Rating: 
Summary: Mooney takes the reader to the edge.....
Review: AND leaves him there!For those who have read Greg Iles and love him (who doesn't?), Chris Mooney will be a nice addition to your repertoire. A relatively new author, DEVIANT WAYS is Mooney's first offering and I can only hope that he does not suffer from the disease often plauging new writers, Freshman Success. ... So here's the deal, typically, a thriller has "stop-and-go" action. Not so with DEVIANT WAYS. Mooney keeps the reader involved with every chapter, literally. He has achieved this interactive involvement by creating surprise twists. As he sets up a situation with a seemly logical outcome, he'll shock the reader with a pardoxical twist. ... there are a couple of blunders within the storyline (something a good editor should have caught) but this does not detract from quality of the book. Another area that Mooney seems to have a natural talent for is character development. With the exception of Fletcher, we don't have any superhumans in this book. Rather, this book reflects the innate flaws that every human possesses. Mooney does an outstanding job of building each character's strengths but then throws humanity at us with the expected ideosyncracies. As earlier stated, Mooney's knack seems to be his ability to maintain the level of action to keep the reader on edge. He uses the technique of ending a chapter in the middle of an action sequence propelling the reader to the next chapter automatically. A very effective tool as it makes it difficult to put the book down. I've already purchased Mooney's second book just based on this read alone. This is about the highest compliment I can give an author. Sure, Mooney will continue to develop his skills and will only get better but hey, I want to be there for the entire ride.
Rating:
Summary: Great New Writer!!
Review: Deviant Ways is a great book - a nonstop thriller packed with excitement. Jack Casey is a man who is haunted by his past - as an FBI profiler he saw the worst in people and also experienced the loss of his wife and child. Now trying to start a new life in a small town he is confronted by a serial killer like no other. The Sandman is cruel, gruesome and cunning. Jack teams up with another ex-FBI profiler Malcolm Fletcher to find the Sandman. Fletcher is a dark mysterious man with a hidden agenda which adds another level of suspense to the story. The chapters are written like James Patterson (short, tight and full of suspense). Chris Mooney does a great job of developing the main characters and grabbing your attention early in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great thriller!
Review: Deviant Ways is a great book - a nonstop thriller packed with excitement. Jack Casey is a man who is haunted by his past - as an FBI profiler he saw the worst in people and also experienced the loss of his wife and child. Now trying to start a new life in a small town he is confronted by a serial killer like no other. The Sandman is cruel, gruesome and cunning. Jack teams up with another ex-FBI profiler Malcolm Fletcher to find the Sandman. Fletcher is a dark mysterious man with a hidden agenda which adds another level of suspense to the story. The chapters are written like James Patterson (short, tight and full of suspense). Chris Mooney does a great job of developing the main characters and grabbing your attention early in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: not deviant enough
Review: DEVIANT WAYS is an inventive enough thriller-- the killer knows technology and how to use it to maximum effect--, but Credibility takes an extended Caribbean cruise along about halfway through the novel; one begins to wonder how this psychopath is able to overpower whole families with seemingly effortless ease and rig up all these elaborate devices undetected, especially when he blows up a whole neighborhood. The characters aren't as convincing as they could be (compare the FBI agents to those in Connelly's THE POET), especially the killer who, for the most part, remains just a shadowy figure throughout most of the novel. The ending is fairly decent, but if only the rest of the novel had been as twisted and creepy as Chapter 24, he could have really had something. PET PEEVE DEPT.: Add Mooney to the growing list of authors-- Michael Connelly, Christopher Reich, and Robert Walker among them-- who think "ahold" is a word.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense At Its Finest!
Review: I had never heard of Chris Mooney until someone sent me an e-mail telling me about this book. So, I decided to put it on my list. Well, after reading this book, I am still wondering what took me so long to read it! This book was well-written, exciting, and very suspenseful. I really enjoyed The Sandman, Jack Casey, Miles Hamilton, and especially Malcolm Fletcher. This was a classic case of good vs. evil and, while I was rooting for Jack Casey, I found myself really enjoying and respecting the cleverness of The Sandman. I really enjoyed how the Sandman continued to call and torment Jack Casey throughout the book. He knew ALL of the buttons to push to get to Jack and, believe me, HE PUSHED ALL OF THEM! Although Jack is the main character of the book, you cannot help but to take notice to the antics of Malcolm Fletcher, an ex-FBI agent. He was the "guardian angel" that always seemed to pop up whenever Jack was in trouble. Fans of the Thomas Harris books or even the James Patterson books really ought to give this one a try. If you are looking for heart-pounding suspense, this book should not be missed!
