Rating: 
Summary: A good read...
Review: From the beginning, this book reeled me in and kept my attention. I liked the writer's style, the storyline, and the characters. Grace is a very likeable strong-willed person who's out to find and get the person that killed her partner and almost killed her just years earlier. The beginning of the book sets up the chase and catches your attention. Unfortunately, after that, the ride, at least for me, got a little bumpy. Parts of the book were just great and had me racing through it to see what would happen next. Other parts were, well, yawn...not so plausible and seemed to be dragged out forever. I s'pose I found it hard to believe that Grace would set out alone on such a dangerous mission, and pit herself against a ruthless killer and his band of thugs, just to get revenge. I mean, I can understand wanting revenge, but I'd have to have a little back up before I "go in alone" against that type of adversary. Aside from that, I liked the complexity of the plot and the various characters that helped to propel this book forward. The different locations described in the book added to the story and helped to give it personality. And while I think the author could have ended the story a little earlier than he did, it was nonetheless a good read. I give it 3.5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Flint is Flawed
Review: Grace Flint is a detective inspector for the London Metropolitan Police. She is most often used as a decoy or undercover operative. When one of her assignments goes bad, her partner is killed and she is terribly wounded - both physically and mentally. From that point, the book takes off on a wild ride spanning three continents.
There is something that doesn't ring true with Eddy's Flint. Is it because he's tried to make her both SuperWoman and vulnerable, sane and slightly not, reckless and conservative? Whatever it is, Flint is flawed. There is very little character development in the book - the book is not about character development - but the plot is outstanding - the book's strong point. I agree that the book is hard to put down, you may want to read it one sitting. But don't. This book needs to be read slowly lest you miss one of the subtleties the author throws randomly throws in.
Rating:
Summary: So so.
Review: I know things become different when the spies get involved, but when Grace was in Miami, hello(?), can anyone say ENTRAPMENT? As an Englishman, I am a little hazy on what might or might not contribute entrapment in England. As someone living in the USA, who watches "Law and Order" a lot, I think the sting on the money launderer in Miami would definitely be so. As a novel it was OK. I wanted to know what happened next, but the characters were all a little stereotypical - except of course Flint herself.
Rating: 
Summary: Flint doesn't produce a spark
Review: I read a lot of books of this genre, but for me, this didn't hit the mark. The opening scene is explosive, but the story goes down from there. In essence, the plot is interesting enough - top-level secret-service agents on both sides of the Atlantic have gone corrupt and Flint sets out on her own mission to catch them - but the details get too complex. You end up having to stop and remember back to previous passages to clarify the latest detail. I also found myself not caring about the character of Flint. There was nothing there that made me warm to her. However, the other central character, Harry Cohen, is plausible and I did become endeared to him. The blurb on the front cover, making comparisons to Clarice Starling can be seen as a desperate attempt for an inferior publication to garner sales. Flint should have been able to sell of its own accord, not through dubious association with another authors work. Finally, the big test for me is the question, "Is this believable?" With this book, I didn't suspend disbelief. I felt all along that it was a work of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting heroine runs out of steam.
Review: I was drawn in by a strong start but found the plot un-necessarily complex by the end. Was there really need for all those characters - un-developed names thrown in all around. Lots of bone but very little meat and a rushed ending that left me dis-satisfied. Felt Flint stumbling through by the finish. ... and the name...we already had a Flint... it was James Cockburn. Bit cheesy don't you think.
Rating: 
Summary: This is his first novel?
Review: Many early novels, moreso a first attempt, are usually far from successful. Even great writers have early works that they would rather not be reminded of - Follett's 'Modigliani Scandal, Le Carre's 'Call For The Dead'. That makes this book - a spy thriller in the vein of Le Carre- that much more impressive. Police and money laundering rackets have replaced Le Carre's Spies and Cold War animosities. Detectives Grace Flint and Paul Pendle are on an sting operation hoping to nab serial rapist Frank Harling and his lawyer Clayton Buller. Doesn't happen, What happens instead is Harling smells a rat. Pendle is shot dead and Grace is gunbutted and beaten and stomped to within an inch of her life - the book is violent - but not needlessly so. Buller, overweight and now overexerted from the beating he just administered, collapses behind the wheel of his car, dead from heart failure, Harling escapes. Grace convalesces slowly, physically she heals, mentally she remains seared, her shattered face mends. She is 'Amazing Grace' for her recuperative powers but moreso because of her determination to return to the Major Crimes Division. What is truly amazing about the book is that as detailed and developed a character as Grace is, she's not really the main character. On a case which takes her to Miami, Grace eventually picks up Harlings trail - and disappears. It's time for the equally complex and detailed character - Harry Cohen to make his entry, and find Grace. Cohen is reminiscent of well known characters from this genre - he reminds me of George Smiley or Deighton's Harry Palmer - men who seemed like milk toast on the surface but underneath had some steel strengths. Thoroughly enjoyable. Hurry, write another.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling
Review: Paul Eddy's first novel is just brilliant. It is superbly written and brings to life Grace Flint an undercover police officer who is so skillfully described that she becomes a reality,yet disturbingly distant because she is unobtainable. The novel is the 'can't be put down type' and always Grace Flint is there in an alluring way like the girl you wanted but some one got there first.She is tough,clever and beautiful. Eddy's skill is that which is left to your own decisions as Flint is sexy in this devastatingly exciting book. In parts pathos bought a lump to my throat and then it dissapeared as the savagery of the story made me want to get at the villain. A great first novel,next one please.
