First Victim

Rating:
Summary: Love & Hate
Review: I love Ridley Pearson. I hated this book. Solution: Slow down, Ridley, to only one a year, or even one every two years. We'll wait for you. (If your publisher's pushing, push back!) When you're energized, there's no body better!

Rating:
Summary: Another excellent Ridley read
Review: I love the Lou Boldt books and the First Victim was another 'couldn't put it down' read. When I finish Mr. Pearson's next novel, I will probably go through withdrawal awaiting the further adventures of Boldt, La Moia and Matthews! The 'slaveshop' felt real--depressing, dark and horrendous conditions. Boldt's wife's illness combined with his hectic and frantic official duties make his character so life-like, I keep thinking there is a real Lou Boldt in Seattle with real problems to solve! I did miss Bear not being in this novel--even if it were for just a scene or two. The news anchor was a new angle and very well done, showing crime from the media's standpoint. The rivalry between federal and local departments is palpable. All of Pearson's novels are able to stand alone as excellent stories--he is so good at writing about diverse crimes!--but I love the threads that run through each book and show the personal sides of his characters; the children growing, Liz dealing with cancer, La Moia ogling women, Daphne's on again/off again engagement. I highly recommend 'First Victim'-- especially if you can read all the Boldt books in published order-- to get a feel for the man, his personal and professional lives, and the characters he is involved with over the years.

Rating:
Summary: First Victim
Review: I loved First Victim although it wasn't as griping as the Pied Piper (maybe because I can empathize more as a parent than an illegal alien or reporter!) it was still wonderful and I was hard pressed to put it down. I love "matching wits" with Boldt and LaMoia although I don't plan to give up my day job. As a crime/mystery fan, I would recommend this book easily as I would all the other Pearson books I have bit my fingernails through!

Rating:
Summary: Another taught police procedural from the master...
Review: I stumbled upon Ridley Pearson by accident (found one of his paperbacks in a used bookstore) and he has become one of my favorite mystery writers. The First Victim, although not one of his best, is a taught thriller that keeps you guessing until the end about Melissa's fate. I was disappointed in the lack of character development between Boldt and his wife as well as Boldt and Daphne and John LaMoia. These characters are complex and very human and it would have been nice to have had a few scenes where the richness of the relationships was portrayed. I am looking forward to his next novel in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book great read and would recomend it to others
Review: I thought the way that ridley intertwines the police procedure with educational learning about other aspects of forensic science makes him one of best authors in this genre. I like how he puts the victims first with Boldt and everything else secondary.

Rating:
Summary: A most compelling read
Review: I've been a longtime fan to Ridly Pearson, and this latest book is a real page-turner! I started reading it on a Friday night, was glued to it for all of Saturday, and finished (with sweaty palms) on Sunday morning. My advice: Don't start this one unless you're prepared to hunker down.I unconditionally recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the genre. The premise is excellent (illegal Chinese aliens being smuggled into Seattle in shipping containers), and the human qualities he brings to Lieutenant Boldt and the rest of the investigating team gives the book great depth. I caught Ridley at a book signing at Black Orchid Books in Manhattan last night, where I learned that this is one writer who's putting his actions where his words are. While writing The First Victim, Ridley learned that each year 40,000 Chinese girls are put into orphanages, because of China's one-child-per-couple law. (Apparently, if a couple has a male child, the parents will be able to get social security benefits as seniors, but not so if they have a girl. Hence, the girls often get abandoned on the street). Anyway, Ridley said that he and his wife were so disturbed by this news that they are adopting a Chinese baby in the next month or so. Pretty cool!

Rating:
Summary: Not up to the previous books in the series...
Review: If you're a Lou Boldt fan you'll read this book anyway because you care about the characters, and you'll want to keep up to date with them. I can't recommend reading this book for any other reason. It doesn't measure up to anything Pearson has done in the past. Certainly the subject matter, mistreatment of illegal Asian aliens, is important, but the story plods along with very little suspense or real urgency. I love Ridley Pearson's writing, but this book seems rushed, and forced in all the wrong ways.

Rating:
Summary: The First Victim by Ridley Pearson
Review: In Ridley Pearson's THE FIRST VICTIM, the familiar team of Lt. Lou Boldt, Sgt. John LaMoia, and Psychologist Daphne Matthews team up again to track down the location of a sweatshop where illegal Chinese immigrants are being held as slaves. Seattle PD is called in when a homicide victim is found. Matthews has a minor role in this story, as Boldt's continuing struggle with his attraction for her is replaced by a his inability to trust his wife's belief that prayer has put her cancer into remission. The always analytical and evidence-driven Boldt can't accept a spiritual power that doesn't exist for him. Matthews' skills as a profiler are less necessary in this investigation, and Boldt gets help instead from a TV reporter whose adopted sister goes missing as she follows the story. When Boldt identifies someone who may be involved, they turn up dead under suspicious circumstances. This book was not as terrifying as other Pearson novels, but I was still quite engrossed in the story, and could not seem to put it down. I would recommend it not only for Pearson fans, but for others who enjoy good detective mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Ridley Pearson I had come to look forward to!
Review: In this latest story detective Lou Boldt (a great character who features in many of Person's previous novels), is totally wasted in an esoteric plot way outside the appeal (to me) of Mr. Pearson's usual high quality crime genre. I simply couldn't finish it with the next John Sanford waiting on my night table.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to snuff
Review: Lou Boldt is struggling with his new position as Lieutenant in the Seattle Police Department's Homicide division and with his wife's "miraculous" cure of cancer. The death of three Chinese women in a container destined for Seattle's underground sweat shops drags him away from his wife and two small children. Then when a prominent newscaster's "Little Sister" becomes involved in trying to uncover the story of illegal immigrants goes missing a new urgency drives the investigation forward.
This book is not up to Pearson's usual high standards. The character of the newscaster, Stevie McNeal, is well developed but the others except for Lou Boldt, who we know from other novels, are poorly developed and their interactions and story line limp at times.