Rating: 
Summary: Breathless in CT
Review: Just when you thought it was safe to hide in the basement during a natural disaster. Ms. Blanchard takes suspense to a level unseen in years. Another whirlwind level 5 performance. Can't wait to see the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking!
Review: 'The Breathtaker' by Alice Blanchard is so well written that I'm not sure whether I enjoyed the plot, the charachters or the descriptions of the town and the storms most. Together they create one of the most original mysteries I've read in many years. Charlie Grover, recently widowed police chief in a small midwest town, is the victim of a childhood fire that left him scarred both physically and psychologically. He is doing his best to help his feisty teenage daughter after the recent death of his wife from cancer but his long hours at work are taking their toll on their relationship. When a devastating tornado sweeps through the town Charlie discovers that three murders have been committed under cover of the tornado. Additional research convinces Charlie that there are previous murders that have been committed by this dangerously derranged killer. He seeks the help of Willa Bellman, a tornado researcher and part of a group of local storm chasers, to whom he has had an attraction in the past. Together they must find the culprit before the next tornado hits and he finds his next victims. This story succeds on many levels. It is informative, beautifully written, exciting and suspenseful. Along with 'Darkness Peering' it puts Blanchard at the top of my list of favorite mystery writers.
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Summary: exciting police procedural serial killer thriller
Review: Promise, Oklahoma Police Chief Charlie Glover knows the danger of an F-3 (Fujita Scale) twister having lived in Tornado Alley all his life. Death and destruction are a normal pattern of a tornado of that strength. So when one that severe hits his jurisdiction, Charlie is prepared for the worst. However, what he and his staff find at the Pepper home makes no sense. The outside of the house remains standing as if nothing touched it. Inside the home is the work of a diabolical killer, who used the latest nasty storm to disguise three brutal murders made up to look like a twister somehow got into the house. Charlie immediately noticed the abrasions on the arms and hands of the victims. These injuries look like someone trying to fend off an attack. Later the medical examiner informs Charlie that only a maniac would have done this. The culprit transplanted someone else's tooth into each of the dead victims. Successive storms result in more victims with the eerier additional tooth implanted in their mouths. Charlie continues to investigate a psychopath with an obsession and a professional knowledge of tornadoes. Fans will appreciate this exciting police procedural serial killer thriller. The story line is action packed and the key cast members, especially Charlie, his teenage daughter, his romantic interest, and his employees are a solid cast. The key characters remain the tornados that have a life of their own yet the depth of rage does not come across as with recent movies or even compared with the humorous twister that transported Dorothy out of Oz. Still readers obtain a powerful storm related thriller inside a strong cat and mouse who-done-it. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Blanchard obliterates the sophomore jinx!
Review: After reading Alice Blanchard's maiden effort, "Darkness Peering" -- a haunting masterpiece of suspense -- I was wary of getting my hopes up for her next effort. All I can say is "Wow!" This book dazzles from start to finish. With its textured characters, nuanced prose, suprising plot twists and brilliant premise, this book is destined for the best seller lists. Ignore all the story rehashings in the reviews. Come to this book with fresh eyes and you will not be disappointed. And be sure to read it before Hollywood screws it up in a few years.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: What a great book! I loved "Darkness Peering" so much and I was afraid this would be a disappointment like most sophomore efforts are. But this was a great, great story. First, what a great idea for a book or movie... the killer using tornados to cover his brutal murders. Charlie the sheriff is smart and compassionate... a great mix of a guy you believe is capable to handle the case, but like you might be in the same situation, too. The ending is fast and furious until the climax, which does not disappoint. Five stars. I'm going to read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Read
Review: Alice Blanchard's Darkness Peering was a masterful work of suspense that left a deep impression on me. Now, she's finally back with her sophomore effort, The Breathtaker. Although the book never achieves the level of suspense her first novel did, and although the characters are not as intriguing and interesting as the ones in Darkness Peering, the novel itself is still a very fun and entertaining read. Charlie is the Sheriff of a small Kansas town, where three bodies are discovered after a tornado ravages the town. Their deaths seems to be a result of the tornado at first, but on closer examination, Charlie realizes that the whole family was murdered. A little bit more digging into the past reveals that many have been murdered during tornados in the past, the killer leaving only one sign behind; a milk tooth which he usually places in the victim's mouth. Charlie has to take care of his investigation, but he also has to take care of his young daughter who is still very much inflicted by sadness after her mother's death. The investigation quickly mixes with Charlie's personal life as everyone around him becomes a suspect. Is the murderer his father, the very man who used to abuse him as a child? Is it the town rebel, Boone, who's also in love with Charlie's daughter? Or is it one of the town officers who mysteriously disappears? The list of suspects is a mile long. And that might be the book's biggest problem; it's much too busy and tries too hard to offer too many suspects to the reader. On the other end, the very emotional scenes between Charlie and his father and daughter are very powerful and moving. They almost bleed off the page with realism. Furthermore, there are some great moments of suspense bordering terror in this book that will send shivers crawling down your spine. The Breathtaker is just different enough to be fully entertaining for the reader, even if the book lacks the spark and life we found in Darkness Peering. Then again, it probably wasn't easy following that nearly perfect mystery novel. In the end, The Breathtaker will thrill you while it lasts, if only that.
