Final Victim

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars - Uneven
Review: Final Victim grabs the reader on the first page, by putting us right inside the mind/world of the killer. A great start. Maybe that's why it's such a jolt when we're introduced to the main character (think Bruce Willis) and all action stops as we're given seemingly endless detail about his career in Customs.

This book was an improvement over his first novel, The Plan. The killer was a truly scary guy. The book was most interesting when it dealt with the killer and his motivations. This could have been a 4 or even 5 star book if Cannell had just concentrated on the killer and the investigation. The "chase and capture" scenes were well-done; and there's even a nice little twist at the end of the chase. As always, Cannell knows how to write an action scene.

The biggest problem with this book is that it takes far too much time examining the three main investigators and their interrelationships. The fact is, they're just not very interesting, and there's not a whole lot to examine. One is a 'rogue' Customs Agent - your basic guy who won't play by the rules, etc. One is a woman genius - she's brilliant, she's beautiful, she's lonely/vulnerable, etc. One is a convict released to help with the investigation. The convict turns out to be the most realistic character, since he's pretty much just out for himself.

These fairly two-dimensional characters are given far too much time and attention. At perhaps the lowest point in the book, this female genius attempts to examine her feelings about the convict. Just a painful, poorly-written little interlude that might belong on a soap, but not in the middle of a thriller.

Overall, a decent thriller. The killer is sufficiently interesting to keep up interest; and the action scenes keep you turning the pages. With a little more fine-tuning, this would have been a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars - Uneven
Review: Final Victim grabs the reader on the first page, by putting us right inside the mind/world of the killer. A great start. Maybe that's why it's such a jolt when we're introduced to the main character (think Bruce Willis) and all action stops as we're given seemingly endless detail about his career in Customs.

This book was an improvement over his first novel, The Plan. The killer was a truly scary guy. The book was most interesting when it dealt with the killer and his motivations. This could have been a 4 or even 5 star book if Cannell had just concentrated on the killer and the investigation. The "chase and capture" scenes were well-done; and there's even a nice little twist at the end of the chase. As always, Cannell knows how to write an action scene.

The biggest problem with this book is that it takes far too much time examining the three main investigators and their interrelationships. The fact is, they're just not very interesting, and there's not a whole lot to examine. One is a 'rogue' Customs Agent - your basic guy who won't play by the rules, etc. One is a woman genius - she's brilliant, she's beautiful, she's lonely/vulnerable, etc. One is a convict released to help with the investigation. The convict turns out to be the most realistic character, since he's pretty much just out for himself.

These fairly two-dimensional characters are given far too much time and attention. At perhaps the lowest point in the book, this female genius attempts to examine her feelings about the convict. Just a painful, poorly-written little interlude that might belong on a soap, but not in the middle of a thriller.

Overall, a decent thriller. The killer is sufficiently interesting to keep up interest; and the action scenes keep you turning the pages. With a little more fine-tuning, this would have been a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: Another Dull Rogue Cop Hero
Review: How many time have we seen this? A dull rogue cop collecting unlimited favors from a bottomless well of previous hero-deeds to pull off the impossible in front of an astonished beautiful dumb female partner.
Hey Guys, Dirty Harry is dead, so bury him and start writing real hero stories.

Rating:
Summary: RATS!
Review: Stephen J. Cannell writes telebooks or cinemabooks. Having given us such classic t.v. shows as ROCKFORD FILES, A-TEAM, and WISEGUY, he knows how to write action scenarios, and fill them with almost cardboard characters that work only because they're in his books. We have the renegade DOC agent, John Lockwood, divorced from his beautiful wife, separated from his sweet daughter; the beautiful, brilliant and lonely Karen Lawson, a victim of only doing what her father wanted, who finds herself paired with Lockwood; and the handsome dashing (think Johnny Depp) computer hacker who seeks revenge on the man who put him in jail (Lockwood). Throw in the obscenely vulgar villain named Leonard Land/Rat/Wind Minstrel, who suffered abuse as a child from his religously fanatical mother, and you have the ingredients for this enjoyable diversion.
Toward the end, Cannell seems to make some incredulous things happen to hasten the plot, because if the two heroes are as bad off as they've been depicted up to this point, there is no way in hell they could do what they do at the end. But, hey, let's have fun, popcorn, etc., and enjoy this dose of high-velocity fluff.

Rating:
Summary: RATS!
Review: Stephen J. Cannell writes telebooks or cinemabooks. Having given us such classic t.v. shows as ROCKFORD FILES, A-TEAM, and WISEGUY, he knows how to write action scenarios, and fill them with almost cardboard characters that work only because they're in his books. We have the renegade DOC agent, John Lockwood, divorced from his beautiful wife, separated from his sweet daughter; the beautiful, brilliant and lonely Karen Lawson, a victim of only doing what her father wanted, who finds herself paired with Lockwood; and the handsome dashing (think Johnny Depp) computer hacker who seeks revenge on the man who put him in jail (Lockwood). Throw in the obscenely vulgar villain named Leonard Land/Rat/Wind Minstrel, who suffered abuse as a child from his religously fanatical mother, and you have the ingredients for this enjoyable diversion.
Toward the end, Cannell seems to make some incredulous things happen to hasten the plot, because if the two heroes are as bad off as they've been depicted up to this point, there is no way in hell they could do what they do at the end. But, hey, let's have fun, popcorn, etc., and enjoy this dose of high-velocity fluff.

Rating:
Summary: This book was the best thriller written by Steven Cannell
Review: The beginning of this book had a thriller-start that kept on giving. I have read almost all of Patricia Cromwell's and James Patterson's books and this has gotten them beat by far. This kept my attention (which is hard to do) and kept me guessing throughout the entire book. This is a definite "hat's off" to the author. I simply hope that Leonard Land doesn't come creeping around my house!

Rating:
Summary: Bland
Review: The final victim may be the reader. Ok I am sure it is difficult to come up with a new exciting story all the time so I do not get too disappointed when an author goes to the holy grail of thriller writing - the bad cop, good side kick murder mystery caper. But this book pulled out so many of the good old stand by's that I thought it was written just to add them in. Sure the story is good - we all know it, and the action keeps you reading that particular section of he book, but the author tried to make these dull, well used characters have some depth and he just could not pull it off. I do give him credit for trying to make these central casting characters a little more meaty, but unfortunately all it did was slow down the book. If you are looking for something new, this is probably not the one to stop on, if you are looking for a standard fair action mystery then this will fit the bill.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing at the least
Review: Third of his I have read. I rate him up with Sandford, Patterson, and others of the serial killer novels. His background in TV seems to have given him a heads up in novel writing. I will continue to read more and would recommend his books as exciting and interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Really bad karma.
Review: You would think that someone like Cannell would know better than to write something like this. But apparently even he slips once in a while. If you haven't read one of his other books yet do that and leave this one alone. Otherwise go read someone else.