Rating:
Summary: Graceless Flint
Review: Plot and character development are high on my list of priorities in fiction, and at the end of Flint, I was dissatisfied in both these aspects of Eddy's work. Combine this with the sloppiness of changing from present tense to past within chapters/sections, and this drags the rating I would give the book down. Toss-in the previously mentioned loose end and a gruesome torture scene that seems devised purely to shock and disturb the reader, and a higher rating than three stars is simply unreachable. However, the characters were complex and the scope of the story very broad. That it was well-researched seems apparent. These aspects kept my interest at a very high level. I also had difficulty grasping the logic of some of the characters' actions, most notably towards the end of the book, Harling. So too, Flint (the mian character) at times seems to embrace the concept of her femininity being used as a tool not only by herself but by her supervisors. This didn't click as being entirely credible, but I suppose history is littered with examples - Delilah and Mata Hari spring to mind. As a first attempt, the book has a lot to commend it, but when I read a thriller, I want to be thrilled, excited, frightened. Not shaking with horror, unable to sleep, and this is how the torture scene left me. So despite the many good points of the book, this will be my first and last Eddy novel.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty and hard-boiled
Review: That could describe the novel and is just as apt summing up Grace Flint's main attributes as well.
Flint was an undercover inspector in England, when an undercover operation went south and she was beaten to within an inch of her life. As her body healed with the help of plastic surgery, she teamed up with other law enforcement agencies hoping by climbing back on the horse her emotional healing could begin. As the taut plot unwinds it is obvious that for Flint to feel whole again she needs revenge on the man that beat her.
This is a crisp and clean thriller that harkens to noir fiction in the best sense of the word. Although Eddy writes with a palpable edge the reader isn't exposed to gratuitous voilence and gore.
Flint is at heart an excellent characterization piece and an invitation to the reader to come to know a truly remarkable heroine.
Although there isn't graphic violence lacing this novel Eddy does an admirable job leading his audience into the world's seedier side. Over all an exciting tense effort, not exceptional but it would be a cold reader indeed that didn't feel for Flint's plight and sympathize with her life's challenges as they read this book.
Rating:
Summary: 3 stars... because it¿s a debut, otherwise 2.
Review: The cover of italian version reports a quote like this: "you already know Clarice Starling, it's time to meet Grace". It recalls Harris's 'Silence of lambs"... but all analogies are limited to the fact that the protagonist is a girl... It's a sort of international financial thriller, with secret services involved, and all the others ingredients... It's funny. The plot is quite complicated. You cannot understand who is bad and who is good... everyone could be the enemy. But, on the other hand, sometimes is ingenuosly developed... The links between the chapters are sometimes very silly and unbelievable... for instance our smart and brave heroine will be robbed by a young man during a train trip. Or a guy involved in the intrigue, registered all details of the intrigue (as a life insurance), in the middle of a video cassette which is on a shelf in his living room. What could be the movie contained in it? Are you thinking about some Ejzenštejn's or Fassbinder's movies, beautiful but that just people very keen of cinema want to see? Wrong answer!!! It is "Frantic", the famous movie with Harrison Ford. I imagine a friend of this guy... "Oh, Frantic!! May I borrow it?"... And what coincidence... Where is bad guy hidden? But where our heroine spent a holiday... There are also a lot of good things... I liked the way Grace has been questioned, at the end... and some other scenes... I realize that my low rating probably depends on the comparision with others similar novels I've read (by Ludlum or Forsythe) in which all details are precise and logical... This is a debut, and I've given it a low rating, but in my opinion Eddy has the basis to reach an higher level. I'll give him another chance buying his next novel...
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