The Big Law

Rating:
Summary: Metaphor Mother-lode
Review: Chuck Logan doesn't think like the rest of us. Research shows that the typical adult male experiences a sexual thought every fifteen seconds, on average. That's how often Logan thinks up a new metaphor.

The Big Law is a wonderfully constructed spellbinder. Ex-cop Phil Broker is called back into action in the unlikely role of trying to clear his ex-boss in the murder of his ex-wife. That's a lot of "ex's." And there are more: exciting suspense, excellent machine-gun-like delivery, extraordinary plotting, and an excess of marvelously fresh phraseology.

Consider this small sampling: "... passive as a monastery staffed by eunuchs...glowworms of moonlight noodled between the drapes ... rumpled corduroy soul ... toothpick wreckage of a cornfield ... jerky Samurai rage ... ice gray day mushroomed into Snow City ... house like a blueprint of her hopes ... custom-fitted aura of loneliness... tiny galaxies of shattered glass ...veins seething with battery acid ... gamey as mold on a spoiled peach ... like a meticulous clerk who adds and subtracts lives ... racked by sick-dog shivers... neck flapped like broken film on a reel ..."

It's non-stop. Expect to be entertained. -Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of BIG ICE and WAKE UP DEAD

Rating:
Summary: Chuck Logan does it again!!
Review: I can't believe this book sat on my shelf for over a year and I didn't read it. I finished it in one day! Once again, Chuck Logan immerses the reader in the world of his protagonist,in this case, Phil Broker. Hopefully we'll see more of Broker in future books. This is a great read and the "daddy" scenes are winners. The reviewer who says Broker doesn't care about his wife and child didn't read this book very carefully. What about the last sentence????? Maybe one has to understand about "compartments" to understand Phil Broker.

Rating:
Summary: Another solid entry from Chuck Logan
Review: Phil Broker is an ex-Saint Paul cop who now lives on Michigan's Upper Peninsuala with his infant daughter. However, when his ex-wife, Caren, finds her present husband is in deep with the Chicago mob she grabs the two million dollar payoff and goes running to Broker for help. On the way, she pairs up with morally-bankrupt reporter Tom James who sees his big chance to grab for the brass ring by murdering Caren, framing her husband, and disappearing with the two million into the FBI Witness Protection Program. But he didn't figure on Phil Broker who would stop at nothing, not even the FBI's Witness Protection Program, to learn the truth behind his ex-wife's death.

I've read Chuck Logan from the beginning and he just gets better and better. His writing is strong and his characters stand out. His writing style is very staccato and immediate but the action is exciting and the plot is clever. This thriller is way better than many of today's genre that masquerade as thrillers. I recommend this book highly.

Rating:
Summary: Another solid entry from Chuck Logan
Review: Phil Broker is an ex-Saint Paul cop who now lives on Michigan's Upper Peninsuala with his infant daughter. However, when his ex-wife, Caren, finds her present husband is in deep with the Chicago mob she grabs the two million dollar payoff and goes running to Broker for help. On the way, she pairs up with morally-bankrupt reporter Tom James who sees his big chance to grab for the brass ring by murdering Caren, framing her husband, and disappearing with the two million into the FBI Witness Protection Program. But he didn't figure on Phil Broker who would stop at nothing, not even the FBI's Witness Protection Program, to learn the truth behind his ex-wife's death.

I've read Chuck Logan from the beginning and he just gets better and better. His writing is strong and his characters stand out. His writing style is very staccato and immediate but the action is exciting and the plot is clever. This thriller is way better than many of today's genre that masquerade as thrillers. I recommend this book highly.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable....
Review: That is the word i kept thinking of as i read this book. I just could not believe that a publishing house would pay for this kind of writing.If there is a more dis-honest writer of fiction out there i haven't come across him. Or a plot more predictible.You've read this book a hundred times before. Only the names and the metaphores have changed. I can just see Chuck Logan working over the formula outline for thrillers. Inserting a name here, an auto model there, a precisely detailed firearm here.... Although there is some comic relief. In a passage involving (fake) cocaine. It is obvious a little research in his own kitchen could have helped Logan to see what twenty-two ounces of powder looks like.I resent every penny i paid for this piece of junk. This book was so bad i could go on for pages but there are limits here.......

Rating:
Summary: Walter Mitty - stop dreaming
Review: This author is fast developing his craft. His books show respect for his current genre and a delight in the language. His first, Hunter's Moon, was good for the flight to the hub. His second, Price of Blood, can carry the reader between most major cities. And the lastest, The Big Law, works for any coast-to-coast flight. Next should be a book suitable for most transcontinental passages. After that---who knows? A talent to be followed and encouraged.

Rating:
Summary: Great read even if you're unable to finish in one reading.
Review: While the action was exciting, I found a lot about this book that I didn't like. First, I simply didn't find Broker to be a compelling protagonist. He just isn't that likable; he's uptight, unemotional (he barely related to his baby and his wife), and detached. Second, the transformation of James from hapless loser to what he becomes seemed a stretch. Third, and most important, I disliked Chuck Logan's style. One, I didn't like the herky-jerky, staccato sentence fragments. Two, there was a lot of clunky, unwieldy phraseology (duty "thudded through room after empty room"). Three, the grammar was odd-commas were omitted, periods were used where there should have been question marks, and commas were used where semicolons belong. My negative comments are obviously in the minority, but I just didn't like the style.

Rating:
Summary: Well-written !
Review: You'll stay up to finish this one!
A page-turner thriller with multi-dimensional characters and great plot twists.