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Summary: SEVERED LIMBS AND FOOLISH HEARTS
Review: Detectives Marti MacAlister and "Vik" Jessenovik have had their fair share of difficult cases to solve. Ah, but this one is the most bizarre. A severed arm is found in the woods and no identification can be made. As the two officers look for more clues they find out that other severed limbs have been found throughout the years, and like this one a body was never found. Is this the work of a seriel killer or psychopath? Surely Jessenovik's home town can not be the breeding ground for such a bizarre case. Or can it be? Marti and Vik find themselves digging into Lincoln Prairie's art community in order to unravel this mystery of a severed limb. As they begin their questioning unsavory stories emerge regarding some of the town's leading artists. How do they fit into this heinous crime if indeed they are involved at all? Our two detectives have their hands full. To make matters worse, Sharon, Marti's best friend allows her foolish heart to get involved with a man of whom she knows nothing about but is willing to give him her all. Mr. "Wonderful" has some permanent plans for Sharon and her daughter. Will they be able to see through him? Eleanor Bland presents us with two potentially hair raising stories that will keep you on edge. Unfortunately one ends abruptly while the other is not fully developed. A good story plot is sacrificed for a secondary one which leaves you saying ho, hum. If only..... Despite that major flaw, Whispers In The Dark will keep you in suspense and will show you the effects of the lack of self-esteem. Come join with these detectives as they unravel the hidden lives of murderers and the thoughts of their best friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing Pieces
Review: Eleanor Taylor Bland is gifted at bringing all of her subplots to a head. WHISPERS IN THE DARK is the best yet illustration of this talent. Marti McAllister, the only black female cop in the town of Lincoln Prairie, Illinois, is back on the case. This time, Marti and her endearing partner Matthew "Vik" Jessenovik are called out to the scene when an arm is found in the weeds. Marti and Vik have to "piece together" the clues to find out not only why the arm turned up, but, more importantly, the identity of its once owner. Meanwhile, Marti's best friend Sharon has gotten herself in a hairy situation when she marries a man she hardly knows. Sharon is then taken to a remote location in the Bahamas for the so-called honeymoon, but it turns out she's gotten into more drama than she bargained for. This mistake could cost her her life and that of her daughter Lisa. I find that Bland adds a human element to the stories that is unparalleled. Not only does she provide a fabulous mystery, but she also gets the reader attached to all of the characters, both new and recurring. I look forward to many more moving McAllister mysteries. Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: Missing Pieces
Review: Eleanor Taylor Bland is gifted at bringing all of her subplots to a head. WHISPERS IN THE DARK is the best yet illustration of this talent. Marti McAllister, the only black female cop in the town of Lincoln Prairie, Illinois, is back on the case. This time, Marti and her endearing partner Matthew "Vik" Jessenovik are called out to the scene when an arm is found in the weeds. Marti and Vik have to "piece together" the clues to find out not only why the arm turned up, but, more importantly, the identity of its once owner. Meanwhile, Marti's best friend Sharon has gotten herself in a hairy situation when she marries a man she hardly knows. Sharon is then taken to a remote location in the Bahamas for the so-called honeymoon, but it turns out she's gotten into more drama than she bargained for. This mistake could cost her her life and that of her daughter Lisa. I find that Bland adds a human element to the stories that is unparalleled. Not only does she provide a fabulous mystery, but she also gets the reader attached to all of the characters, both new and recurring. I look forward to many more moving McAllister mysteries. Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: One nail biting story
Review: Marti Macallister and her partner Matthew "Vik" Sessenovik are homicide detectives in the greater Chicago area. Due to a rare lull in active investigations, Marti and Vik decide to check into a recently found defrosting arm and three other arms in the freezer of the morgue. During a forensic examination, they determine the age and sex and that at least two people were somehow involved in the seventies art world. The remaining arms are more recent which adds to the puzzle that the cops are making slow progress on solving.
While Marti is involved with her family and job, her friend Sharon, whose daughter Lisa is living with Marti, becomes involved with De Vonte Luthell. He gives her a whirlwind courtship and insists they marry. After the ceremony they go to De Vonte's special place in the Bahamas where he has a special surprise for Sharon and Lisa. Marti, whose case is breaking wide open, has a bad feeling about De Vonte and rushes down to Freeport in the hope that she can prevent Lisa and Sharon from getting hurt.
Anyone who wants to witness a quintessential "every woman" novel just has to read a Marti Macallister mystery. She balances her family and job with expert aplomb (with a little help from momma) and she is there when her friends need her. The mystery itself is fascinating because readers get to see a whole case made out of one semi frozen arm. Although readers will despise some of Sharon's choices they will understand why she made them and feel empathy towards her. It would be a shame for mystery fans to pass up such an excellent choice as Whispers. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Not the best in the series--not bad, just not the best
Review: There are 2 story lines in this mystery. One involves a detatched, frozen arm and the other revolves around Marti McAllister's best friend. Both story lines are resolved, more or less, but I got the definite impression that the first was resolved in order to give Marti the opportunity to rescue her friend from yet another miserable choice. I did not feel that the resolution of mystery one was given enough thought--and that's a shame because the author does a wonderful job of presenting her characters and has developed them tremendously throughout this series. And up to the point that mystery one conveniently solves itself, the two story lines are well blended. But then, it's cut and boom and off to rescue sappy Sharon. This is not a bad book, just not as good as it should be, given the author's past efforts. To get a better picture of this series, I would recommend reading one of the earlier entries.
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Summary: Whispers in the Dark
Review: This is the first book that I read in the Marti MacAlister mystery series. The story was told at a slow pace. Out of five murders, only three were solved. Sharon was the character that held my attention the most. Emotionally, she was not capable of balancing her relationships between her daughter, mother and husband.
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Summary: 2 stories on a theme of mother-love gone bad
Review: While African American police detective Marti Macalister pursues the mystery of the detached arms found in her county, her best friend Sharon considers running from her dying mother by marrying a relative stranger--a man who claims to love her but who tells her little of her past. Arms, without matching fingerprints, offer little hope of any identification and, as the arms were found over a number of years, they might not even be related to one another. Still, there seems to be a possible link to the artistic community. With that slim clue, Marti goes to work. Author Eleanor Taylor Bland is completely convincing in her descriptions of African American life, the extended and generation-skipping families that some of them find themselve in, and in her descriptions of both slum and middle-class black life. The Sharon subplot comes to the forefront in the second half of this novel and is by far the stronger of the two major mysteries. Sharon is a disturbing, often unlikeable, and yet still sympathetic character as she continues to deny the reality that she faces. while Marti is active in pursuing the truth in both of these mysteries, to a large extent, her efforts do not result in the resolution of the crime. Many readers may also find that the two subplots are insufficiently connected t justify being told in a single novel. These two subplots are actually connected by the shared theme of family and the damage that a misplaced or missing mother-love can create, but are unconnected from the plot perspective. Bland's capable writing carries the reader through the plot holes and leads to a reader-satisfying conclusion.
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