Customer Reviews

Criminal Minds: Jump Cut

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this online rather than wait for it to hit Australian book retailers, because I'm a bit of an obsessed fan, and didn't have the patience to wait! I was really impressed with this book. The writing style left a little to be desired - in places it felt stilted and awkward, and seemed to focus on the wrong things, like the music each character was listening to, or the clothes they were wearing. Calling JJ "Jareau" seemed a little out of place too, but these are all minor details. The plot is true-to-form, and would make a great screenplay, the little bits of profiling trivia throughout the story are well-placed and interesting, just like in the show. My only real complaint is that Garcia isn't in it enough (she is featured though, and as usual, she's awesome)!

This was a quick read and very enjoyable. It's very faithful to the TV series even bringing certain aspects of different plotlines into the book. Collins is probably the best at these tie-in novels, but people should also check out his other books as well.

The overall premise of the book is one worthy of the show, but is poorly written. The book starts off slow due to the amount of writing used to create an initial painting of the un-subs process. The fashion descriptions were a little bit wordy for my liking. I do not think that it was necessary to describe what everyone was wearing every day. Another reviewer did point out that the author was compelled to use the team members' full title, A LOT!! After the first couple of time he should have dropped the Supervisory Special Agent title, or done what that characters have done often in the series which is to use the S.S.A. abbreviation. With Lesser FBI Characters the author has no problem using S.A. for their title.

The story lost credibility with me fast when the corner was able to pull the 4 known victims out for the team to examine, despite the fact that the crimes had started in October and the story starts in early spring. The author does tries badly to cover this error by making a brief comment about embalming fluid with one of the victims. I'm not a mortician, but that seemed like quite an unbelievable stretch for me, which started me looking more closely at the story and finding more errors (no more to be mentioned here).

IF you are looking for a light read based on the Criminal Minds Series, then you will probably be fine with this book. But if you are like me and were looking for a quality story up there where the television series has been then you will be sadly disappointed.

I did not expect the book to be 100% as accurate as the show, but I did want more than the 65% I got.

Like most cities in the United States, Lawrence Kansas has a homeless problem that the authorities would like to move out of their area but they don't want to see anyone killed. Somebody though is murdering the homeless population, stalking them, drugging them, chaining them in an enclosed area making them hope they can get away. To date four bodies have been found in various places around the town but the police are no closer to finding the killer than they were the day the first corpse was found.

In desperation, the police call in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, a group of expert profilers to assist them in finding the killer. When the team arrives, they get to work right away and though they have no leads they come to the same interesting conclusions; the most important one being that the hate crimes are escalating with more signs of violence on the later victims. While the BAU is in Lawrence, twenty-year-old college drama student Kelly Bonder is kidnapped and the ransom is $68,000. In such a quiet town, the profilers believe this crime is linked to their case and if they discover the connection they will find the killer. They race against the clock too uncover the perp before the ransom deadline arrives.

This novel is based on the television show Criminal Minds and readers get to see the step by step criminal investigation of the FBI. The prologue is in the first person voice of the killer and he speaks periodically throughout the book which sends goose bumps down the spine of the audience because he sounds so sane in his insanity. The investigation takes place in the third person and is also terrifying because the reader feels the tension of the last victim. This crime thriller absorbs the reader in the unfolding drama of mind games played by a brilliant serial killer.

Harriet Klausner

I rated this book as an "OK' -- because it was just like reading a tv script. I found it difficult to really care about the characters. Seemed like the author spent way too much time describing the clothes the people were wearing moreso than the action in the book.
I might read more, hard to say. Not a top pick.

The book reads like an episode of the show. It's a good substitute for when there aren't any new episodes.

Criminal Minds: Jump Cut, by Max Allan Collins

In a town in Kansas homeless people are being found murdered, cleaned up, and dressed in clean clothes. It's a case for the Behavioral Analysis Unit, a FBI profiling team out of Quantico, a team mainly featured in the TV drama "Criminal Minds."

"Jump Cut" is very true to the show it is based on, with Collins capturing the essence of each of the profilers, and creating a plot that would fit right into the series. The format of the book even matches the show's format, including voice-over quotes, scenes from the perspective of the UnSub, and trivia from real-life related cases. I felt like I was almost reading an episode, and could imagine each character's voice talking to me as the book progressed. I only have a few complaints: Collins sometimes puts too much into details, such as describing what every person is wearing, and the book starts off slowly.

I'd say this is a good book for anyone who's a fan of "Criminal Minds" and may want something to tide them over between episodes. I personally liked reading the profiling process being described, rather than shown as in episodes.

3/5.

Overall enjoyable but felt the book got off to a slow start. The writer's continuous use of the phrase "Supervisory Special Agent" was the only other problem I had. Once the characters are established it shouldn't be necessary to constantly call them by their full title. It kept taking me out of the story.

Outside of that it was a good read and I plan on picking up the next in the series.

This is the third Criminal Minds book that I've read, probably sixth from Max Allan Collins. The author also penned tie-in novels for the CSI shows, among others. As you know, I am a huge fan of Criminal Minds. I even got my mother and brother on board the wagon. I am into the crime procedural, serial killers, FBI profiling, and all that good stuff. This book was just okay.

It stays true to the TV show. It starts with a cold open, in the form of the prologue, setting up a scenario in Lawrence, Kansas. We follow a couple of homeless people, peering into their thoughts and day to day lives. The UnSub's thoughts are in bold face. As with the show, a relevant quote is used to introduce the team (and to end the story). Bodies of homeless people begin to appear around the city, all of them cleaned up, dressed... and stabbed dead. As the death toll rises, it's up to the BAU and Lawrence PD to track these criminals down and stop them.

There was nothing really special about it. It was an episode in a book. You can definitely see it translated onto the screen. The author captured the voices of the characters well. Keep in mind that this is just the first (of three) books so characterizations are not as deep as a hardcore fan would expect. The procedures were sound and plausible and the psychological aspect - why the UnSub did what they did - was pretty interesting. But it had a lot of filler. Some time was spent on Reid's love of jazz music and what Hotch was wearing. Sure, on screen, these little things only get a glance or a couple of seconds but did we really need a couple of pages on Hotch's immaculate Brooks Brothers suits? Some fans will say yes haha.)

I preferred Killer Profile, the second CM book also by Max Allan Collins. But frankly, it's more enjoyable to actually see the BAU team do their job than read about it.

Rating: 3/5.

Recommendation: Criminal Minds fans will either love this or just be okay with it. There's nothing special about it apart from the familiar characters from TV.

The fact that I really like the tv show, made this an easy
book to get into. It did take alot of pages to "show" us the
un-sub, but this is not tv and you have to "see" the un-sub
in your minds eye, to enjoy the story. I will not get into
alot of the details of the plot and just say, if you like the
tv series, you will like the book/books. Right now there are 3
out, and I hope to see many more by the end of the year.