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Monkeewrench
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Author: P. J. Tracy
List Price: $23.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0399149783
Publisher: Putnam Pub Group (14 April, 2003)
Edition: Hardcover
Sales Rank: 62,070
Average Customer Rating: 4.71 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 4 out of 5
Grabbed Me from the first
I started this book last night and could not put it down. The dialogue is snappy and funny, and the relationships between the two detective teams (and those around them) are believable and touching. I've been reading mysteries voraciously for 20+ years; almost never has a book grabbed me so quickly - I even dreamed I was a character in the book - a first for me! I think the strongest point of this book is its characters - I liked reading about them all. More by this duo please! I also loved the location - I know it well.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Too much fun!
This mystery is what I term, "unputdownable." Vivid characters, snappy pace, and a great sense of humor as well as genuine suspense. You'll love it.
Rating: 3 out of 5
An engaging book, but...
Like many of the other reviewers, I went through this book without taking too many breaks, although for the first half of the novel it was because I was genuinely caught up, and for the second half it was almost as if I'd already invested enough time that I might as well see how it ended.Don't get me wrong: Tracy does a wonderful job of creating a complex, looping plotline, and juggling all the plot threads and large cast of characters. When the threads start to mesh together, things become very interesting indeed. And the way she (well, they) puts sentences together is real pleasure to read. But none of the characters truly engaged me, except perhaps for the two teams of Magozzi-Rolseth and Halloran-Bonar, and as appealing as those two pairs are, they're almost too similar. The Monkeewrench crew's close friendship is well-presented, but I never fully bought them as 3D characters. Every last cop, no matter where he or she is from, is an easygoing team-player with a heart of gold wrapped in deadpan banter, prone to work overtime until their colleagues shoo them home. Which is nice, but doesn't really ring true; there must be a great many cops like this in real life, but every single one? As the plot progresses, there also seem to be an increasing number of moments where the killer gets away with murder by pure luck: cops ignoring a hiding-spot, cops venturing forth without working equipment, someone spotting something and being in just the right frame of mind to misinterpret it, people splitting up when they know someone's after them, etc. I doubt any games company would release their *entire* game (especially a game with levels) on the net. And just how did that final e-mail get sent? I want to like it more. But it's still a good read.
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