Chameleon

Rating:
Summary: Good bad guys, including Detective Schultz
Review: 3rd fantastic book in a row! Don't miss her 4th in the series written under the name of Avery Morgan titled Act of Betrayal! Also, check out her Web site for more about Kennett.

Rating:
Summary: What a page-turner!
Review: A great combination of suspense, action, and exciting investigative techniques. The characters PJ Gray and Leo Schultz are vivid, real people. Kennett makes the twelve-year-old villain not only plausible but so scary that I practically held my breath whenever he was around. There are some great virtual reality scenes in this book, but they are so well conveyed that even if you don't know computers, you can understand and appreciate them. I couldn't put this book down once I started reading it. I'm going to go back and read the first couple of books in the series because I care about the characters and I want to know how they first met.

Rating:
Summary: It was alright.
Review: I've read some of Shirley Kennett's other works, and found them enjoyable, but I really had to suspend some disbelief for Chameleon. Two grown adults go up against a 12-year-old child and almost don't take him down? I've seen the same plot except the killer was an older adult, more plausable for thwarting police. It was still a good read, but I didn't really go for the child-as-a-killer plot. Might have worked well with an adult, and the killer certainly did have the proper childhood to become a killer later on in life. But at his age, it just didn't gel with me.
I'm not saying don't read it, because it's not bad. Suspend your skepticism and go for it.

Rating:
Summary: Timely, well-written, and chilling.
Review: In light of the 12 year old Ohio boy who'd recently held his classmates and teacher at gunpoint with a fully ,oaded 9 mm semiautomatic, this book almost seems like a prophecy. Kennett has written an engrossing, ultimately terrifying story that bids fair to re-sharpen the blunted sensibilities of we who have been treated to an almost weekly dose of school vilence.

CHAMELEON is a disturbing book that, while it doesn't even begin to promise a solution to schoolyard violence, stills presents a chilling, well-written account of the consequences of parents and teachers not reading the signs.

Rating:
Summary: I Almost Didn't Bother To Finish This!
Review: Shirley Kennett has an exceptional grasp of the pychopathic mind. The chilling villains she creates for the P.J. Gray series really challenge her heroine, P.J. Gray, a police psychologist and an innovator in the use of virtual reality, as well as her partner Leo Schultz, an aging police detective, who hunts bad guys the old-fashioned way, through old style police legwork. In CHAMELEON, P.J. and Leo face their greatest challenge yet, when P.J. discovers she's up against an accomplished child serial killer, and one who places her own son's life in jeopardy. You won't be able to put this one down! Despite their different approaches to police work, P.J.'s and Leo's professional and personal relationships have also overcome a variety of challenges; despite a rocky start, they forge an unexpected friendship that promises to be even more interesting in the future. -- Kris Neri, mystery writer

Rating:
Summary: Chilling!
Review: Shirley Kennett has an exceptional grasp of the pychopathic mind. The chilling villains she creates for the P.J. Gray series really challenge her heroine, P.J. Gray, a police psychologist and an innovator in the use of virtual reality, as well as her partner Leo Schultz, an aging police detective, who hunts bad guys the old-fashioned way, through old style police legwork. In CHAMELEON, P.J. and Leo face their greatest challenge yet, when P.J. discovers she's up against an accomplished child serial killer, and one who places her own son's life in jeopardy. You won't be able to put this one down! Despite their different approaches to police work, P.J.'s and Leo's professional and personal relationships have also overcome a variety of challenges; despite a rocky start, they forge an unexpected friendship that promises to be even more interesting in the future. -- Kris Neri, mystery writer

Rating:
Summary: A firecracker of a tale where IT meets forensic psychology
Review: The St. Louis police have noticed a recent increase in homicides, but no discernable pattern appeared to the law enforcement officials. Desperate to figure out what is happening in the Gateway City, the police turn to the relatively new Computerized Homicide Investigations Department, headed by Penelope Jennifer "PJ" Gray, a trailblazer in forensic simulation modeling.

Using her virtual reality program, PJ is able to visualize the killer from the eyes of the victim. She begins to find the elusive pattern to the murders. Meanwhile, old fashioned detective Leo Schultz continues to pound the cement, seeing if he can break open the case. However, neither one of the police officers expected to find the identity of the killer to be a twelve-year-old ingenious misfit, who has chosen PJ's son as a future target.

The information technology age meets forensic psychology in a novel that will leave readers stunned by its brilliance, ease of understanding, and entertainment value. Shirley Kennett is at her best. Anyone who enjoys forensic psychological investigations will enjoy CHAMELEON and Ms. Kennett's previous mysteries (FIRE CRACKER and GRAY MATTER).

Harriet Klausner