does spend some effort building up sympathy for a large number of characters, and, in part, does it well. I found her description of life from the point of view of a victim of early onset Alzheimers to be quite haunting.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thriller extrodinaire! Hitchcock Style!
Review: Thank goodness Alex Kava loves writing! Her fourth novel, At the Stroke of Madness is worth waiting for and spending your money on! I just completed it this week! Kava continues to deliver the thrilling psychological story we readers want without descibing the specific act...Kava leaves that to our own imaginations. Maggie O'Dell is, without a doubt, one of the strongest characters heroines I've ever had the pleasure of spending hours with! Maggie shows us that we are normal -- and that evolution allows us to conquer or adjust to our flaws. Readers around the world find it easy to relate to Maggie because of this character style. Not only is Maggie a great character, Maggie's closest friends and co-workers are the type of people we would want to have in our lives.

Keep up the great work Alex Kava! As shown by your recent standings on the New York Times Bestseller list for 4 weeks and your incredible climb to the top in Poland (#3), top 20 in UK, and top 20 in Germany,you Ms. Kava, have garnered the top spot with fans around the world!

In all fairness of Amazon reviews, who would ever "out" an authors name unless it was someone with a lack of worldly etiquette or disregard of privacy or even a bit of jealousy -- certainly not someone I'd consider taking seriously. Shame on you for your significant bad taste sir.


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