Rating: 
Summary: Good story concept that is not developed adequately
Review: I have read many of Ken Goddard's books and have enjoyed them all, especially "Balefire". This book started with the promise of being a top notch sci-fi thriller but fizzled about half-way through. The majority of the story takes place at a single location, the remote cabin. Once the "secret" is revealed to the reader, the author leaps to concluding the book. It would have been much better if the plot had more substance. Too much time was spent explaining the details of forensic evidence collection at the expense of developing the main story, namely the strange visitors we learn about near the end of the book.I could see a lot of potential for a great story, but the author seemed to chose to end the book rather abruptly, leaving lots of unanswered questions.
Rating: 
Summary: A FAST, FUN, SUSPENSFUL EXPERIENCE
Review: I havn't read anything by Mr. Goddard before, so I have nothing to compare this book to. On its own merits, however, it is immensely entertaining. An interesting combination of police forensics and science fiction, it kept me reading well past any reasonable bed time. Sprinkled throughout with dry humor, this book provided me with many hours of reading enjoyment. I'm not normally a fan of sci fi, but I am enormously interested in police procedures and forensics. If you can suspend some degree of belief, this book really works. The characters are well drawn, and the enemy sufficiently spooky to give the reader a chill or two. There is enough blood for those who like their books somewhat gory, but not so much to put off the more discriminating reader. All in all, it is a fast and fun read. preferably read on a dark and stormy night . . .
Rating: 
Summary: a short story dragged out to novel length
Review: I mistakenly thought this book was a murder mystery that would take on eerie undertones. Instead it is blatantly about alien presences from chapter one, and has the subtlety of a cement block. Also, the whole book is a long lesson on crime scene evidence collecting and forensic science. Now I find this topic very interesting when it is part of a novel, not when it is the whole novel. The book was like an X-files episode stretched out to five times the length it warranted. I found the main character to be continually making bad decisions that had no basis other than to create another predictable spooky near encounter. Considering how smart he was made out to be, his actions were not believable. The ending has such a glaring error that it goes way beyond suspension of belief. I can't say more without spoiling it for anyone who may still read this novel. If I hadn't paid for the book, and had gotten it at the library, I would never have bothered finishing it.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I very much enjoyed "FIRST EVIDENCE", I just finished it and I must say that I couldn't put it down. I did have some problems with long first night at the crime scene it took up alot of the book. I also had some problems with Colin shooting up his official cars and still having a job! But that sort of turned into a running joke in later chapters so I was willing to live with it. So in short, I liked this book a lot and found it mostly fast paced, interesting and very intertaining. I would suggest it to any mystery fans or sci-fi fans.
Rating:
Summary: First Evidence
Review: I was always anxious to get back to this book to see what was going to happen next. I was a little chagrined to be left with some unanswered questions and I don't know that the sequel will help me with all those questions. All in all, however, it was an exciting, page-turner with no dull stretches. The author's obsession with time is a little quirky ["it took him five minutes to complete the transfer" is an example] but did not detract from the book. I'm not big on Sci-Fi; I'm a mystery lover. The book read like a mystery and that made it enjoyable for me. It was also written with authority so that I was able to suspend my disbelief and become engrossed with the story. Unfortunately, it took much too long for the sequel to come out and I have forgotten those questions that I had when reading the first novel and therefore don't have much desire to buy the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Not your usual suspects kind of novel!
Review: I was hooked from the begining to the end this book was very well orgainized in terms of plot advancement. The insight of Goddard made this book have a special way of showing the nerve-racking atonomy of forensics. Very well done!
