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Emerald Flash (John Caine Mysteries)
 
 
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Emerald Flash (John Caine Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Charles Knief (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Book Description

John Caine Mysteries March 15, 1999
In his third adventure, private eye John Caine is in trouble again--only this time it comes looking for him. After saving a California woman and her corporation from certain ruin and acquiring his new home, a classic sailing vessel christened Olympia, he's back in his Hawaiian paradise, working hard at relaxing on the beach and trying to keep to the peaceful side of the street. But a woman named Margo Halliday is about to turn Caine's peaceful world upside down.

One night, as Caine is leaving a neighborhood restaurant/bar, Chawlie's, he encounters a naked woman fleeing from a man who is shooting at her, but fortunately not doing a very good job of hitting his target. Caine easily disables the man and ushers the woman back into the restaurant. The woman, he discovers, is Margo Halliday, and the man, who quickly fled the scene, was her abusive ex-husband.

Caine has almost forgotten about the incident when, months later, he reads about the murder of Margo's ex, who has been found shot to death in her exclusive Hawaii Kai condominium. And the next thing Caine knows, Margo is at his doorstep begging him to hide her from the thugs who murdered her ex and who she now thinks are after her. Desperate to get off the island of Oahu, Margo enlists Caine's help and unknowingly lead him into a lethal game that begins with shots aimed at them with high-powered rifles and leads them deep into the jungles on the island of Kauai, alone and outnumbered against the deadly assassins.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A mechanical, macho-minded plot is only one of the problems marring this third installment of Knief's John Caine series (Sand Dollars, etc.). Caine is contemplating leaving Hawaii to take up with girlfriend Barbara Klein in San Francisco when Margo Halliday bursts into his life. Halliday has stolen emeralds from the wrong people, and Caine agrees to protect her. Over the course of their adventures, which include killing a slew of expert assassins, they begin to bond and Caine learns the value of female friendship: women can shoot guns, too. Knief's characters are thin (Chawlie, his Chinese friend, is "inscrutable") and the plot fails to generate proper suspense, as it's more or less an extended chase. Although Knief refers to his hero as a detective, the retired naval officer is really a glorified bodyguard. When he needs information, he rarely has to dig for it; characters more often just cough up the truth when asked. The women hereAHalliday in particularAseem intended to provide positive role models for Caine, but ironically, the novel reads as if rife with sexism (Halliday is naked and running from a gun-toting husband on the very first page). Moreover, Knief's prose can be repetitious and awkward ("I saw or heard nothing"). Admirers of hard-boiled fiction with intricate plots and shady characters will be disappointed to find hurry-up storytelling and caricatures here.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (March 15, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312198663
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312198664
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,899,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Caine is an updated Travis McGee, August 3, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Emerald Flash (John Caine Mysteries) (Hardcover)
I've read all 3 John Caine titles, as well as all 21 Travis McGee books, and I see close similarities. I'm going beyond the obvious--the fact that both characters live on boats and do "favors" for friends. Specifically, I'm drawn to Knief's combination of action and introspection, so typical of John D. MacDonald. An illustration can be found early in the first Caine book, Diamond Head, when the older Caine must defend himself against two young attackers. Caine carries the day, but he gives close examination to his reactions and to his motives, once the dust clears. This is typical McGee. And this is the thread which runs through all 3 Caine books. This writer is very, very good, and he's just getting started. I can't wait to see where he'll go next!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but the two former books were better, September 3, 2000
By 
Anders Lundberg (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Emerald Flash is a recommended read. Make sure you first read the first two books in the series, since there are a lot of references to these in this third book. Out of the three books I think Sand Dollar is the best one. If you like these books you will problaby also like the books by Richard Barre, Steve Hamilton, and William Kent Kreuger.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars OVERALL SCORE: (A), December 24, 2003
Great suspense, unextected plot twists, vibrant characters, and beautiful Hawaiian locales.
John Caine, is a modern knight righting wrongs and helping those in trouble. An honorable man who as experience so much death and pain that that he is become deeply wounded and seeks to put his life back in order. Unfortunately he meets Margo, and more pain and death are sure to follow.
Charles Knief, brings the Hawaiian islands to life in all of their brilliant color and majesty. The settings in this book and his others capture the real Hawaii that few really get to know.
OVERALL SCORE: (A)
PLOT: (A-), CHARATERS: (A+), DIALOGUE: (B), SETTING: (A+), ACTION/COMBAT: (A-), ANTAGONISTS: (B+), ROMANCE: (A-), SEX:(Adult Content), AGE LEVEL: (R)
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