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Rating: 
Summary: No way the killer fits in this one.
Review: Found this offering a little slow and somewhat hard to follow. I found it slow for a 100 pages then it picked up and dropped me again. I really think that it was somewhat of a confusing story and never really brought together. I will read others as I try never to base my opinions on one book and it seems that his earlier books rated higher.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat small
Review: Found this offering a little slow and somewhat hard to follow. I found it slow for a 100 pages then it picked up and dropped me again. I really think that it was somewhat of a confusing story and never really brought together. I will read others as I try never to base my opinions on one book and it seems that his earlier books rated higher.
Rating:
Summary: No way the killer fits in this one.
Review: I enjoy Mr. White but this one just doesn't cut it. Every book requires the suspension of disbelief but this time he asks for too much and then he doesn't deliver the goods. We're to believe that this particular killer could lift a dead body up and dump it into a cement mixer? Or that this killer is strong enough to suspend one of the victims from his feet with a sword? Not to mention that all this fancy and bizarrely sick killing is done by someone that has been otherwise a model citizen up to now? The psychology just doesn't match. Not buying it. I could go on and on about the other implausibilities. The least of which is that this killer had all this time to slip off unnoticed to do all the killing given their role in the story. Come on, Sam would have noticed. I can't believe this one got by an editor.
Rating: 
Summary: I Got Into "Harm's Way"
Review: I have read four of White's fiction novels. I would give the first three a combined rating of 9 on a 1--10 scale. Harm's Way was for me a very disappointing read. I thought the book started well with all of the elements of a great suspense novel. Then it was as if I was reading a college text on "Mechanical Theater 101". It was far too repititious with theater jargon through three quarters of the mid-book. The last fifteen pages were vintage White. So, to wrap it up, the book could have been one fourth it's length and been a very good piece of work!
Rating: 
Summary: Memorable Characters Created By A Clinical Psychologist
Review: Peter Arvin is brutally attacked while working late on a set at a theatre in Boulder. He dies in the emergency room of a hospital, the apparent victim of a ritual killing. Police Detective Sam Purdy asks Dr. Alan Gregory to create a psychological profile of the murderer. Peter's widow Adrienne also asks Alan to find out more about her dead husband's past. She realizes that there is so much she does not know about him.
The dark secret in Peter's background involved his work as a counselor at a wilderness camp for boys during the summer of 1982. Peter and two other young adults were leading a group of six boys on a survival experience. The group was caught in a wildfire and one boy died. The catastrophe converted Peter into a dedicated loner who seemed to have developed a total lack of trust in others. His sense of guilt became so severe that he built a coffin for himself with the date of the fire inscribed at eye level on the inside of the coffin's lid.
Alan concludes that there is a connection between the fire and Peter's murder. He sees the Denver murder as the act of a different person who probably committed suicide shortly after the crime. Detective Dale Hunter disagrees and argues that both murders were done by the same killer. Sam and Alan remain unconvinced and as they continue to follow their own leads, they begin to realize that they will be lucky to finish this case alive.
The author is a clinical psychologist whose greatest strength lies in the development of memorable chacters who come to life in his novels.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre offering in a good series
Review: The Alan Gregory series is one of the few mystery series that I've read over the years, eagerly awaiting the next new release. At the same time, my husband is just now reading them for the first time and I've been re-reading the old books so I can enjoy them with him. So, with the perspective of nine books, I opine that this is not one of the best. It's an ok read but nothing that kept me up past my bedtime. I'm not sure what doesn't work in the book. After the high politics of Higher Authority, this book seems somewhat mundane. The victim, Peter, is interesting but not very empathetic. It's hard to care much about him and why he died. The book is a bit too scattered with too many deaths. Perhaps my lack of satisfaction derived from the ending which is far too skimpy and leaves many questions unanswered. Also, the usual poking fun at Coloradans (and Boulder in particular) is lacking. Bottom-line: I'm still a big fan of this series. First time readers of the series are strongly encouraged to start at the beginning (Private Practices) since it is much more enjoyable to grow with the central cast of characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommend this exciting thriller
Review: This book's plot hinges on an event buried in the smoke of a victim's past. The event is a rip-off of Norman McLean's moving investigation of a fatal fire in 1949 entitled "Young Men and Fire." Perhaps Stephen White thought that by acknowledging McLean's work up front he could get away with a barely disguised retelling of the same tragedy. It doesn't work, at least not if one has read the original. While there is one enjoyable chase involving a cement mixer, it's not enough to overcome the author's misguided infatuation with McLean's powerful, original work
Rating:
Summary: Ho-Hum
Review: Tried to get interested but I find the character of Alan Gregory just a bore. There are some fine sequences in this book but I felt like I was reading one of those parlor mysteries where the ramblings of the main characters were more important than the mystery itself. When the villian is revealed at the end I found myself not buying it. Maybe because of the lack of real character development or the lack of empathy for Alan Gregory. This is the third Alan Gregory novel by Stephen White that I have read and this time I have asked myself 'is that all there is? I think that this series is worth the effort to read but I warn you not to start with this entry. You may be put off and ignore others from this author which are very good reads. Also be aware that some books of the series shift the main character emphasis from Alan Gregory to Lauren Crowder, his girl firend/wife.
