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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ellis' fans the flames of tension,
By
This review is from: City of Fire (Lena Gamble) (Hardcover)
Robert Ellis' latest thriller is a powerful story, filled with violence and graphic detail. Ellis builds the tension so high you won't want to read City of Fire late at night, particularly if you're in the house alone.
LAPD Detective Lena Gamble is 29, and alone in the world. Her brother, David, had been murdered five years earlier. Lena has the time and willingness to work on the latest horrific crime investigation. She and Hank Novak, her partner on the Homicide Special Squad, are the officers responsible for the investigation into the murder of a woman found in her bed. Although all clues point to the husband, Lena soon realizes there might be a link to a previous murder. As she starts to make the connections, she realizes they're looking for a serial killer, a man soon dubbed "Romeo." As fire season starts in LA, the Santa Ana winds fan the flames, just as Ellis builds the book's tension up so much it's almost unbearable. Lena realizes she's not only looking for a serial killer, but at the same time, she's looking for her brother's killer. And, someone in the police department wants to shut down that case, and label it solved. She no longer knows who to trust, and she doesn't want to become another victim. Pack this book for summer vacation because you won't want to put it down. But don't read City of Fire late at night.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
authentic touch - Peacocks in La Canada,
By
This review is from: City of Fire (Mass Market Paperback)
When you read a novel [any novel] set in contemporary Los Angeles, you have to wonder how much work the author has put into getting the background accurate. This recent novel by Ellis is quite well done, with many details of LA. But you know that there is always a temptation by an author to put in the stereotypicals. The sleazy Hollywood music and drug scene. The glittering night view from the Hollywood Hills. And so on.
But what struck me about this novel was a short scene in the northern hillside suburb of La Canada. (There's a tilda over the n, by the way.) The protagonists visit a house there, where the host shows them peacocks that inhabit the neighbourhood. He says some got free years ago and bred. Now they are a fixture in La Canada. This is exactly right. I've visited a place there several times, and you can often see peacocks and their offspring loitering around on roofs. Not a detail you will often run into in books set in LA. It was just a tangential observation that Ellis inserted. Adds an authentic flavour.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Master and His Subtext,
By
This review is from: City of Fire (Lena Gamble) (Hardcover)
Read this book for the subtext--there is a lot more going on here than just great character development and an out-of-control-freight-train of a plot. What Ellis has done is to give us a snap shot of American culture in 2007--complete with a coffee addicted female detective and one sick-sexual-psycho-killer. But wrapped around these unforgettable characters, are layers of information about who we are as a society, how we react, think and manipulate all of our technological devices that enable us to function as higher primates in a modern age. The problem is, we are still animals. Ellis knows this and exploits it to a horrifying degree.
On top of the deftly interwoven social commentary, Ellis has rendered a portrait of Los Angeles that literally puts you on the freeway. The sprawling urban environment becomes a major character, indifferent, moody and combustible. Driving in LA is a daily hassle for those living there and absolutely daunting for a visitor in a rental car--but driving in this book--frequently against the clock--can be a matter of life or death. All that is missing here is a road map for the out-of-towners. Down the road. . . City of Fire will serve two purposes. It will always remain a highly entertaining, rip-roaring read. But it will also become a succinct time capsule of our immediate age and how we lived and thought in 2007. The same way Dashiell Hammett's gritty crime novels provide a vibrant window on the 1930s. It is one of the underrated aspects of the crime genre--holding up a mirror to society. With City of Fire, Robert Ellis has earned his place as a true master of crime fiction
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