Customer Reviews

Death Qualified: Library Edition

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

 

 

"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.

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..

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!

_Death Qualified_ is ostensibly a mystery written by the award-winning speculative fiction writer Kate Wilhelm, yet it contains elements of SF and perhaps even a dash of romance novels. It is unfair, ultimately, to describe this book in such a third-rate-critic-voice. Wilhelm is certainly better than the sum of her parts, yet I was ultimately disappointed by this book.

The book opens much like a traditional mystery: we start from the viewpoint of the victim before his untimely death. (I don't give too much away; this is established quite early, and is obvious.) Cut to another charcter viewpoint -- this time one who is crucial -- and finally the reader learns of the main character, Barbara 'Bobby' Holloway. Bobby is a lawyer who gave up her practice five years ago for personal and moral reasons. Her father calls to say that he cannot defend the woman accused of her husband's murder; he doesn't have the talent, but Bobby does. Despite serious misgivings, she returns to her father's side to help him. In due course, the reader is introduced to a wide cast of characters. Unlike the drawing room mysteries of England, not everyone has a reason for killing the victim. In fact, no one really does. Rather, the characters exist to give depth and detail; and each plays a pivotal role in the trial.

But then enters the speculative fiction plotpoint: it becomes evident that the murder victim was embroiled in a secret and (of course) deadly scientific experiment. I wouldn't spoil too much, but it has to do less with chaos mathematics (which is explained superficially but with clarity) and more with the development of thought in infants and adolescents. It is crucial to understand the details of Wilhelm's explanations here in order to fathom exactly what she is hypothesizing, but I found these explanations muddled; it's only because I have scientific training that I found it easy to follow. And frankly, this entire subplot (which may be the main reason for this novel's existence)was largely irrelevant to the mystery and courtroom drama the synopsis on the back cover promises.

The resolution ends with two traditional and almost hackneyed events: first, there is the necessary chase through the dark and scary forest, which is mercifully short for those who have seen this too much; and second, there is the obligatory 'we thought the danger was past but no, somehow the danger has not been eradicated and -- oh my! -- aren't the implications frightening?' (Think of the dead character who isn't, or the mutant or alien gene still present in the overlooked rat.)

I found myself comparing the style to William Kienzle's Fathery Koestler books. I found Wilhelm to be the better of the two, because Kienzle often requires an almost deus-ex-machina resolution (usually by keeping some key piece of evidence from the reader for no reason other than to maintain suspense -- a tactic I consider unfair to the reader interested in untangling the knots him- or herself). Wilhelm allows all pieces of the puzzle to be placed before the pattern is revealed. Unfortunately, the pattern is not quite seamless, demanding that the reader be interested in two nearly non-intersecting storylines: the courtroom drama and the scientific discovery. Wilhelm also has a more (for want of a better word) feminine quality, wherein the characters emotionally respond to events rather than the common untouched-and-unmoved-main character so prevalent in mysteries. While this lends depth to the characters and the story, I found that it was overdone at times, occasionally overwhelming the storyline.

All in all, a reasonably good book. Although it doesn't deliver on all promises as well as it could, I found it interesting and entertaining enough to purchase the next in the Barbara Holloway series.

I recently read Wilhelm's The Deepest Water, finding it flat and predictable. It was with great pleasure, therefore, that I found myself engrossed from the opening sentence of Death Qualified, in which the heavily sedated and confusing world of Lucas Kendricks is revealed. Page by page, the suspense builds until, about a third of the way through, the murder comes almost as a relief. From that point forward, the plot becomes ever more complex, as characters and circumstances, emotions and evidence, puzzles and solutions, emerge and rebound. Although I was able to identify the murderer fairly early, basing my guess upon information contained within a single sentence, the motive and methods were much more difficult to discern. Some scenes could have been eliminated (the pursuit through the woods, for instance, and one of the romantic affairs), and several loose ends were left dangling (just exactly did Doc's wife know?), but such flaws are minor enough to ignore when balanced against the novel's considerable assets. The excitement comes to an abrupt end in the final chapter, which is subtly chilling.
Intelligent and satisfying.

