Customer Reviews

The Criminalist

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fascinating story about psychiatry, crime, relationships, serial killers and the police department. Any mystery fan should love this book. Well worth your time. It's just a shame Mr. Izzi is not around to write more winners like this one.

I met Mr. Izzi when he was first published, and have followed his career with great joy, until the day he was taken from us. murder or accident? His books have always been so real, and The Criminalist is the best he had ever done. the people, the places and the events are all so real, I could not put it down.

Previous reviews have well summarized the characters and plot of The Criminalist. All I can add is I never read an Izzi book without hoping it would never end. I hated to see this novel come to a close. It is brilliant in every respect: storyline, characters (chillingly real, honest, and abrupt), and realism. This novel held me from beginning to end. I cared about the people, I grimaced at the stupidity or venality of some of the police characters, I felt for DeGrazia whenever he was frustrated-I just was deeply involved in every aspect of this work. I am sure everyone who reads and enjoys this book will agree with me in my firm belief that Eugene Izzi did not commit suicide. He was murdered! A writer of such brilliance, with so much going for him, could not be that far gone. The circumstances of his death lead me to believe there were elements in Chicago who felt he was getting too close. To what? We'll never know. I read every book I could find by Izzi. I, for one, mourn his loss. He was a true great.

This has been the first book of Izzi's that I've read. It's just amazing. That's the only way I can describe it. His characters and situations are so detailed you can see everything as you read it. His writing style is, in my opinion, unmatchable. The way he interlocks multiple stories and yet keeps them seperate, even though you know they're related, is awesome. This is the best book I've read in a long time.

This is such a good read. It is such a shame that this is the last we will ever read of Eugene Izzi's work. The story is riveting and the characters are fascinating and so richly developed. What a wonderful series these characters could have been. This is truly a story left untold as these characters are absolutely teeming with life!

Eugene Izzi outdid himself with this book.I could not put it down. The story line just kept getting better with each and every page. A must read for any Izzi fan.

In THE CRIMINALIST, Eugene Izzi presents two murders, twenty years apart, with linked protagonists. By the end of the book, only one is solved to the reader'satisfaction, the other is left a irritating "what if"?

The three Moran brothers have all been damaged by their abusive family background, and all were suspects in the horrific murder of Tom Moran's first wife, twenty years ago. When a virtually identical murder of a prostitute occurs on the twentieth anniversary of the first murder, the Moran brothers are all suspects once again.

Tom, precariously remarried has established a psychiatric practice. His brother, Terry is an alcoholic policeman whose career never rebounded after he was suspected of the previous murder, and Frank Moran has drifted into homelessness, alcoholism, and mental illness. Tom's wife, Ellen has just learned that she is pregnant when her world is nearly destroyed by the implication that her husband, and perhaps his two brothers have committed murder.

The Criminalist of the title is Detective Dominic DiGrazia, and he and his selected partner Janice Constantine, are the bright lights of this book. Both are unique and involving characters, and make an intriguing team. It is a pity that Eugene Izzi committed suicide before their evolution into a fine pair of protagonists for a series.

By the end of THE CRIMINALIST, the latest murder and its perpetrator are laid to rest, however, the earlier murder of Tom's wife is an open question. I wish both cases had been brought to some sort of satisfactory conclusion. However there are not always tidy endings in life, and to assume that the Moran brothers would be healed by any solution would be an unrealistic resolution.

THE CRIMINALIST presents a good mystery, strong protagonists, and involving characters; however, I cannot rate it in the same class as John Sandford's Lucas Davenport mysteries. If you like suspense, it will do until Sandford's latest is published.

Although this book is well-written and suspenseful, I only gave it three stars because of the unrelenting grimness of it. Everybody in this book is mentally, physically or emotionally unstable due to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, child abuse, mental illness, etc. It's tough to read something like this without getting really depressed yourself. Sometimes the ending redeems the rest of the book, but not in this case. I found it just as depressing as the rest of the book. The book reminded me a bit of the movie Seven because of the goriness of the crimes and the cocky attitude of the lead detective. Although (thank God) not as gruesome as it could be, this book is still not for the faint of heart.