Rating:  Summary: Another great one in the series Review: Okay, I am becoming something of a regular here. I just blew through all three books in the series and loved them all. This one- Fourth Wall- is a bit more thoughtful than the others, less scary, more creapy. And there is a real chilling moment at the end that is so very good. It took a few chapters for me to settle in to it but then suddenly I was at the end, ink on my fingers. I was not a big mystery fan before I picked these up, and maybe I still am not (I tend mostly to non-fiction and hate(!) Agatha Christie), but Beth Saulnier is onto something here with this character and I am glad to be along for the ride. She has a new one coming out soon- I already preordered it. What can I say? I'm hooked. Buy it so you can say you read her before she was famous.
Rating:  Summary: A Long Ride Review: The solving of a 70-year old murder is a hard plot to handle. The reader must be engaged in long ago happenings yet have a sense of immediacy and urgency about a victim and contemporaries who are long dead.The book is poorly paced, too long, and the plot sprawls. The victim is not found until page 166, and by that time, my interest was flagging. The heroine is resolutely young, young, young. I had the feeling she has never visualized a life beyond 30. However, Ms. Saulnier deftly characterizes supporting players and obviously has insider knowledge of community theatre. Because so much of the plot involved the architecture of a crumbling historical theatre, a site map would have been welcome. The characters, with the exception of the heroine, are lifelike and attractive. She stays away from the oddballs, who are basically dull except for their quirky lifestyle or appearance. All are recognizable human beings. What I found most interesting were Ms. Saulnier's thoughts on preserving historical buildings. She is thoughtful and presents both sides of the question in an appealing manner. I would have liked more sense of location; the place could have been Indianapolis just as easily as New York State. I found the solution to be a letdown; the present is handled better than the past. The motivations of the cast of 1926 characters are slim and shadowy. Grade: C+.
Rating:  Summary: Good solid mystery entertainment Review: This was a very good read. I was never second guessing the author, and I found it hard to put down in places. The information that builds the soryline is well thought out, but I did find some problems. First of all, I totally thought the gay line issue was overplayed in this book. Alex is presented as having openly gay friends and an ex-Navy Seal boyfriend who is just o.k with that and never throws a few slurs in their dirrection. Right. And then using the gay / sympathy ploy with the murderer character didnt work for me at all. In fact this is the biggest turn off of many current novels I read. This is a hottly debated issue, and personally I think that sexual orientation ploys disstract readers from the plot of books that arent intended to dirrectly deal with this subject. Aside from that, it didn't ruin the book for me as in many ohter cases. Read it, its a sure thriller.
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