10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tries to do far too many things at once, July 26, 2000
"Death Qualified" is a very interesting and ambitious book--in fact, interesting in too many different ways, and ultimately, too ambitious.
It's a human drama about young adults and middle-aged people facing their conflicts and unfulfilled needs; cheating spouses, parents estranged from their grown children, etc.
It's a murder mystery. Who killed the long-lost husband in the woods? His estranged wife? Unseen enemies? An unlucky shot from a hunter?
It's a courtroom drama. Naturally, the defense attorney was once the lover of the prosecutor. Defense keeps hammering at an angle that can never be proven, and the prosecutor contests her every step. Will an innocent woman go to jail, and her kids be left without the care of parents?
It's a science fiction thriller. What was the pathbreaking experiment that went horribly wrong, and whose lives did it plunge into a nightmare of insanity and murder? This part gripped me the most, but it isn't really explained until about the last 50 pages.
Finally--and improbably--it's got a dash of "Celestine Prophecy." This part might be OK for atmosphere, but to use it to wrap things up is completely unnecessary and almost adds a note of unintended comedy.
To me, the best thing about it is that the author uses poignancy to heighten the sense of horror and dread that builds throughout the novel. The poignancy and the horror combine to make this more than just a formula novel or an airplane book.
I almost stopped reading before about 20 pages, because at that point, the author was writing too much like a city dweller who kept having to remind herself that if you don't live in LA, Chicago, or New York, you've got to talk "folksy." Fortunately, that distraction soon passed. However, the author should have avoided another distraction--that of giving characters last names like Dinesen and Belloc. If you're going to do that, you might as well name the local garage owner Cal Dickens and the local court stenographer Jenny Hemingway.
In any case, the author is telling 4 or 5 interesting stories, but they never really quite come together. Still, the book gives you something to chew on.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Amazon Synopsis is for a different Wilhelm novel!, February 22, 1997
By A Customer
Wilhelm's unique ability to speak from her character's minds has never been more striking than in this tense story which sweeps from a university campus in the rockies to the woods of oregon. This is a haunting story, chock full of complex, interesting characters carried along in a gripping plot. Buy this book! It will be reread..
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Death Qualified - fantastic, December 7, 2005
I mean this in many senses of the word - fantastic. I read this book some years ago and was absolutely fascinated by the theories of chaos, fractals and the Mandelbrot Set. At that time I went on the computer looking to see if I could find out more and I did. It was amazing. Several years later I am writing this as I am watching a show on Public Television on the Mandelbrot Set, and I recall I first heard of all this in this novel. Because I am curious, even novels send me on paths of exploration that are ultimately enlightening!
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