Customer Reviews

Fallen Idols

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

 

 

This is my fourth Freedman novel, having read "Above the Law", "The Disappearance" and "Bird's Eye View" prior to "Fallen Idols". What I have always loved about this author's work is his ability to captivate me with a mystery from the start, then keep me guessing until the end. This book did neither.

The book centers around a renowned archaeologist, Walt Gaines, and his wife, Jocelyn. When Jocelyn is killed at the end of a dig, Walt and his three adult sons are devastated. After the funeral, Walt quits his job at the University of Wisconsin, moves to California and severs practically all contact with his family.

The sons investigate, and find a lifestyle that is inconsistent with Walt's means. As they investigate, they find that there may be more to their mother's death than they had been led to believe. This, coupled with Walt's mysterious new life spurs them on to discover all they can find out about the past.

While a fascinating character study, I found the book to be slow in places and missing the aforementioned formula that makes this author a favorite.

This one is far from being a priceless relic.

What you have here is about 60 pages of material stretched out to 498 pages. I can't believe I actually read the first 350 or so. It's as if Freedman and his publisher colluded to create a massive waste of time. The story is set up early and then goes nowhere for an eternity. Finally, when you can't stand the pointless descriptions and stagnant plot, you might be tempted to skip to the end. Unfortunately, at this point, it becomes clear that the author never intended for you to figure anything out until you had read about 400 pages. The ending is not only clumsy, but of a very "deus-ex-machina" nature; that is, there was never any reason to suspect the true culprit except that there was never any reason to suspect the true culprit. (Yes, I know that sounds redundant, but then the whole novel is an exercise in repetition. My sympathy if you paid for the hardcover version.)

Walter Gaines is an archaeology professor at the University of Wisconsin. He and his wife are on an important dig in Central America. Looting is a big problem at the site. Walter and Jocelyn are ambushed on their way back to go home. When the attack is over, artifacts are taken and Jocelyn is dead. After the funeral Walter leaves Wisconsin for LA and is virtually cut-off from his three grown sons. The sons find their father's behavior very strange and work together to try to uncover the truth of what happened in Central America. The deeper they delve in to the strange financial transactions they uncover, the more confused they become.

I have enjoyed J.F. Freedman books in the past, but found too many contrived plot points in this book. Once the sons started unraveling the mystery, things just fell into place much too easily. Everyone they talked to was very forthcoming with information with barely any questions asked. It was as unrealistic as it was unconvincing. The ending had a twist, but again suffered in its predictability. I found myself flipping pages just to move the story forward. I wanted to like the book, but at the end it was not really worth the time it took to read it.

To date, I have read all of J.F. Freedman's books and wish I had quit while I was ahead. This is like wanting to remember the dearly departed as young, healthy, and appealing instead of puny, wasting, later years. I hope the author returns to more likeable characters and more thrilling plot. This is NOTHING like "Bird's Eye View " It is a shame !

I had never heard of this author before seeing the HC on the bargain rack but the price and gloss-synopsis on the dust jackets played me like a chameleon. "What you see isn't what you get" should have been the tagline or perhaps - "a fool and his money are soon parted". This is pehaps the very worst book I have ever forced myself to finish cover-to-cover. The bloated detailing made me think that I was actually rading the production notes on a screenplay. The trademarked brand name-dropping became so trite halfway through the book that I looked up it here to be sure I wasn't just irrational. I found several reviewers remarking on the same. One quipped that the book was in desperate need of an editor & another talked of the 60 page story fluffed out to 500. It's all true. What's even worse is the "for pay" endorsement by Robert Parker. I assume this because the quote attributed to him is pure B.S. It is neither "compelling", "taut" nor "wonderfully told". All I can say for my experience was that I was too stubborn to close it and discard.

I was rather disappointed in this book, I have come to expect much more from him.
There's too many unnecessary details about the children that make this book slow reading. The plot line is predictable. I actually started it three times before I was able to get interested enough to finish.
I regret that I paid retail and did not wait to get a a used book store. It is sometimes hard to find his books there, but they had several copies of this one. I imagine many other local readers were disappointed also.

I like Mr. Freedman's writing, and having read several of them "Against the Wind" remains one of my favorites. "Fallen Idols" won't share that praise.

It becomes mundane. The progeny of suspicion is generally more suspicion. But all of this gestalt theorizing (did dad kill mom?)could be addressed by normal familial cofrontation. "Dad. How did you end up widowed and with 4 million dollars?"

Will's sons are all extremely intelligent. Walt Gaines' is highly intelligent. Their mother was highly intelligent. So. Ask him!

When Jocelyn Gaines, also a Professor like her husband Walt, is killed on a archeological dig headed by her husband, the family unites for the tragic farewell. Briefly following that dad drifts of to lala land, figuratively and literally.

There's a lot of places here for confrontation and love and therapy and the like, but these adult, highly gifted men walk around saying lines that would get rejected in a "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" script.

Good story; painful but somewhat insightful look at families. Poor dialogue, poor prose.

I'll admit to being a bit disappointed by this book. Not because it was a bad book, but just because I've come to expect better from this author (I've read all his other books also).

The story begins at a high-profile archaeological dig in Central America, and then moves to the efforts of a famous archaeologist to distance himself from an unfortunate events there, and his three sons attempts to unravel the mystery. The premise of the book captured my interest, but the execution of the story was a bit underwhelming, and some elements struck me as downright implausible (the sons' ability to dig into their parent's financial dealings at will didn't ring true, nor did the identity & described behavior of the "day-trader" in the book's final chapter).

This book asks the question: "How well do we really know our loved ones?" An intriguing question, but after reading this book, I'm not sure I ever truly got to know any of these characters, or cared enough to want to. Not a bad book, but character development in this one is not up to the level of earlier works such as "The Disappearance" or "The Obstacle Course", at least in my opinion.

I too am a long term fan of J.F.Freedman, but came away from his latest book disappointed. While starting out with a good story line, it quickly bogged down in too many words and details that added nothing significant to the plot or character development. The portrayal of the nefarious world of antiquity thievery, political corruption and human greed was solid despite the rather unbelievable efforts of family members to resolve their grief and confusion. Neither tight nor thrilling, but good beach reading.

The path home from the jungle of Central America proves to be a treacherous one for Archaeologist Walt Gaines. And upon returning to the U.S., his bizarre behavior perplexes all who know him, or think they do.

J.F. Freedman has a knack for taking the small things of life and developing them into insights and ideas that simply resonate with reality, for example, how fathers relate to sons, how wives relate to husbands about fathers, and how the least secure son reflects on life.

"Fallen Idols" has a delicious series of twists and turns that are totally believable and the ending is worth the wait. Freedman has found a new venue and a new approach, and he continues to produce some of the most inventive and clever plots and realistic personality portrayals in American writing today.