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Summary: What an exciting book! Non-stop action and suspense!
Review: Lou Boldt returns, still coping with the fears about his wife's cancer,but determined to throw himself into his work. The book combines suspense, mystery, murder and conspiracy. Some new characters are introduced and the regular ones like LaMoia are more developed. A summer reading must!
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Summary: illegal containment
Review: meticulously detailed detective thriller re: chinese immigrants shipped to seattle in container ships. maintains the high level of this continuing lou boldt series.
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Summary: Riddled again
Review: Once more riddled with the tingles of suspense, I lost 2 nights of sleep over this can't-put-down latest from Ridley Pearson, The First Victim. The most recently read is always my favorite, as Pearson grips the reader in an intensity of focus so compelling one reads the last page with a sense of mourning, reluctant to leave the Boldts, Ms. Matthews and even LaMoia behind for another year or so until the next adventure comes along. Always, in addition to the thrilling ride, Pearson's novels add to the readers store of knowledge a peek into some corner of life previously unknown to the reader. This time, it's about the shady and desperate sides of immigration, and interesting observations about the evidentiary carelessness of the criminal at the start of his wayward career. The only aspect of this novel I missed was LB's jazz music. Being a jazz enthusiast and a mystery/suspense novel reader, I particularly like Lou Boldt's jazz soul and missed it in this otherwise wonderful novel.
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Summary: It's classic Ridley, you can't be disappointed
Review: Pearson steps out of the ever popular "serial killer on the loose" format used so often these days. A container of illegal immigrants being smuggled into the US lands in the water and opens up a hot-bed of chaos surrounding underground sweat shops. It is fast paced, well researched, and we get to spend time with some of our favorite characters. There are several aspects of the book which are similar to his others, such as tension at home and friction with another law enforcement agency. This time, however, it's the INS. Nevertheless, I still truly enjoy Ridley Pearson's books and suffer a bit of a slump after I've devoured one. This is no exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Swift but Unsatisfying Tale
Review: Ridley Pearson created a wonderful Lou Boldt thriller with last year's THE PIED PIPER; the plot was assured and had momentum, and the plot twists unfolded with some plausibility. Here, with THE FIRST VICTIM, Pearson's writing is rather lazy, concocting a plot that's woefully plump of cliches, with unsurprising plot turns and characters who don't hold a lot of interest. I have the same problem with THE FIRST VICTIM as I did with John Sandford's latest, CERTAIN PREY: the author gives the reader too much plot information beforehand, so we're always two to three steps ahead of the hero; in turn, the readers don't have the opportunity to discover anything novel -- we just slog through the narrative to see the detective uncover what we've already known for about 100-150 pages before. It's writing without a lot of spontaniety, with only Pearson's forensic knowledge providing much of interest. Swiftly paced and never boring, yet it's insubstancial in all the ways a thriller shouldn't be.
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Summary: Lou Boldt is the best!
Review: Ridley Pearson is the greatest mystery/thriller writer I have read lately (John Grisham -- phooey!). And now I have read all his books except for Middle of Nowhere. The First Victim wasn't one of my most favorite of his books but it was still wonderful. The reason I didn't like this one as much is because there was barelky any interaction with Daphne, but it does stand on it's own as a great piece of writing. I love the attention to the police procedures that is shown through Lofgrin and the other characters (reminds me a bit of Patricia Cornwell's attention to detail). And as always, Ridley does pay great attention to depth of character, pulling you into their lives and flipping htat old curiousity switch. I haven't read up on this latest A&E bit, but I can't think of a more respected entity to provide us access to Lou Boldt and Daphne, etc. I look forward to it!
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Summary: The dark underbelly of modern-day slave traders revealed
Review: Ridley Pearson reminds me of James Mitchner: he always does his homework. His latest work is another winner. "The First Victim" exposes the horrifying ordeal many endure to gain their freedom through a yarn involving my favorite detective, Lou Bolt. Centering on the expoitation of illegal aliens, Bolt and company work smart and fast in spite of the beauracracy and hidden agendas around them. This episode isn't as heavily entrenched in forensics as previous works but a few new scientific tools are employed to keep pace with the hunt. Instead, Pearson concentrates on the frequent conflict between the media and police along with span of control issues whenever the Feds are involved. This is "bigger" than the regular Lou Bolt yarn because of the type of story it is. Overall, it represents a nice change of pace. Loyal Pearson followers will see their favorite players but the storyline doesn't dwell on them as much as previous works. That seems to work well too. It must be hard to keep storylines fresh when an author does a series around the same central characters. Pearson does the job and then some.
Rating: 
Summary: America--The Final Victim?
Review: Screams are coming from a shipping container being fished out of Puget Sound, a container filled with illegal immigrants, Asian women bound for sweatshops and prostitution. The container had slipped off its transfer cable and plunged into a stormy sea, but even before that some had died.
This is the attention-grabbing scene early in another of Pearson's Lou Boldt hardboiled detective series. A good read, and since written by a "New York Times best-selling author," it provides an excellent example of how today's novelist handles the issue of US mass immigration, legal and illegal.
As is true of almost all fictional attempts to deal with this topic, the book condemns the exploitation of illegals without condemning illegal immigration itself--that which makes such exploitation inevitable.
Commenting to his wife on the ship-container deaths, Boldt reflects on immigration: "We all crossed the ocean at some point. Your people came in the early 1800s. Mine during the Great War. You think our people would make it now? All the qualifications and requirements?"
