Customer Reviews

Category Five (Tango Key Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Billy Joe Franklin and his girlfriend Crystal DeVries robbed a bank and he absconded with the money, leaving Crystal to take the fall. While waiting to go to trial, she, along with her friend Tia, transferred from the Dade County jail to the one on Tango Key. Billy successfully breaks her and Tia in a daring jailbreak. It looks like his planning will allow them to make a clean getaway until Hurricane Danielle turns into a Category Five storm, worse than even Hurricane Andrew.

Bookstore owner and psychic Mira Morales, her daughter Annie and her grandmother are preparing to survive one of the worst hurricanes on record when the escaped convicts and Billy take over the house and make sure the hostages are subdued. Mira's live-n-lover, Shep, an FBI agent, knows about the danger the women face but he is trapped in a cellar and is unable to get out. Mira has to take charge and see that her family is safe until someone can rescue them but when their situation looks hopeless, help comes from a most unexpected source.

It is a toss up to Mira which is worse the Category Five hurricane or dealing with the unstable Billy Joe. Both could get her killed and even her psychic powers are not strong enough for her foresee what kind of trauma and tragedy will result from the criminals and the storm. T.J. MacGregor has written a fantastic crime thriller, filled with action and suspense but the true antagonist in CATEGORY FIVE is Hurricane Danielle.

Harriet Klausner

I know, I'm embarrashed with my title to this review, but that's the best i could do on the fly.

I've read all of T. J. MacGregor's books, and have enjoyed all of them. However, some have worked well, others not so well. But she always has an ambitious plot to weave within her niche, "ParaNormal" Fiction.
I'm not a believer or non-believer of the paranormal, but I still enjoy her story lines stretching reality.

This was a particularly relevant story line with "Katrina" fiasco. I didn't read it as a political statement, even though I'm an indepedent /"unenrolled" voter. The story line includes a flashback to an earlier hurricane which involved a Federal coverup. Does this need to be a political statement? Being a cynic as well, either political party elected candidates are capable of this misdeed.

All in all this story is a good read. You care about the main characters, and the story line sucks you into a fast paced and chaotic thread of events. MacGregor does a great job in conveying the force of the hurricane as well as the total chaos that results.

My only criticism is with the ending. I was upset. I contemplated emailing "MacGregor". I felt it was unnecessary, and that the author was playing w/ her readers a little too much. But in the end I just hope MacGregor comes out w/ a new book soon, so I can catch up with my old friends, Mora, Annie, & Shep. For the record, I'm a guy but I still enjoy the imagination and creativity of MacGregor.

PS. TJ please make things right. I enjoy happy endings! Thanks for all of the entertaining reads.

I don't know who MagGregor's editor is, but he needs to find himself a new line of work. I haven't even finished the book yet and I've already come across a few glaring examples:

1. Mira is tied up with electrical tape. When Lopez takes the tape off in the next chapter, it's duct tape.
2. Sheppard is talking to Dillard in the cellar while the sheriff (Emison?) is unconscious on the floor. When Dillard accuses him of taking a bribe, the next paragraph says Emison looked shocked (or something like that) when it was Dillard who looked shocked - remember, Elison is unconscious and in no position to look anything.
3. Not necessarily an editing error, but towards the beginning when Dillard asks Sheppard to call Mira for help, Sheppard dials her number on his cell phone then hands the phone to Dillard. Mira doesn't answer her phone when she doesn't recognize the number on caller ID, but finally does answer the third time he calls. So basically Mira doesn't know what her fiance's cell phone number is?
4. A sentence starts with THe... instead of The....

I noticed editing errors in the other book I've read by her as well (Out of Sight) where one sentence begins with "I've" instead of "I'm".

These may be picky in the views of many, but for me at least, they detract from the overall quality of the story.

I've read all of the Tango Key mysteries and love these fast-paced mystery thrillers. They're great fun, and also challenge the imagination about what is possible: time travel, psychic abilities, black holes--they have it all, plus the feel of a real adventure fraught with danger. The characters are well developed, each with their distinct personalities which remain consistent in each book in the series.

I think that in the case of Category Five, the author has walked through some portal from fiction to reality. This book came out right after the horrors of Katrina. Incredible timing! I understand that the author lives in Florida, so she has charged this book with her personal terrors of living through powerful hurricanes. You can feel it in the writing. It is also a cautionary tale of what can happen--even in America--in a time of chaos, as we all learned from Katrina.

I look forward to the next thriller in the series. THANKS to Ms. MacGregor for hours of exciting reading!

Of course Macgregor has done it again. This time she presents a scary story wrapped in the winds of a hurricane. She does this in a year when we all know how frightening the weather gods can be. Psychic...yes....unamerican....no.

If you are a liberal democrat, like Cindy Shehan and Michael Moore, you may like this book, other wise forget it. TJ used to book to spout her unamerican personal views.