Unconscious Truths: A Dr. Haley McAlister Mystery (Dr. Haley McAlister Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: DETECTING LIES by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser
Review: I really enjoyed reading about the heroine and how she can tell the true feelings behind the mask people wear. She watches their body language, voices, etc. and puts it together along with their actual words. The mystery was good and held my interest all the way through. I hope Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser will write more thrillers featuring this heroine and her unique talents.

Rating:
Summary: DETECTING LIES by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser
Review: I really enjoyed reading about the heroine and how she can tell the true feelings behind the mask people wear. She watches their body language, voices, etc. and puts it together along with their actual words. The mystery was good and held my interest all the way through. I hope Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser will write more thrillers featuring this heroine and her unique talents.

Rating:
Summary: Heavy-handed, confused narrative mars mystery
Review: When I first picked this book off the shelf, I was impressed with the author's clinical expertise; here, I thought, I might find a gripping psychological mystery, rich in detail and the accuracy only a professional can bring to her work. The book, needless to say, was a disappointment. Kiecolt-Glaser's prose is heavy-handed, her metaphors trite, and her characterizations stereotyped. While the descriptions of political machinations within a teaching hospital have the potential to be intriguing, the effect is undone by the jumpiness of the plot; and while I'm as much a fan of the sub-plot as anyone, the sub-plot here has virtually nothing to do with the primary action. It comes across as an unnecessary distraction from the main story, which can do with little interruption. The romantic twist reads like an afterthought, thrown in because some editor said, "Hey, this looks pretty thin on the ground; better add a heartthrob." All in all, not the way I'd choose to spend a lazy Sunday.