Rating:
Summary: Endless
Review: I'm surprised I finished this book. I guess I kept hoping it would get better. The premise is certainly intriguing, the execution dull and confusing. I do enjoy forensic thrillers, but Goddard goes overboard with details. I appreciate the painstaking descriptions of forensic detail in the opening crime scene, but it goes on and on, taking up almost a third of the book. When detective Colin Cellars finally leaves the cabin murder scene, I never wanted to see it again...but he keeps returning to it, over and over again, like a bad dream. And if we haven't got the idea already, Goddard repeats the list of forensic evidence (already displayed in a diagram and list at the beginning of the book, and covered during the endless opening scene) again at the crime lab, this time complete with every tag and catalogue number for each little bit of evidence. Is this detail really necessary or interesting? It slows the story down to a snail's pace. Goddard also tends to make frequent use of the same descriptive words and phrases (how many times did "alarm bells" go off in Cellars' head?), and feels it necessary to repeat the protagonist's title over and over and over again. Colin Cellars himself is fairly well drawn out, but tends to do stupid things for a guy who is portrayed as being meticulous and intelligent as he is. The other characters in the book are one dimensional, and sometimes laughably cliché. Okay, Goddard obviously knows his forensic investigation, but he doesn't know his science fiction very well. His aliens are poorly thought out constructions, with motivations from the pulp sci-fi of the 1950's. The ending of the book was murky and confusing, and relied on the reader's understanding of a particular technical detail (which after going back over it several times, I still didn't get), and then there is the all too obvious set up for a sequel that I will definitely not be reading.
Rating:
Summary: Endless
Review: I'm surprised I finished this book. I guess I kept hoping it would get better. The premise is certainly intriguing, the execution dull and confusing. I do enjoy forensic thrillers, but Goddard goes overboard with details. I appreciate the painstaking descriptions of forensic detail in the opening crime scene, but it goes on and on, taking up almost a third of the book. When detective Colin Cellars finally leaves the cabin murder scene, I never wanted to see it again...but he keeps returning to it, over and over again, like a bad dream. And if we haven't got the idea already, Goddard repeats the list of forensic evidence (already displayed in a diagram and list at the beginning of the book, and covered during the endless opening scene) again at the crime lab, this time complete with every tag and catalogue number for each little bit of evidence. Is this detail really necessary or interesting? It slows the story down to a snail's pace. Goddard also tends to make frequent use of the same descriptive words and phrases (how many times did "alarm bells" go off in Cellars' head?), and feels it necessary to repeat the protagonist's title over and over and over again. Colin Cellars himself is fairly well drawn out, but tends to do stupid things for a guy who is portrayed as being meticulous and intelligent as he is. The other characters in the book are one dimensional, and sometimes laughably cliché. Okay, Goddard obviously knows his forensic investigation, but he doesn't know his science fiction very well. His aliens are poorly thought out constructions, with motivations from the pulp sci-fi of the 1950's. The ending of the book was murky and confusing, and relied on the reader's understanding of a particular technical detail (which after going back over it several times, I still didn't get), and then there is the all too obvious set up for a sequel that I will definitely not be reading.
Rating:
Summary: When all else fails...
Review: Mr. Goddard writes an vivid tale involving crime, mystery, and humor. It seems that Detective Cellars should have stayed in bed this week. Detective Cellars begins his string of bad luck by being the surprise speaker at a UFO "Alliance" meeting. He then proceeds from one misadventure to the next. He riddles two police vehicles with bullets, chases evidence that disappears every time he turns around, and has to fend off strange anthropological "aliens." Some days, the pay is just not enough. Cellars and his close friends have stumbled onto a conspiracy of universal proportions. Against insurmountable odds, Cellars realizes that, when all else fails you just gotta laugh.
Rating:
Summary: When all else fails...
Review: Mr. Goddard writes an vivid tale involving crime, mystery, and humor. It seems that Detective Cellars should have stayed in bed this week. Detective Cellars begins his string of bad luck by being the surprise speaker at a UFO "Alliance" meeting. He then proceeds from one misadventure to the next. He riddles two police vehicles with bullets, chases evidence that disappears every time he turns around, and has to fend off strange anthropological "aliens." Some days, the pay is just not enough. Cellars and his close friends have stumbled onto a conspiracy of universal proportions. Against insurmountable odds, Cellars realizes that, when all else fails you just gotta laugh.
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