Customer Reviews

Dead End

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

 

 

This is really a pretty awful novel. It begins well: bloody handprint, interesting neighborhood, pretty young mailperson who is the central character. And then it grows. Meyers introduces more characters, most of whom are vaguely defined and about whom the reader cares very little. As a matter of fact, one of the victims--also the best friend of Brette the mailcarrier/heroine--is so obnoxious and mean, her death goes unmourned by anyone, even the characters in the novel!

The novel goes on....and on. The plot gets more twisted and pointless. The characters become more vague and ill-defined. And finally, in the last scene the murderer dies in the swamp much like the one the reader has been mired in throughout the novel.

There are lots of beginnings but the book becomes exactly what it's title implies: a "Dead End".

I had purchased this book and it was just sitting in my bag waiting to be read, and waiting. It was one that sounded good, but I had other better ones to read. Then I read Lost, by Helen Myers! --One word KEEPER! After I read that I tore my house apart looking for the bag that had this book. I love her character development, they are very natural. If you like Erica Spindler, Kay Hooper, and wish Iris Johanson had more romance here you go. Helen Myers. I am now in search of many more of her books. The one thing I have found that always works w/the story but does not happen in real life is the convenient death factor. The people that definately die are always the ones you think to yourself, "The protaganists life would be so much better if ______ would just die" but I guess that is why it is fiction. Too bad life is not that neat! Don't wait, buy this one!!

This book was not a supsense novel at all. Only the first couple chapters and the last were somewhat suspenseful. All the chapters in between were slow & somewhat boring. Even the "suspenseful" parts were boring. Nothing reached and grabbed me. Nothing felt scary or unsettling and didn't make you bite your fingernails in suspense. For the most part is was just a nice little story about a few people you didn't care much about. Not very interesting.

Helen has done it again. She's given her fans a top-notch suspense story complete with multi-dimensional characters and a realistic view into life in rural East Texas. Fresh dialogue, peppered with a good dose of humor, shows why she's a rising star in romantic suspense. She gave this reader a well developed plot, loads of sexual tension and plenty of twists and turns along the way. A burning desire to learn what happened to Tracie Pugh kept me turning the pages! I'd recommend it to anyone who loves a good suspense.

In Wood County, Texas, rural postal carrier Brette Barry learns that Hank Jamison, the best friend of her thirteen- year-old-son Eric, is missing. After talking with Hank's mother, the strange Sally, she calls the police. To everyone's surprise, high school shop teacher and resident hermit Sam Knight offers to assist on the search for the missing adolescent.

After Hank returns home, Brette finds out that Tracie Pugh is missing and that Sam apparently was the last person to see her alive. The police wonder if foul play occurred and they hone in on Sam. Brette who has already questioned Sam's motives during the Hank search, wonders too if he did something to Tracie even as she finds herself falling in love with him.

DEAD END is an exciting romantic suspense drama that works because the audience questions Sam's motives and actions even while knowing he is the lead protagonist. The story line is fast-paced as the cast struggles with anger and frustration as they deal with a missing person. Brette is a warm intrepid heroine who readers will agree is supermom. Best selling Helen R. Myers turns up the heat with this emotionally taut thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The mystery is a bit weak, but this book was very character driven, and I really liked that. Sam and Brette, and Eric and Hank, and even the minor characters of Tucker and Sally, were perfect in their imperfections.

Brette gets involved in the disappearance of a local woman through a Halloween prank, and with her surly neighbor, Sam, through another disappearance. Hank, her son's best friend, and almost her own son, vanishes, then re-appears a few days later, but too late to fix a tragedy. Sam, who didnt want to get involved with anyone or anything is dragged into the mess, and in the meantime, his past is revealed to the gossipy and close-minded small town. Still, he can't resist Brette, or her son. The missing woman takes a back seat to Sam and Brette's relationship difficulties, as they try to work things out. It is a tender, stormy, and intense love story with strong characters. A must read!!!

Helen Myers takes her readers back to the Piney Woods of East Texas in her latest release, Dead End, a spine-tingling, sensual suspensful tale that will have you sighing and clutching at your heart, all at the same time!

For lovers of this genre, Myers' story presents intense intrigue and complex character development that is tight and well-developed. Her main characters, supermom Brette and the mysterious, yet good-hearted Sam are ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances which they handle admirably. Her secondary characters are fully developed as well, and readers will find themselves cheering on the good ones, and hissing at the goofy and evil ones.

For mothers of teenaged boys, this one will leave you breathless and making sure you know where your kids are! Another winner from a gifted writer.

I enjoyed the storyline in this book & the mystery kept me guessing til the very end. It was so obvious who the "bad guy" was although I overlooked it because it seemed to easy.

The only reason I give this book a 3 stars instead of a 4 is because I felt the writing was not great. This was my first book by this author & I'm not sure I'll read any more. I found many errors such as misspelled words & mistaken punctuation. What really bugged me though was that I felt many sentences were not complete. I would read some of them over & over trying to figure out what the heck was being said. I felt like the words did not flow together easy at all & there were times when the story would just totally skip to something & I'd be flipping back to make sure that I hadn't skipped a page.

There were some other things that I found odd such as when Brette was asked who else knew about the bloody handprint she failed to mention one of the people. I thought it strange that Hank was preyed upon at the age of 15. I mean I know it can happen but he just seemed smarter than that. I thought it was strange that Tracie was assumed dead when there was no reason to think anything had happened to her at all (except the bloody handprint which could've belonged to anybody).

Overall I enjoyed the storyline quite a bit but it was hard to overlook the not so good writing. I hate to be harsh like this & I know that I'm not a good writer myself but I read 1-2 books every week so I think I have a good sense for what's good writing & what's not.

Actually to be exact, I would give "Dead End" about 3.5 stars. There are many parts that I loved about this novel and some parts that I thought "WHAT THE HECK?" I have read all of Helen R. Myers's novels and I my favorite was "Lost." I believe that "Lost" was a little bit better than this one. The storyline: In a small rural town in Texas, Brette Barry finds a bloody handprint on a DEAD END sign on her way home from delivering the mail in front of the Pughs farm. Brette, being the paranoid thing that she is, starts to worry that it is a prank from her son, Eric, or his friend, Hank. Eric denies it. Now any normal human being would drop the subject and say who cares, it's a handprint, but not Brette. Later on into the evening, Hank goes missing and Brette and her neighbor and upcoming lover Sam go out looking for the teen. Now let us go back to "common sense." Hank's mother, Sally, does not want to go out and search for her missing son because she is too drunk. Come on people it's her son! So Bette and Sam come back empty-handed. A couple days later, Hank comes back after hitchhiking a ride with a trucker from St. Louis. He tells Bette that he met a teenager online and decided to go met her. (I hope any of my fellow teen friends don't decide to do this, STUPID!) I won't give away anymore of this side of the story because that would be unfair. But good old Brette still cannot get over that handprint! As obnoxious Brette interrogates her neighbors, she discovers that Tracie Pugh has disappeared! Brette goes to the sheriff with this information, claiming that it was Tracie's handprint on the sign. Later on, Brette's tires get slashed and other threats appear, (typical isn't it). Brette is on a mission to find Tracie Pugh and to discover who called Hank up to St. Louis. Slow and sometimes annoying, but overall a good romantic suspense novel.