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Summary: The Liberace of Murder Mysteries
Review: Any guy who describes ordinary, everyday headlights being turned off as "the extinguishing of two vanilla flames," and admires himself for his powers of description, shows very little taste or judgment as a writer. All his books are clotted with these inappropriate flights of fancy-ness (he's the Liberace of murder mysteries), but this one is icky clear through. His characters are real-ish, if tiresomely self absorbed and never quite likeable (his own alter-ego, the doctor, is tediously PC and selfconscious), the plot potentially intriguing enough, when he gets to it, even the dialogue works much of the time, but, as usual, the endless detail of whether you turn right or left to get to his favorite hangouts, the florid descriptions of place and vista which never really come off, those go on for pages and chapters and make you forget whether you ever cared who done it and how come. Bleh.
Rating: 
Summary: Better the second time around
Review: As a long time White fan, I read this book shortly after it was released. I raced through it and my overwhelming reaction was "weird." I recently checked out the tape for my husband to read and decided to give the book a second chance. I suspect that the slower pacing of the tape forced me to pay attention to the many details that make this book make sense. The cyber part of the book is still pretty weird but now the mystery worked. Alan Gregory's wife, Lauren Crowder, has center stage in this book. She's befriended Emma who has been blessed/cursed with Kennedy-like fame after the assassination of her father, the Surgeon General. Emma gets involved with a computer whiz and things start to turn ugly. The book is written in alternating chapters of present time and short-term flashback. In the present time, Lauren is standing outside of Emma's house during a blizzard. She fires her gun to warn off a stranger. The stranger is shot. Lauren is arrested -- and then goes into a medical emergency. Did Lauren shoot the stranger? What's going on in the first place? This book is complicated. Alan and Lauren, who I normally love, are caught up in hiding too many secrets to be believed. Their refusal to confide in old friend, detective Sam Purdy, stretched their credibility considering all he's been through with them. Still, there are some truly page-turning moments and some good laughs along the way. The vision of the electric pink "bunny" on the snowplow is wonderful. Bottom-line: This is definately NOT a book to read cold-turkey. Readers are strongly encouraged to have read at least two of the previous four Alan Gregory novels before attempting Remote Control. Then, my advice is to read this one slowly. It's not White's best work but can be a good read with the right approach.
Rating:
Summary: Quick, Alan, Lauren is in trouble!
Review: Could Stephen White have written any more twists into this book? Would it be possible for more characters to be in jeopardy? The book starts out with Emma, the daughter of an assassinated politician, and her quest for privacy. Did Lauren, in an attempt to defend Emma's privacy, shoot someone? Lauren is arrested for what may become capital murder, and the complications from her MS are quickly threatening her life. Alan must not only battle the system to get Lauren to the hospital, but also find a way to solve the crime and get her out of jail. Unfortunately, his own culpability prevents him from being completely honest with his police friend Sam, who might be able to help. This book is full of thrilling legal maneuvering, and White uses a type of flashback writing that really keeps your interest going and your brain working to sort out the events. This book is not as good as some of White's others, but it is definitely worth the read for White's avid fans.
Rating:
Summary: Quick, Alan, Lauren is in trouble!
Review: Could Stephen White have written any more twists into this book? Would it be possible for more characters to be in jeopardy? The book starts out with Emma, the daughter of an assassinated politician, and her quest for privacy. Did Lauren, in an attempt to defend Emma's privacy, shoot someone? Lauren is arrested for what may become capital murder, and the complications from her MS are quickly threatening her life. Alan must not only battle the system to get Lauren to the hospital, but also find a way to solve the crime and get her out of jail. Unfortunately, his own culpability prevents him from being completely honest with his police friend Sam, who might be able to help. This book is full of thrilling legal maneuvering, and White uses a type of flashback writing that really keeps your interest going and your brain working to sort out the events. This book is not as good as some of White's others, but it is definitely worth the read for White's avid fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Contrived, tedious, nothing new here
Review: I don't know about the book, but the audiotape was tedious and uninteresting, the only redemption coming from Dick Hill's narration....it's amazing how many voices he did on this audiotape....but that's how many characters there are, tripping over each other's feet, as it were. Well, there's Dr. Alan Gregory and his wife, Lauren, the protagonists sort of, but don't forget Emma, who is an intern under Laura in the Boulder (Colorado?) D.A.'s office, where Laura is a D.A. Then there's the polices, Scott Malloy and a veteran whose name I can't recall. Then there's Emma's private security, a guy who used to work for the Secret Service but ends up shot and run over by the villain, J.P. Morgan. Heard that name somewhere before, have we? J.P. Morgan is a financial partner with Ethan Hahn, an inventor who has found a way to transduce bodily movements into bits, which sounds something like EMR or tomography. But anyway, Ethan gets a little carried away and wears the transducer while he's making love to Emma (it's a long story). Then there's Raul Estevez and his wife, another shrink (like Gregory). Did I leave anybody out? Like I said, tedious and contrived. What ever happened to creativity? I don't mean dreaming up fantastic, totally improbable circumstances to drive a plot, but real inventiveness. Well, that's not Stephen White's concern, I suppose. And why should it be? In a 100 years, who will care one way or the other? Diximus.
