Top Ten

Rating:
Summary: WORTH OF A MINUS TEN!
Review: "Top Ten" had all the promise of being a well thought out and exciting novel. However Ryne Douglas Pearson left way too many gaps in the story. After finishing the novel I wondered a lot about character development. The killer Michalangelo was scary but I found his ability to find his victims very strained and jumpy. I know that he was suppose to be dark, but Pearson sheds very little light on his killer's aspects that the reader must take many leaps of faith to believe the story.

"Top Ten" revolves around a serial killer who is placed Number 10 on America's Most Wanted List. He becomes outraged and starts killing off the other members of the list. His killing are quite grusome and anyone with an uneasy stomach might want to avoid this novel all together. Chasing the killer is FBI agent Aerial Grace, who seems to be a moody confusing character. The killing arrive then at Number 5, who has his own secrets and agenda that only Michalangelo can ruin.

This novel had many pitfall, mainly in the middle. The start and the ending were fine. but the middle 100 pages makes you wonder and Pearson never tights them up. Why did Michalangelo change his forms of killing? What really were his deep dark secrets that made him tick? If your looking for a new paperback thriller to read this should be lower on the must read list.

Rating:
Summary: Very nice !
Review: An entertaining and exciting thriller that reads like a Hollywood action movie. A bit over the top sometimes, but hey : it's fiction !

5 stars, not a masterpiece but very good in its genre.

Rating:
Summary: Bad, Bad, Bad
Review: Don't waste a moment of your life on this one. It's a sloppily written, witless chronicle of a pretty boring serial killer. The book is so poorly written that the author didn't even put forth much effort to name his characters. A serial killer/victim shares the same last name as the heroine for no apparent reason and another character shares the real first name of the undercover officer. How hard is it to come up with a few names? That's just one indication of how bad this is. Another indicator is the fact that the cover shows a female victim in a red evening gown. Why, when no such character or scene is in the book? Can't believe it's going to made into a movie.

Rating:
Summary: Dark and twisted- with some nice characters
Review: I liked this book a lot. Just finished it not 5 minutes ago.

I thought the writing was very good, and the plot was pretty consistent. I didn't find the problems that some of the other reviewers found. I was hoping for a tiny bit more development of the main characters in the epilogue, but what he gave us was decent enough- a look at Ariel and Teddy walking into the proverbial sunset together. I would have liked to see a scene with Teddy and his father in the end as well, just to make sure things were right with them.

I thought the killer was dark, and somewhat scary- the violence wasn't too much for me, didn't see anything that effected me at all, maybe I have seen too many horror movies? He was clever in his method of killing, and I thought Pearson explained his motivation fairly well. There were a couple tiny issues with the story meshing with reality, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the story at all.

I liked how he introduced a number of different characters, and that there were a few different storylines in the book- the serial killer, the arms deals, the drug trafficking...tho, I don't really fully understand what happened with the Russian guys who found out the truth about everything...

Really good book, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Dark and twisted- with some nice characters
Review: I liked this book a lot. Just finished it not 5 minutes ago.

I thought the writing was very good, and the plot was pretty consistent. I didn't find the problems that some of the other reviewers found. I was hoping for a tiny bit more development of the main characters in the epilogue, but what he gave us was decent enough- a look at Ariel and Teddy walking into the proverbial sunset together. I would have liked to see a scene with Teddy and his father in the end as well, just to make sure things were right with them.

I thought the killer was dark, and somewhat scary- the violence wasn't too much for me, didn't see anything that effected me at all, maybe I have seen too many horror movies? He was clever in his method of killing, and I thought Pearson explained his motivation fairly well. There were a couple tiny issues with the story meshing with reality, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the story at all.

I liked how he introduced a number of different characters, and that there were a few different storylines in the book- the serial killer, the arms deals, the drug trafficking...tho, I don't really fully understand what happened with the Russian guys who found out the truth about everything...

Really good book, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Rating:
Summary: NEEDS TO BELONG ON THE TOP TEN WORST BOOK LISTS!
Review: I was very intrigued with this novel after the first couple of chapters. I thought for sure that this book was going to be a winner, well I was wrong. I agree with the other reviewers, this novel ran out of steam FAST! The author talks about the killer name Michaelangelo and then he talks about some criminals flying their stupid planes in the air. Michaelangelo wants to be on the TOP TEN MOST WANTED list. The concept is so incredibly stupid, it's laughable. So good old Mikey starts to kill the criminals on the list, while there is drug trading and other criminals flying in the air. I can understand why all of Ryne Pearson's earlier novels are out of print, because they are probably so bad. IF YOU LIKE MYSTERY read RIDLEY PEARSON! Now he can write great!

Rating:
Summary: Not the Greatest Book Ever Written, BUT...
Review: Okay, it may not win any Pulitzer Prizes. It might not end up on any Oprah's book lists. But this book was an entertaining read. Sometimes when you pick up a book, you don't want to be confronted with deep emotional crises. You just want something to take your mind away for a while.

Sure, the story was farfetched. That was part of the fun.

This book won't set the world on fire. But it will entertain you. It will give you a decent story to read. And basically, isn't that all we ask of ANY book?

Rating:
Summary: Running out of steam
Review: Ryne Pearson unfortunatly appears to be one of those writers who starts off well and then simple runs out of steam. His first novels--Cloudburst (also known as Thunder One), and Octobers Ghost, were excellent on all counts. Since then he has been sliding down with each new novel. I would hope he can stop the slide, and get back to the high quality of Thunder One and Octobers Ghost.

Rating:
Summary: Where was the editor?
Review: Top Ten is an interesting idea, but I have to wonder if the editor was out to lunch on this one. There are some glaring plot deficiencies: how does the killer make the Top Ten Most Wanted List when nobody knows what his name is? We never learn what the crimes were that got him there. In addition, there is a scene in which a prisoner chews off his own finger, with a t-shirt stuffed in his mouth to stifle his own screams. I would like to see somebody try to do THAT! In addition, the character development was weak, as some other people have pointed out. Finally, we never really understand the killer's motivation to kill. Because he's a frustrated artist who was teased mercilessly as a child? There are a lot of things in this book that just don't add up.

Rating:
Summary: Where was the editor?
Review: Top Ten is an interesting idea, but I have to wonder if the editor was out to lunch on this one. There are some glaring plot deficiencies: how does the killer make the Top Ten Most Wanted List when nobody knows what his name is? We never learn what the crimes were that got him there. In addition, there is a scene in which a prisoner chews off his own finger, with a t-shirt stuffed in his mouth to stifle his own screams. I would like to see somebody try to do THAT! In addition, the character development was weak, as some other people have pointed out. Finally, we never really understand the killer's motivation to kill. Because he's a frustrated artist who was teased mercilessly as a child? There are a lot of things in this book that just don't add up.