Rating:
Summary: A READING THAT WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY
Review: How lucky can listeners be? The voice performer is the multi talented Peter Coyote - actor, author, activist - he does it all. And, whatever he does, he does superbly (a Pushcart Prize for Excellence). No exception here - he reads this tale of murder in a storm ravaged town with conviction and drama, slowly drawing listeners along to an astounding conclusion. Promise, Oklahoma, is an unlikely name for a town that's just been hit by a twister. This devastation is best described by the author: "Then he heard it, the sound of hell clawing for a handhold. The sound of space collapsing...Something somersaulted directly overhead, then landed in front of them and kept on moving." When Police chief Charlie Grover discovers three bodies, a father, mother, and daughter, in a damaged house the immediate conclusion is that they were impaled by flying debris. Charlie knows better. They've been brutally murdered, their bodies mutilated, and the killer left a really sick calling card. Charlie has a lot on his mind - he's been recently widowed and is now the single parent of an innocent teenage daughter. The town is alive with storm chasers, scientists and scavengers who would take advantage of those who have lost everything in the storm. The one voice of reason belongs to Dr. Willa Bellman, who chases storms with the best of them. Joining forces the two area able to connect the killer to storms. But, how? Why? The answer will take your breath away. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Breathtakingly gruesome!
Review: I awarded this book 4 stars because I was unable to stop reading it, even though it was gruesome enough to curl the hairs on the back of your neck. Police Chief Charlie Grover finds three mutilated bodies in a house in the aftermath of a tornado. An initial look seems to show the victims of the storm but closer inspection reveals not only deliberate stab wounds made by someone in an attempt to make it appear as storm damage, but also reveals that from each victim, a tooth has been roughly pulled out and replaced with an animals' tooth. This in itself was nearly enough to cause me to abandon the book, but as the author had by then introduced some fascinating characters, I was compelled to continue. Charlie is drawn into the strange world of the storm chasers, dare-devils who take incredible risks to travel to the very edges of huge storms. It's an exciting, pacy book, albeit one laced with really nasty details of the crimes of a pyschopathic killer.
Rating:
Summary: Unusual background for serial murders...
Review: This was an excellent book, very exciting, fairly well written, good characterization...so why did I give it a 3 star rating? My own personal preference is not to be exposed to constant bad language. I've found in the past that police procedurals written by men, tend to have a lot of bad language. Also, military fiction has swearwords galore, which is kind of funny because my grandfather was a commander in the Navy, and he avoided talking like that around us. Never heard him once speak in such a way as to get my mother mad at him...and we were around him and other military a lot at Treasure Island in San Francisco.
So, though this was a heck of a story, and I did finish the whole book, the language was a severe drawback for me in giving it a great rating. Sometimes I wish Amazon.com or other bookstores would not mind putting on the cover something indicating the level of bad language or sex, say as on television or in movies. It would be a helpful guage for readers in choosing what they want to read, or have laying around the house when their grandchildren are there!
Otherwise, this was an extremely interesting mystery. I kind of pegged the culprit early on, but there were many possible suspects. I especially enjoyed the weather science behind storm chasers. It's an extremely interesting and necessary field, because this is how we learn enough about these megastorms to warn people to seek cover. The people involved are either extremely brave or extremely 'nuts', and maybe both. The thought that someone would take advantage of a family's crisis situation to relieve his/her own personal anger at familial abuse is all to possible, and makes me wary less someone reads this book and gets a 'bright' idea from it!
Karen L. Sadler
Rating:
Summary: "The Breathtaker" will stay with you for a while!
Review: In her 2nd novel, "The Breathtaker", Alice Blanchard uses the storm chaser craze that is sweeping much of the Midwest and Central US as the centerpiece for an thrilling and unpredictable serial killer novel. The suspense and excitement climb like a high altitude weather balloon right from the very first page.
Sheriff Charlie Grover is the single parent of an adolescent daughter and the law in Promise, Oklahoma. When Grover discovers that some of the victims of a devastating storm appear to have been killed by something (or someone) other than a tornado, he begins to fear that the weather in Tornado Alley is the least of his concerns. Add to this, a father/daughter conflict over her social life and you've got one seriously stressed-out Sheriff.
Blanchard does a good job with character development as she describes the rocky relationship between Grover and his father Isaac and the burgeoning love affair between Grover and a storm chaser known as Willa.
Unlike one of the earlier reviewers, this reviewer did feel that Blanchard did a good job of hiding the identity of the killer. She threw in enough "red herrings" to keep the average reader guessing. Also, it's obvious that Blanchard did her homework in the area of storm chasing, because like a good Michael Crichton novel, this book is heavy on terminolgy. If you don't know much about storm chasing prior to reading this book, it may inspire you to research this phenomenon.
It's a great plot premise and an exciting book that will keep you truning pages as fast as a weathervane caught in a F-3. Grab a copy of "The Breathtaker" and prepare for a wild ride!!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
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