Rating:
Summary: THRILLING AND DIFFERENT
Review: Just because it appears to be a serial killer novel, don't let that keep you from it. Mooney's debut novel is a well-crafted, intelligent and disturbing thriller. The hero Jack Casey is definitely a flawed one, but he's also multi-layered, sympathetic and brave. Maurice Fletcher is also quite flawed, but his cool efficiency and participation in the hunt for the Sandman is quite forceful. There are several breathtaking chases, some nerve-wracking suspense, and even though it verges on being ludicrous and unbelievable, Mooney writes so well it carries you right along with it.
One peeve, though: late in the book we meet a character in a wheelchair named Matt; he's taken care of, but his friend Phil is never clearly explained. An editor's faux pax???
Any way, I highly recommend this adrenaline charged thriller.
Rating:
Summary: THRILLING AND DIFFERENT
Review: Just because it appears to be a serial killer novel, don't let that keep you from it. Mooney's debut novel is a well-crafted, intelligent and disturbing thriller. The hero Jack Casey is definitely a flawed one, but he's also multi-layered, sympathetic and brave. Maurice Fletcher is also quite flawed, but his cool efficiency and participation in the hunt for the Sandman is quite forceful. There are several breathtaking chases, some nerve-wracking suspense, and even though it verges on being ludicrous and unbelievable, Mooney writes so well it carries you right along with it.
One peeve, though: late in the book we meet a character in a wheelchair named Matt; he's taken care of, but his friend Phil is never clearly explained. An editor's faux pax???
Any way, I highly recommend this adrenaline charged thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Just read Red Dragon...
Review: Not bad, not bad. But hardly original.
He fully read and dissected Thomas Harris's Red Dragon, and changed some names, changed some FBI positions, tossed in a little Silence of the Lambs scenery (the tuxedo/dildo scene!), and wrote a pretty good book. I had to put it down many times simply to laugh at how achingly similar it was to Dragon and Silence.... But I did enjoy it. It was a fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down
Review: There are very few books I read in one day. This is one of them. I could not put it down. Everytime i tried I wonder what the Sandman would do next. Great thrill ride. I enjoyed it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Great book... couldnt stop reading it!
Review: This novel's protagonist is Jack Casey, an ex-FBI profiler with a tragic past. His wife and unborn child were killed by a pyschopath killer, Miles Hamilton, a case he was working on. Casey was forced to witness the murder, unable to do anything but sit and watch the event unfold. After that incident and with the killer locked in a mental institution, Jack quit the FBI and undergone some therapy. Years later, he returned the crime-fighting force as a detective for the Marblehead Massachusetts police dept. He had also started rebuilding his life with his current girlfriend. Jack's current case involves another psychopath, known as the Sandman, who enters victims' houses and kills the entire family. This case brought back many bad memories for Jack: his wife's death and his guilt at not being able to protect her, his anger and rage, etc. The Sandman himself is on a mission to take down the FBI. He bombed a federal building and stole explosives before he headed to Marblehead. It turns out he was a victim of some medical research and testing facility ran by the FBI. He's on a personal vendetta against all people that was involved. The families he targeted were not random. One of the family members were either a doctor or nurse of the research facility. The Sandman is a dangerous opponent. He uses advanced surveilance methods to monitor Jack and his team. By setting up bombs at unexpected places, he kills many police officers and other rescue agents. He also threatens Jack that his girlfriend's life will be in danger if he doesn't back off. As if the Sandman is not enough a problem, Jack has to confront his ex-employer from the FBI, Alan Lynch. Alan has his own mission, that is to wipe off all evidence of FBI involvement in the medical research facility where they used prisoners as testing subjects, and where the Sandman escaped from. Alan had employed a government assassin to kill the Sandman and anyone who may know about the facility, including any other FBI agents or police officers if necessary. Jack seeks the aid of a retired FBI profiler Malcolm Fletcher, who's on the run from the FBI since his attempt to expose the researh and testing program. Malcolm knew the Sandman from his past investigation of the program. He also knows quite a lot about how to counteract the Sandman's surveillance attempts and predicts his next moves. However, time is running out for Jack since the Sandman's next victim is Jack's girlfriend. Jack is terrified that history would repeat itself, that he would be unable to stop the killer in time before he destroys Jack's whole life and hope for the future. Overall, I thought it's terrifying with what the Sandman was able to do, outwitting the police with simple surveillance methods and creative placements of bombs. This story is shocking and will keep you awake at night, definitely a thriller.
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