Customer Reviews

Beyond Recognition (Lou Boldt/Daphne Matthews)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This fourth book in Pearson's Seattle based detective novel, BEYOND RECOGNITION, kept me hook from the very first chapter. For anyone who calls the Pacific Northwest home, Pearson's books are realistic. It was difficult to second guess each new turn and twist Pearson has planned for Lou Bodt and Daphne Matthews. His continued development of character personalities is great. The characters grow with each new book and there is just the right mix of new people too. The aronist angle was well developed and believable. The only complaint is the book was to long, much longer than his earlier books. I would have enjoyed BEYOND RECOGNITION if it had been about 75% of the pages. Still I would recommend the entire series to everyone living the Pacific Northwest.

This book really grabbed me and hauled me into the book before I was past page 5. I was so involved in the solving of this case that I had trouble monitoring my loads of laundry so that everything was wrinkled beyond recognition from the dryer. You will love this book!

Ridley Pearson lights another burning success with this book about unexplained serial arsons in Seattle. More than just a plot driven mystery, Pearson develops further the interesting and complex web of characters he has introduced to readers in other Lou Boldt series.

The story begins a bit slowly until it suddenly ignites into a fully engaging read. Police psychologist Daphne Matthews seemed a bit brittle in this novel but other characters expand and glow. The story itself taught me things I did not know I wanted to know about firefighting and arsonists - the sign of an excellent author!

Ignore your mundane tasks and blaze through this visit to Pearson's world of crime fighting with very human characters fighting demons both within and outside the psyche.

"Beyond Recognition" by Ridley Pearson accelerates from the first page, and with the exception of a lull at the midway point moves at a nonstop pace.

The lull is caused by a couple of scenes being too drawn out and what I felt a weaker subplot.

The story is riveting when the action revolves around the investigation of the Seattle serial arsonist and the interaction between Lou Boldt, Daphne Matthews and their team. The characters (on both sides of the law) are well developed and most credible.

Mr. Pearson did a couple of years of research on this one and it shows. It is based on an actual Seattle arson case and the procedural and technical aspects really ring true.

Seattle comes to life on every page with wonderful descriptive passages.

This is a terrific series and Mr. Pearson is masterful at forensic detail, without making it tedious. Highly recommended.

Ridley Pearson has been called the best of the "thriller" writers and he IS GOOD. Good characters, good plot, superior writing; Pearson has it all. Unfortunately he wrote a novel here that is too long for the plot. It gets tedious because the author STRETCHED the plot and spent much too much verbiage on a non-essential sub-plot of a troubled child. That is the only thing that stopped my giving this book five stars. If you are a reader of this genre, it is well worth your time. Tip: skip over a lot of the child stuff; you won't miss a thing.

Anyone who lives near Seattle knows that this was based loosely on a true story. This book did for arson investigators a great deal. This is how it really is in the real world for us. A MUST READ!!

Beyond Recognition blows open in a firing inferno. One house after another after another is consumed by sky roaring flames. Sgt. Lou Boldt's job is to find the arsonist/s and restore Seattle, Washington to peace. He becomes involved as a policeman because each fire was set to kill off single moms. The fire departments involved had no clue as to why the fires were started or who might have been involved in setting the fires.

Thanks to police psycologist, Daphanie Matthews, and several other faithful policemen like Lts. LaMoia, Neil Bahan and Bernie Lofgrin the arsonist/s are snuffed out. But before that happens, little 12-year-old, Ben Santori plays a key role in sniffing out the criminal/s. Ben was a victim of assaults and abuse by his stepfather and in his(Ben's) attempt to get free of his stepfather he encounters the arsonist who is not much older than himself.

Prepare yourself for a lot of suspense, surprise and mystery. Also prepare to learn about the various types of ways fires can be started and how fire marshalls determine exactly where and how fires are started in buildings. You will be amazed at the technical information involved in those types of determinations.

So, do read this book which is one in a series of the Boldt/Matthews mysteries.

Sgt. Boldt plunges right into a frightening case full of the fear of fatally frying in fire, friends and foes alike. "Overwrought" for a Pearson novel, that is (Sgt. Boldt is immediately panicked by a nasty arson case but his reaction hardly seems initially [or finally] justifiable on the evidence presented). The story still doesn't hold a candle to the recent excesses of psycho-mystery writers Cornwall or Patterson. While Boldt and his devoted police psychologist Daphne Matthews are fully rounded characters, here they surely do have more than their fair share of personal problems, marriages threatening to break up amid other disasters of child abuse, disappearence, and psychic mummery. Several times you think Boldt has found his man, but then Pearson adds another jolting twist and the chase resumes. At times it is truly intense and thrilling.
The plot has a parallel story structure, but we see not the criminal, who is very well hidden, but a poor boy dreadfully afraid to leave his extraordinarily abusive father. Pearson has a wonderful ability to make a small observation-like a cleaned window-develop into bone-chilling significance. There are many fine moments here despite a story that starts too fast and ends too tamely.

Veteran homicide detective Lou Boldt is called onto the scene of a house fire, where the flames had been so fearsome that none of the firefighters had ever experienced anything like it. In tandem with profiler Daphne Matthews, Boldt is determined to smoke out the vicious arsonist, who strikes again a few days later. Within this scenario, author Pearson spins out a riveting subplot. Ben Santoro, the twelve year old victim of a sadistic stepfather, has found a safe haven in the home of psychic Emily Richland, and in the course of their friendship, both become involved with arsonist. Finally, the intense attraction that Boldt and Matthews feel for each other is compounded when Boldt suspects that his wife, whom he also loves, is having an affair.

Starting with practically no hard evidence, Boldt obstinately pursues clues to the identity of the killer, who uses rocket fuel to create his infernos. Little by little the tension builds, and the final third of the book is so suspenseful that it is difficult to put down. The denouement in Ben's story is a satisfying one, but the reader is left hanging in the final scenes between Boldt and his wife, his behavior toward her having been appallingly distant. He's a great cop, but he could use some help with his own character.

I like Pearson. He is better at character development than Michael Connelly. But with this particular novel, there is too much time spent in character development. And there are several characters, old and new. As a result, the book is big and fat, and the story moves slowly.

It is not until towards the end that Pearson writes that it seemed like the next 24 hours flew by. That was a signal to the reader that we were finally going to get some action. And still it dragged. You might want to pass on this one.