Customer Reviews

Alone with the Dead (Joe Keough Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alone with the Dead is a police procedural that follows all the rules. We have a working class detective named Joe who is ruled by a moral compass that few people in his department have. When Joe Keough finds the body of a young high school student, brutally raped with a rose inserted inside of her, he has a feeling that the death was committed by a copycat of a notorious serial killer named "The Lover." Others within the department, however, do not share his theory and are quick to lump the killing with the others.

This, however, does not sit well with the actual serial killer, who goes out of his way to absolve himself from the blame. Joe, goes against his superiors, The Lover Task Force, and the copycat killer himself, to reveal to the public that there are in fact two serial killers.

But when a friend of Joe's is brutally stabbed to death in his own home, the finger points to a boss within the NYPD. It is then that Joe realizes that he has made enemies both within the department AND outside in the mean streets of New York. The interesting part of the story is when one of Keough's few supporters in his investigation is The Lover himself!

If you are a fan of police procedurals, this is a good one. It has a solid (but thinly veiled) mystery, very appealing characters, and a pacing that keeps you reading from the prologue to the epilogue.

I did think the characters were quite clche, but it only added to the realism of the voice that Randisi creates. I previously knew Randisi by the anthologies that he put together, finding his tastes in the crime/noir literature to be quite phenomenal, however, I was impressed by his writing style.

I thought the story was very realistic. It is something that I could actually see happening and could make a very good film (or at least a made for TV movie). Being a fan and writer of the mystery/crime genre myself, I love a good story and this one was pretty good.

This is an incredible for a book. You have one serial killer called "The Lover", who places a rose on his victims body. Someone reads about it in the local paper, and he wanted to "give hornors" to the "Lover", by being a Copycat killer. Just one problem, the Lover isn't flattered, he's mad. Sounds like a *great* idead for a book, right? Well somewhere alone the way, it falls apart. I guess the biggest problem I had was how the "Lover" was caught. There was very little cat and mouse play between Keough (the lead detective) and the Lover.

Randisi has a decent wrtiing style that will probally keep the reader hooked, but I feel that so much more coulde have been done with this book.

Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a bad read, I just expected a bit more.

Maybe I'm getting tired of the Detective Mystery Thriller formula containing one dimensional characters - hero detective with unwavering integrity, inept face-saving looking-to-get-ahead police sergeants captains and commissioners, an available lovely single mom next door with adoring daughter.

There's a deviant named "Kopykat" introduced in the book's prologue who is salivating over newspaper articles about gruesome murders - hmmm...wonder what this guy's all about? <sarcasm>

I actually like the characters in this book better than those in Randisi's "The Sixth Sense", but because the story isn't as good I rate it 2 instead of 3.

If you like Cornwell, Patterson or Robb, you will like this book. I could not put it down. Quick read with several twists in who did what to whom.

A serial killer has raped and murdered women in Manhattan. Then come similar cases in Brooklyn. A police task force has been formed to get the killer. In charge of the task force is a blustery, unqualified detective who got the position thru blackmail. He see's this case as his career road up. Detective Joe Keough has had a tough time in the department. He seems prone to confrontations and not being a team player.
He has noticed things that are strikingly different about the Manhattan and Brooklyn cases. He feels that the Brooklyn cases are the work of a kopykat. He expresses his concerns and is ignored. Due to fine basic police work and some timely coincidences who gets both killers. This is a very fast paced page turner. The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that it seems to be Keough gets somewhat unbelievable at times. Particularly during his meeting with the police commissioner.

I don't know who recommended this book to me, but it was a mistake. Protaganist Keough has the usual personal demons as well as his "do good" attitude. He has been transfered to "police hell" for beating up a child molester. He then proceeds to see something in a crime that is being ignored by everyone else in the NYPD due to politics.

If you want to read a good series with "personal demons", read something by James Lee Burke. If you want to read about police procedure read something by Dan Mahoney.

There are too many good books out there to be wasting time and money on somethng like this. Hopefully Randisi will improve with experience.

I'm not much of a reviewer, but I've read all of Randisi's Joe Keough books. The hero, the villans and the mysteries are all first class reading enjoyment.

The book introduces a new character from the prolific Mr Randisi -a NY cop named Joseph Sean Keough ,downgraded for his robust attitude towards the rights of child molesters .The city is in thrall to a serial killer ,dubbed The Lover ,for his habit of leaving a rose on the nude body of his female victims.He has an imitator ,Kopycat ,whose idolises the Lover and seeks to emulate him .Keough suspects the truth -that there are two killers but the chief of the Task Force set up tp investigate the crimes chooses ,cynically to demand the new killings are treated as the work of the Lover ,despite clear differences in the age of victims and the type of roses left behind.Its head Lieutenant Slovecky is determined to gain rapid promption and the more crimes ascribed to the Lover ,the better for him when the killer is convicted.
Len Swann ,a task force member ,collaborates with Keough to expose the truth but is murdered and the case for the two killer theory is kept under wraps to the considerable annoyance of the Lover who is appalled at the new crimes.
The tale is one of overlapping hunts- the hunt for the killer of Swann,and that for the two serial murderers .
The actual resolution of the crimes is not due to any great detection and relies heavily on coincidence -something the writer covertly acknowledges towards the close of the book .What is of striking interest however is the portrait of a corrupt and venal NYPD ,riddled with blackmail and run with more of an eye

for publicity and politics than in the interest of the general public.
The Department does not come out of the book at all well -at least in its upper echelons and the portrait makes uncomfortable reading in that regard.
Marked down for the perfunctoriness of its resolution of the crime which depends too heavily on being in the right place at the right time.
Worth reading if you like urban thrillers without too much bnlood snd gore

I found this book quite by accident at a local book store. I thoroughly enjoyed the non-stop suspense & the characters came alive during the story telling. You feel as though you "are there." I am now in the process of reading his newest novel, "In the Shadow of the Arch," and anticipating the next in the series. I just hope Mr. Randisi will continue to write future novels of his character Detective Joe Keough. He definately made me a faithful reader of this series. I am a long time reader of mysteries, thrillers, and especially detective police novels.