Customer Reviews

Bitch Slap: A Mark Manning Mystery

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I won't rehash the plot here; it always seems redundant to do so. Suffice to say that Michael Craft has deftly [albeit too soon] written the final installment in the Mark Manning series. As always with Mr. Craft's work, there are memorable characters and intriguing plot twists, some highly unexpected ones at that. Despite being fiction, the main characters are like real people to me. They seem more like friends that I haven't seen in a while but occasionally catch up with. That's the mark of good writing.

Without divulging plot twists, I was pleasantly surprised to see Mark struggling with some personal issues. He's always been a "tight ass" in the best sense of the term, but here he had to grapple with uncomfortable issues. It made him less perfect and more human. Kudos to Mr. Craft for that touch.

Thanks, also, for giving us a glimpse into the future of these friends with the epilogue. Too often a series will end, whether by accident or design, and we'll be left with a sense of "what next?" for the characters. Knowing that things continue helps with also knowing that we've paid our last visit to Dumont to spend time with old and very dear friends.

If you've never read any of the series, this book does stand alone..... but I HIGHLY recommend that you go back to the beginning of this series with Flight Dreams and read them in sequence. You'll be very glad you did.

This, the 7th Mark Manning novel, is the best. If you've been reading these books, you'll find the character doing some self-reflection that is different than the previous books. If you haven't read the other books, you will enjoy this twisty mystery.

Mark Manning, a journalist, sits on the board of a local company whose CEO, Gillian Reece, is definitely not the winner of the Miss Congeniality award. That's only one of the reasons she gets a bitch slap from character Glee Savage. Later, though, Reece is found murdered. Further complicating the stew is the fact that Mark's lover, Neil, is designing a house for Reece.

Didn't Glee kill Reece? You won't have a clue--and you won't guess how this turns out till you read it. The outcome is definitely a shocker, and will have you pondering the meaning of justice. Definitely a captivating, exciting mystery.

Like the "death" of the "Dallas" character, I hope that we Mark Manning fans can write this LAST installment as a bad dream. I have been with the series since the first novel and looked forward to each and every mystery, some easier to solve than others.

This, purported to be the final chapter in the life of the erstwhile sleuth, was a disappointment as both a mystery and a further look at Manning's life with longtime partner Neil. The fact that characters that readers have come to love make morally disreputable decisions is disheartening.

I hope that the author will reconsider and bring Manning & Company back, placing all parties concerned in a mystery worthy of investigating and investing.

This "slap" was little more like a light touch.

that there will no longer be another Mark Manning mystery. Especially so, since the author never did say what happened to the house that Neil Waite designed. I mean, the house became almost like a character in the novel and I was hoping I would find out its final fate.

Oh, yes, enjoyed the jacket photograph of the hunk although what connection it has to do with the story itself is a puzzlement. Maybe to boost sales?

If you have never read a Mark Manning Novel or if you are a huge fan of this series, as I am, then you are in for a treat. "Bitch Slap" is so well written and so real. It is one book that is hard to put down. Michael Craft is one of the most talented and shining authors of his time. If you have never read a Mark Manning Novel I suggest you get all seven as soon as you can. You will not be disappointed. My hats of to Mr. Craft for another outstanding Novel!!!!!

Extremely well written but the conclusion to the Mark Manning series leaves a lot to be desired. Nearly all the characters have serious lapses in their morality in this book. It would have been kinder to have had them eliminated in one fell swoop by the plague instead of the way Mr. Craft has finished them off.

