Skeptic

Rating:
Summary: A Guilty Pleasure - Cheesy but Fun.
Review: Even though the writing was kind of cheesy, I found myself unable to put the silly thing down. I ended up reading it all the way through in one night. I loved the premise, the writing wasn't that bad for a debut novel, but I hated the ending. I don't know whether the science was accurate or not, and frankly, didn't care. The idea behind it was fascinating.

Would I read other stuff by this author after reading this book? Yes.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Suspensful
Review: I give Scott Holden's debut thriller, "Skeptic", 3 1/2 stars. His novel seriously deals with the topic of ghosts and the paranormal. Mr. Holden skillfully weaves a tale of scientific research, political intrigue and the paranormal and ties them together very well. I found the book to be very entertaining, and thought provoking. The only downside is the realization halfway through the book that the heroine and hero are going to wind up in love and live happily ever after. Overall, the book is definitely worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: painfully written
Review: the author of this book came up with a pretty interesting plot idea, and some reasonably interesting science behind it, but he should have passed that idea on to an actual novelist. the writing is absolutely dreadful. there are thousands of overdone similes and metaphors, and there must not have been a single adjective left at harvard when he graduated - he took them all to use in this book. mr. scott is totally incapable of writing a noun without at least one adjective attached to it, and in most cases there are two or three just in case. consider this actual, unretouched quote from the book: "her cheekbones were colorado ski slopes, and her eyes were the color of an overchlorinated swimming pool." dear god, what did i do to deserve this?
if you like cheesy writing, this book will absolutely make you swoon. any legitimate literary critic that rated this book highly had to have been paid off by the publisher... the author simply tried way too hard, and the result is agonizing.