This book started with such great promise. I can still recall the opening chapters and the hope I felt for Wilhem's 'death qualified'. Unusual for most mysteries, Wilhelm opens her story with two pre-cursors. She takes the voice first of a husband who slowly wakes from a drugged fog he has been in for close to a decade, then she takes the voice of that mans wife. These first sixty or so pages were very well crafted and intrueging enough to leave me ready for a small masterpiece. At first Wilhelm's story does not disapoint. However, as the pages start to turn, you begin to realize that this entire book is just one huge mess.

I could have lived with this being a mystery/courtroom drama, but Wilhelm goes well beyond that. Her courtroom scenes are nothing great. When you read something remarkable like Tom Wolfe or the best of Turow, you are sucked into the unfolding scene and it reads as crisply as any genre. Here, the story is slow, not much new occurs, and in the end your scratching your head. When the courtroom scenes end however, you are left with several chapters, so you know more will occur. But just what does transpire is such hogwash that you loose all respect for the book. The scifi stuff is not only silly, but unexplained as to what it might pertain, why the seeming bad guys are bad and why the heck this is here at all.

Lastly, the end is one of the worst I have ever read. This book goes from a great start to just plain awful. I cant stress enough how mad you will be come the last few pages. Not only could you have preticted this sort of very easily, but it reaks. This story reaks of ineptitude. Stay away from Death Qualified or you might find yourself not reading another book for a good while due to the bad taste it leaves in your mouth.

I feel compelled to be the first to enter a negative review for this book. I generally like books that invite the reader to learn more about a related or tangential subject, but I found the descriptions of the Mandelbrot images extremely difficult to fathom. It left me feeling like an outsider and rather skeptical of the effects attributed to the images. And while I am often pleased and excited by surprise endings or "twists", I found this one (don't want to give anything away) very distressing. I do have to give it 3 stars for an engaging plot and great human interest, but a lot of it left me cold, or chilled.

I found the book's beginning a bit boring, but soon found myself caught up with the story and wondering what was coming next. About halfway through the book, I didn't want to put it down!

Wilhelm is a great storyteller, and knows how to create believable characters that have all the emotional complexity of 'real' people. She subtly introduces events or ideas that eventually turn the story a different direction, and when a new surprise happens, the reader later thinks, "Ach! I should have seen that coming!" Too many mysteries are either predictable in their storylines and endings, or too unbelievable, but not so with this one. I didn't expect the ending, and though I appreciate that she didn't tie eveything together in a nice little bow, I am hoping for a sequel, of sorts, to find out what happened with a few things.... such as with Celsy and Travis, and also, is what I think happened with Mike really what did happen... or is there another story to continue there?

Much research obviously went into the book: legal and forestry related research, theories concerning mandelbrots, fractals and altered perceptions, and more. The book was not only entertaining, but educational.

As an Oregonian, it was interesting to see many local issues included in the book: the timber industry vs. environmentalism, gay rights/acceptance, etc. Wilhelm manages to include issues and lean towards leading the reader to her opinion about them, but not in the preachy, dogmatic manner that is so often seen elsewhere.

Conclusion: A very well done book--engaging, intelligent and quite interesting, too!

I really liked this book. Kate Wilhelm's lawyer, Barbara, is a believable strong woman. The plot was intriguing. It tweaked my curiosity about chaos theory. The computer technology was clearly 80s technology but the idea of altering the mind by the patterns on the computer screen was echoed in an article in the news today. The ending was startling and insidious. I prefer happy but I will give up a lot for good plot, good character development, and new ideas. I liked the setting! I live in the area and she really captured the stillness of the woods and the peaceful water sounds of the river. I recommend this book!

This is a mystery novel about mathematics and the Mandelbrot set and new realities. It has good courtroom scenes but is ultimately unrewarding. The novel cops out at the end as though the author did not know where to go. In this sense, it is similar to The Firm - - it never pans out with its promises.