What a loss Stephen Cannell's death was to the literary world. This is a wonderful series featuring very realistic characters. A good read for all that love a good mystery. ( )

This book had been sitting on one of my shelf for a long time. Too many books, too little time, and somehow this one kept getting overlooked. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, because both the story and the writing had my full attention throughout.

The characters might be a little stereotypical by today's standards - emotionally damaged, alcoholic cops. Shane, our main character, has conquered his addiction while Zack, his partner, has not. Despite this overused character sketch, I found Shane compelling and far more complex than the expected stereotype.

The plot is intricate, taking us in some unexpected directions. Cannell handles this extremely well, weaving the various threads together as we go along.

Two issues kept this from being a 5-star read for me. Without giving spoilers, it's difficult to express those issues specifically, so these are my complaints in vague terms. First, I didn't quite buy into the reasons given for Zach's behavior. His wife offered some hints that were never further explored. And the reason that was given in the end didn't explain the sudden and explosive temperament. Second, the ending felt too big and too much. I kept wondering how such a response would have made sense from a survival standpoint of everyone involved.

There is no doubt Stephen Cannell is a brilliant writer, and this is a book I'd recommend to all crime fiction, suspense, and thriller fans. ( )

Shane Scully from Homicide Special in LA has some problems. His son is being heavily recruited for college football, but he can barely make it home because of his workload. He caught a media-intensive serial murder case that ends up with ties to Counter-terrorism, spies, and a ten-year-old cop killing. When Homeland Security steps in to warn Scully away, he begins to realize that he can’t trust any of the ‘good guys’, not even his partner.

An action-packed thriller about a serial killer soon degenerates into an ambivalent diatribe on the possibilities for abuse inherent in post-9/11 legislation. It might work better if this were truly an eye-opener, but the situations Cannell posits have been well-explored by now. Meanwhile the story suffers as no real insight is given into the psychology and motivation behind the serial killings. Everything is wrapped up in a giant firefight at the end complete with helicopters, machine guns and hand grenades.

This really wasn’t my kind of book. I would have liked something more Law & Order, or more Silence of the Lambs. The lectures to his son about life were pretty sappy, and if I were Scully’s wife/boss and he acted like such an ass trying to finagle professional favors using personal tricks, I would NOT be having sex with him a few pages later. All of the spies, FBI agents, etc. are blatantly conspicuous…you would think they could be more covert. And the final straw: Who lets their 18-year-old son go scuba-diving for corpses with them?

A quick read, but without much substance. You can certainly tell the author used to write for television (A-team). Everything wraps up at the end of the show in a colossal coincidence with no regard for how and why. Unimpressive. ( )