Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Psychological Novel!
Review: "The Dream Of The Broken Horses" is a terrific read! It took me a while to get into it, then I was thoroughly hooked. The psychoanalysis section was fascinating. The murder victim's diary entries brought it all together. I found this to be a very unusual mystery, much deeper psychologically than most so-called "psychological mysteries." As a clinical psychologist myself, I was enraptured by the characters and their multi-sided personalities. One rarely finds such well-drawn characters in mysteries, especfially secondary characters who usually seem made of "cardboard." Here, every character was deeply etched. I recommend this novel to anyone who likes psychologically based fiction.
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Summary: "Talented All-American Writer Found!"
Review: A friend of mine sent this book to me for my birthday, she knows I love a good mystery.
Well, I loved this book! I couldn't put it down, read it over the weekend. The book is so well-written, you can tell the author is sophisticated, cultured, romantic, sexy and all-american. It was funny because as soon as I started reading it, I felt like I was watching one of those old black&white mysteries from the 40's on a rainy Sunday.
I appreciated the snappy conversations and the slow-paced suspense that kept me evenly electrified!
I now want to read everything William Bayer has written.
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Summary: At last... a new William Bayer suspense yarn!
Review: Being a longtime William Bayer fan, I eagerly await each new novel. The wait for "The Dream of the Broken Horses" was a long one -- but definitely well worth it. The book is beautifully written (as always), well crafted (as always), and keeps you intrigued to the very last page. Just when you think you've figured out who did it, how, and why, Mr. Bayer again proves why he's the writer and we're the readers! For any fan of erotic suspense or psycological crime, or for someone just looking for a great read, don't miss this book. We can only hope Mr Bayer won't make us wait so long for the next one. Buy it & read it...now!
Rating:
Summary: Smart, finely written psycho-erotic suspense. Brilliant!
Review: First, let me say this is an exquisitely written crime novel. I've followed William Bayer's writing for some time (including his incarnation under the pen name "David Hunt.") I'd place this book among his very best, up there with "Switch," "Wallflower" and "Peregrine." The plot is intricate and keeps you guessing. The characters(including the minor ones) are beautifully drawn. The documents imbedded in the text are fascinating, especially an unfinished psycho-analytic case history of one of the murder victims. In a sense I think this book could be subtitled "A Portrait Of A Lady", since one of the victims, a beautiful socialite, is illuminated in all her sexual complexity. I won't dwell on the story in this review, will rather leave that to the reader to discover for him/herself. But consider this premise: a pair of lovers, a beautiful socialite and an impoverished teacher at a private country day school, are gunned down in a sleazy motel on the outskirts of a Mid-Western city. Twenty-five years pass. The murders are never solved. Then a troubled forensic artist comes to town, who attended the school, was a classmate of the murdered woman's son, knew the teacher and whose father was the murdered woman's shrink. He has been haunted by the case all his life...and now he is determined to solve it. Bayer, as always, makes you care. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Dreams do come true ...
Review: I received "The Dream of the Broken Horses" as a birthday present. When I first started out I wasn't quite sure where it was going ... about 100 pages in I realized that it had crept up on me and I was "caught up" ... I mean I was enraptured ... I couldn't stop reading ... I read till 3AM. The next day I couldn't wait to get home ... the characters haunted me ... I was "in and in for the whole ride" and I rode that "horse" all night and enjoyed every minute of it. If there was one fault ... It was the fact that there is no city in the midwest this "cool" ... beleive me I know ... I'm from the midwest.
Rating:
Summary: Dreams do come true ...
Review: I received "The Dream of the Broken Horses" as a birthday present. When I first started out I wasn't quite sure where it was going ... about 100 pages in I realized that it had crept up on me and I was "caught up" ... I mean I was enraptured ... I couldn't stop reading ... I read till 3AM. The next day I couldn't wait to get home ... the characters haunted me ... I was "in and in for the whole ride" and I rode that "horse" all night and enjoyed every minute of it. If there was one fault ... It was the fact that there is no city in the midwest this "cool" ... beleive me I know ... I'm from the midwest.
Rating:
Summary: Unexpected plot twists and excellent tension.
Review: Several decades have passed since a wealthy socialite and her young lover/teacher were gunned down in the Midwest: now forensic sketch artist David finds himself returning to the scene of their crime, investigating other murders and discovering a new circle of intrigue and danger. Bayer's is a strong suspense story which moves at a different pace and provides unexpected twists of plot and excellent tension.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: Since his childhood, forensic artist David Weiss has been obsessed with a society double-murder that implicated his father and drove the man to suicide. Now, Weiss is back in his childhood home of Calista (a mythical midwestern town) and intends to use his time to discover the truth. The murder may be decades old but Weiss is certain that the easy explanations are wrong--that something more profound remains to be found. Weiss's investigations lead him to stories of sexual obsession, child pornography, and blackmail. There are plenty of motives for murder--and even after all the years that have passed, some still living are willing to take action to stop the investigation and protect their secrets. With the help of a case writeup by his father and one of the victim's intimate diary, Weiss learns a great deal about the people who were killed, but nothing points a certain finger at the actual killer. Author William Bayer's strong writing makes THE DREAM OF THE BROKEN HORSES something special and something far stronger than the story that underlies it. In some ways, the actual story is frustrating and important loose ends remain. Bayer's use of diary to develop character and reveal clues would normally be a cheat. Somehow, however, Bayer pulls it off. The powerful character of Barbara Fulraine (one of the victims) dominates the novel and the lives of many of the survivors. Her dream of broken horses may have been a psychiatrist's wish fulfilment, but it is also a sad reflection of the painful life Barbara endured. THE DREAM OF THE BROKEN HORSES is a hard book to put down. Although most of the action takes place in back story, Bayer's writing is so compelling that I found myself reading on compulsively. Very fine.
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Summary: Wonderful characters
Review: This is- no way around the word- a lovely read. Bayer has a style of character developement that is elegant and fluid. Try his two books under the pen name "David Hunt".
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful characters
Review: This is- no way around the word- a lovely read. Bayer has a style of character developement that is elegant and fluid. Try his two books under the pen name "David Hunt".
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