Many residents of tiny Dumont WI are excited that two of its largest employers, Ashton Mills and Quatro Press, are in the process of merging, a move designed to ensure the financial and commercial future of both. On the Board of Directors of both is Mark Manning, publisher of The Dumont Daily Register, the local paper, and he gave the merger his blessing. Now he is becoming aware of some possible financial irregularities having been disclosed in the pre-merger "due dilligence" audit, which Aston's CEO, Gillian Reese, discounts as irrelevant to the merger. While Reese is a business associate with whom he is on generally good terms, Mark knows that he is generally disliked for her confrontational lack of people skills, so it isn't too much of a shock when Reese turns up dead at the her new home being designed by Mark's lifepartner, Neil, who is one of the few individuals who seems to get along with her. Mark considers that the death may or may not be an accident, as the coroner initially rules it to be. After all, off the top of his head, Mark can think of several people who may have wished Ms. Reese dead, including his own society editor, Glee Savage, and Todd Draper, a curtain designer who actually was slapped by Gillian in an argument over how the curtains should look.

Author Craft includes a preface to the novel that warns that this, his seventh and final "Mark Manning Mystery" in the series, includes a few twists and turns designed to make it less predictable and more enjoyable. I can't go much into that without divulging important points of the story, but suffice it to say that the changes will make the reader realize he may not have known Mark Manning as well as he thought. It's a life-altering adventure, and not just for Mark and Neil.

The epilogue to the novel, which goes on to update you on some of the characters in the years after the action, make it apparent that Craft indeed plans to retire his Mark Manning character, at least as the star of his series of books (He may appear in the "Claire Gray" series, which include Manning's nephew as one of her students). I may be reading more into the final paragraphs than he meant, but it sounds like a hint that the decision isn't carved in stone, and, given the right circumstances, we may hear from this interesting character again. I hope so.

Michael Craft's talents continue to grow in his latest in the Mark Manning series "Bitch Slap". It doesn't get any better than this well-plotted and richly detailed mystery. But sad to say it will be the last. This series will be very muched missed.

Last night ended up being a late night again. I had gotten hooked on this book, and could not put it down. Having read the entire series it has been nice to see the development of the characters, as well as the growth of the author.

I have truly enjoyed the entire series, and I am sure that I am not alone when I say I will miss Mark. I hope that there is a possibility of another one in the future.

I attended the book reading at Outwords Bookstore in Milwaukee, and even after being told to anticipate a big twist I was caught completely off guard as to who the 'kiler' was. I also have to agree with Mark Manning that I was always hoping for a connection between Doug, Mark and Neil. I know, how naughty of me.

This book poses many a moral issue, and I would love to see them furthere developed. I guess that would mean a new book in the seires....Yes, I will even beg for a new book if I have to.

Thank you, Michael Craft, for keeping me up late at night finishing a really good book.

Having only recently become a reader of the Mark Manning mysteries, I am now a fervid fan of Michael Craft's inventiveness, his taut writing, strong characterizations--a strong cadre of characters, each with his or her good reasons for "doing-in" the victim--and Michael's ability to keep me turning the pages well after midnight. And it is Michael's ability to write strong and believable characters that makes BITCH SLAP such a treat to read because we do care for these people, every one of these charming suspects. That is why (for me, at least) the revelation of the "killer" is such a shock. I didn't see that one coming.
I love it when an author, playwright, director "does a number on me" as skillfully as Michael has done. Reminds me of REBECCA and SIXTH SENSE, having read and seen them both numerous times just for that moment when nothing is as it seems.
It's not simply a "twist" in BITCH SLAP--the revelation embraces a moral and ethical issue, one the author handles adroitly, since, like Mark, I'm a tight-ass, too. So when I read the revelation, I was stunned, but then I wondered how the author was going to resolve the moral dilemma, the Gordian Knot. I'm not such a stiff-neck, however, that I don't see that sometimes a "wrong" is "right," --but we do have laws and a moral code. Mark is correct about that. Poor man. How terrible for him.
Yet the author pulls it off and pulls it off expertly. A most satisfying resolution, but one I'm sure will rankle many Craft readers who, after finishing the book, will continue to ponder the questions of justice, crime and punishment, right and wrong.
I congratulate the author for my discomfort in accepting the final resolution. Fine job. Fine piece of work.