Rating:
Summary: Another Involving One by Stephen White!
Review: I enjoy Stephen White to the point that he's made my list of authors whose books I buy the hardcover edition the second they come out. Wow, each book by this author is better than the last. I found this one to be the most suspenseful by far. The short time period of the novel makes its pace urgent and its plot tight. It even made me fond of Lauren Crowder, who I found to be a largely unsympathetic character previously. The subject matter was fairly original.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, made me read the whole series
Review: I got a prerelease copy of this book, and read it in two nights. It was very suspenseful, and a very god read. After reading it, I went and found all of the other Stephen White books and read them.
The only unfortunate thing is that he has only written five books. <g>
But, they are very good. They remind me of my favorite series, the Dismas Hardy books of John Lescroart. Very good, highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Who Cares??
Review: I have never been moved to write a review for any book (good or bad), but this one simply infuriated me! The tedious characters are beautiful, rich people with problems that I just didn't care about. What did Emma DO to become so popular? As far as I could tell, all she did was keep up her pretty hair (Why are these beauties always blessed with "chestnut" hair?). Did she ever actually DO anything? I just wanted to slap her and tell her to stop being so self-absorbed. Plus, since when do these "beautiful" locals hang out at the Boulder mall? Wouldn't famous people such as Emma be concerned about being recognized by all the tourists, not to mention the papparazzi that would obviously care so much about a daughter of a dead surgeon general? (Who??? - Does anyone know who the current surgeon general is, much less the stories of their family members?) Also, I can't seem to figure out why the geographic references bothered me so much in this book. Maybe because they were the only detail supplied that meant anything. Why do I have to know that Dr. Gregory's favorite Nick 'n Willy's pizza is garlic and basil? The characters were far too perfect to eat or sleep. And since when do people call every doctor they meet or know "Doctor"? About half way through, the story got very confusing with shootings, victims, police officers and numerous doctors. After weeding through this mess, the reader is left with the same amount of information and still no reason to finish the book except that it gives a reader a purpose. My purpose is to make sure none of my friends or relatives ever pursue this writer's work unless they want to sit and complain with me.
Rating:
Summary: Who Cares??
Review: I have never been moved to write a review for any book (good or bad), but this one simply infuriated me! The tedious characters are beautiful, rich people with problems that I just didn't care about. What did Emma DO to become so popular? As far as I could tell, all she did was keep up her pretty hair (Why are these beauties always blessed with "chestnut" hair?). Did she ever actually DO anything? I just wanted to slap her and tell her to stop being so self-absorbed. Plus, since when do these "beautiful" locals hang out at the Boulder mall? Wouldn't famous people such as Emma be concerned about being recognized by all the tourists, not to mention the papparazzi that would obviously care so much about a daughter of a dead surgeon general? (Who??? - Does anyone know who the current surgeon general is, much less the stories of their family members?) Also, I can't seem to figure out why the geographic references bothered me so much in this book. Maybe because they were the only detail supplied that meant anything. Why do I have to know that Dr. Gregory's favorite Nick 'n Willy's pizza is garlic and basil? The characters were far too perfect to eat or sleep. And since when do people call every doctor they meet or know "Doctor"? About half way through, the story got very confusing with shootings, victims, police officers and numerous doctors. After weeding through this mess, the reader is left with the same amount of information and still no reason to finish the book except that it gives a reader a purpose. My purpose is to make sure none of my friends or relatives ever pursue this writer's work unless they want to sit and complain with me.
Rating: 
Summary: Best of White's Books to date
Review: I have read all of Stephen White's books, and this is the best one yet. I could hardly believe it when I reached the end. I began reading the book and then "boom" it was over and I don't think I had taken a breath during the whole thing. The main characters were all familiar from his previous books, but this time they were like old friends and not just names on a page. The plot of the book, which involves high tech use of computer and the abuse heaped by the press on celebrities, is timely and intriguingly combined. Hats off to White and I hope that he hurries his next Allen Gregory book along.
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