How odd. Since we are now living in the longest sustained period of mass immigration in US history, how is it that "All the qualifications and requirements" are making things so much more restrictive? Or maybe Boldt is making an oblique reference to the anti-European stacked deck of US immigration policy, largely due to so much "chain migration" chaining back to Third World people who first came here illegally. Yes, maybe that's it--and maybe my cat Molly will develop a stand-up routine and start touring dog kennel charity shows.
No, more likely it is the familiar practice of lumping all immigrants, legal, illegal, past, present, into the same moral category. And part of the standard defense that illegals as coming here [cue inspirational music] "seeking a better life"--apparently impossible outside of the United States, and a rationale that would excuse almost any invasion in history. Open-border apologists also frequently argue that illegals are "unstoppable," so it is futile to even try--and, besides, it's unsavory to even bring it up, because it shows, you know, "intolerance" and stuff.
Back to the Boldts. Lou's wife: "If your grandfather had never made the crossing, we would not be here." Wow, this woman is deep.
Lou: "That's what's bugging me, I think. If those women had lived ... at least for awhile they would have a legitimate chance at freedom." "Legitimate" illegals?
Ironically, elsewhere in the book, when it comes to things like police lawbreaking, Boldt is said to be "sentry at the gate." But aren't our nation's borders the ultimate "gate"? Protecting us from terrorists, murderers, rapists, robbers, and the like? Some sentry.
After Boldt, the book's featured character is television news anchor Stevie McNeal, whose half-Asian, half-sister reporter, Mi Chow/Melissa, is captured by the illegal smuggling gang while she is covering the container-death story.
The anchorwoman conducts an interview with INS official Adam Talmadge, during which she keeps referring to all Seattle illegals as "political refugees," apparently because many are from a repressive China. Well, let's see, following that criterion, how many hundreds of millions of the world's billions could move here tomorrow?
The official disputes her, saying in the agency's defense, "Congress has enacted one of the most far-reaching, sweeping overhauls to the Immigration Act this century, making our borders more welcoming that they have been in our seventy years." Welcoming borders? The more you repeat this phrase, the more hilariously Orwellian it becomes--and so very true!
Later in the book, the admired anchorwoman darkly refers to the real image of the INS as being "gatekeepers" and "border guards." Apparently US law enforcement officers risking their lives daily at our borders belong to one of the ickiest occupations imaginable. Since this is obviously presented as the common view of enlightened people, it is, once again, predictably Orwellian, since the real public image of the INS, if public opinion polls mean anything, is that of an agency did not provide ENOUGH support to the Border Patrol.
Although the book's lead characters are obviously meant to be open-minded and intelligent, they seem oblivious or confused on the connection between never-ending mass immigration and its inescapable consequences--such as growing crime. Although Boldt believes that his job now "implicitly requires fundamental knowledge of and contact with elements of organized crime, whether the Chinese Triad, the Russian Mafia ...," he still thinks immigration is just too darn restrictive. So what's the next requirement for Seattle's overworked police detectives, intimate knowledge of the crime lords of Katmandu?
Another familiar aspect of immigration's fictional treatment is that everything is personal. Bolt thinks of illegal immigration in terms of his (legal!) immigrant grandfather. The anchorwoman is motivated by memories of her father's valiant "efforts to smuggle [her half-sister] out of China alive." Sheer numbers of immigrants, and descendants, never enters into it--the effects on the environment, crime, you name it. However, the equally personal stories of those who are victims of crimes committed BY illegal immigrants--keeping in mind that about one in five of all those in American jails and prisons are illegals, for crimes other than their immigration status--never get mentioned. Apparently fictional characters who can think rationally about cumulative immigration NUMBERS would be just too embarrassingly uncool.
In the meantime, the dedicated lieutenant will go on solving his intriguingly gruesome murders, while the stunning anchorwoman will continue enjoying her "contract that includes a Town Car and driver to shuttle her to and from her all-expense-paid five-bedroom co-op apartment." Neither, we can be sure, will ever experience fifteen illegals encamped next door, nor lose their job to one.
On the other side of the issue, we have average un-PC Americans who are burdened by their ability to perform basic math, and are increasingly viewing never-ending mass legal and illegal immigration as leading to a non-nation nation, a teeming collapsed anthill of alien and warring cultures. Good luck Lou.
Not that this book isn't skillfully written. More's the pity.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but I expect better from Ridley Pearson
Review: Seattle police detective Lou Boldt is back and this time he's caught up in the illegal transport of Orientals into Seattle. When a container ship in Puget Sound loses a container full of illegal immigrants and three die, Lou Boldt along with John LaMoia are drawn into the case. To make it even more difficult, a Chinese-american reporter goes undercover and then goes missing while investigating the same case. Boldt and his crew must race against time to find where she's being held before she's killed. Mr. Pearson is an excellent writer and plot spinner and even though this entry is not as strong as his others, it's still head and shoulders above most of what passes for mystery writing on the market today. I do admit I didn't find it as compelling as his "The Pied Piper" but it wasn't bad. The characters do seem a little less richly drawn than usual but the prose is still strong. You could do worse than read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Another hit
Review: The first victim is another Lou Boldt hit. I enjoy the series due to the fact that I am a Seattle native. I would have liked to have seen a little more interaction between Daphnie and Lou.
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