Rating:
Summary: Alan Gregory Solves Another Tough One
Review: Well, as far as I'm concerned, Stephen White has done it again. He has provided me with another enjoyable and plausible whodunnit with just the right mix of psychological tension and everyday police work. This is also a sad story because Alan happens to lose a man he considers his friend. What makes it worse, is that the friend he loses happens to be his next door neighbor and the husband of another friend, Urologist Adrienne Arvin. Peter Arvin has been in several of the other Alan Gregory novels but this will obviously be his last. His murder is not an isolated one but rather, one that is part of a series. Or is it? Stephen White provides the reader with additional history on Peter and background that explains many things, especially the relationship he has with his wife. If ever a pair appeared mismatched, Peter and Adrienne were. She is a successful urologist but also outgoing and sarcastic in an east coast sort of way. Peter is more introverted and a very gifted carpenter, almost more artist than craftsman. Now that is all over. Behind him Peter leaves his wife, who to be honest, doesn't appear to be overly aggrieved by Peter's murder. He also leaves an infant son. White introduces us to the Arvin's au pair, Lisa who is more than she appears to be. However, Alan Gregory and the reader do not find out the whole truth until much later but Lisa plays a very significant role and is more than a nanny to young Jonas Arvin. Throughout the book, Lauren Crowder, Alan's new wife continues to support him and serve as a sounding board for his psychological theories. She also shows an uncanny knack for playing the sexual tease just when Alan needs that outlet most. White does a nice job of writing about the Gregorys who, we find out at the beginning of this book are just married. That took me by surprise but then again, that's what you get for reading the books in this series out of order. I enjoyed this book as much as the others in the series and from here I head off to read CRITICAL CONDITIONS. I 'm looking forward to more time with Alan, Lauren, Sam Purdy, Adrienne, little Jonas and the dog, Emily.
Rating:
Summary: Gregory's back, and still being ignored.
Review: [...] Having read enough cozies in my life to still be able to count them on one hand, I have come to the probably erroneous conclusion that the main difference between the cozy mystery and the hard-boiled detective novel is that the investigator in the cozy is never in quite as much immediate physical danger as is the hard-boiled chap. Even if the chap in question isn't too hard-boiled. Such is the case with Boulder, CO psychiatrist Alan Gregory, the hero of Stephen White's open-ended series of mystery/thrillers. regory spends his time getting shot at, beaten about the head, henpecked, and otherwise threatened by a bevy of adversaries and never enjoying it much. The best kind of detective-- an amateur who gets too wrapped up in his cases. In this case, it's hard to avoid. The victim is Gregory's next door neighbor, a woodcraftsman who was designing sets for a theatre production in town. The murder is similar in some ways to a previous murder in Denver, and so the local police start thinking "serial killer." Gregory's PD pal Sam Purdy hires him on as an amateur profiler, and away we go. Stephen White is a solid writer of thrillers, easily as good as any of the A-list names working in the genre today. His lack of widespread readership continues to baffle me. Harm's Way is of a piece with the rest of the Alan Gregory novels, and comes just as highly recommended from this camp. *** 1/2
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