Customer Reviews

Fallen

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a fan of Kathleen's first novel, Taken, so I anxiously awaited her second novel. I was wary at first that it may not live up to my expectations, but after the first few pages the story sucked me in.

I'm not going to write about what the book was about since some of the other reviewers already offered plot summaries. I'll just get to the main point.

The book don't offer flimsy characters like some of the other thrillers out there. These characters breathe and get under your skin. Even after I closed the book, I could "see" Frank and Elizabeth.

I spent countless late-nights reading, trying to figure out what Frank was going to do next!

I found this novel gripping and I could not put it down. Character development is excellent.

The author gives you a brutal crime, then takes you into the troubled mind of the murderer as he plans, schemes, and lies to achieve his ultimate goal. You are forced to understand him while hating him.

You truly feel the pain and suffering of the victim's spouse. Then you are faced with anxiety and fear as she confronts an unknown danger who is just steps away.

For those interested in good writing and an artfully told tale, I recommend Kathleen George's "Fallen." Its depth of characterization raises it above the pure murder mystery genre. I found it a page-turner and will probably return to read it again. If you appreciate good writing and love a well-spun mystery - this is the book for you.

Judging from the reviews of Kathleen George's previous book Taken, people either love or hate her work, and I'm afraid (with all due respect to the #1 reviewer) you'll have to put me in the latter class. Fallen is very, very long and seems even longer because hardly anything happens. There are endless scenes of people net surfing, puttering around the house, phoning and mostly doing nothing, which is not good in a thriller. It reads more like an exercise in a creative writing seminar than a real book -- someone must have told George that people eating makes for revealing scenes because we get cooking and munching ad nauseam, the details of every menu and dining experience revealed in numbing detail. But at least the characters know their cheese -- if only the author could bring herself to be the least bit cheesy. The heroine is a fantasy figure as is her dead hubby, and any plot twists are obvious to the least "seasoned" reader. This is really the same recipe as a Mary Higgins Clark book served up with a big dollop of pretension. The worst sin of all is that the book is set in that great city Pittsburgh but other than a few unblended place and restaurant names there's no local flavor. Skip this course!

Dr. Dan Ross is a well liked physician in Pittsburg. He's murdered, leaving behind his bewildered, gried stricken wife, Elizabeth.

Commander Richard Christie is the man investigating Dan's murder. He's most sympathetic and understanding. When he asks Elizabeth if she can think of anyone who might want to hurt her husband, Elizabeth thinks for a while and sugggests that it might have something to do with Pocusset Safe House, a home for troubled teens that her husband founded.

Across the street from Elizabeth's home, a man pretending to be stretching for exercise, has been watching her. Then he notices that the neighbors are moving and convinces them to let him rent their home to him, so he can be closer to Elizabeth.

His name is Frank Razzi and he seems strange and possibly deranged. He's a script writer and a part time teacher who spends much of his time going to his teaching position at various locations and then back home. His background is as a failure and his object in watching Elizabeth seems creepy.

The action is slow in developing and there isn't much drama. I didn't care for Frank and felt that although Elizabeth was grieving, she seemed naive.

Frank has secrets and knows who killed Elizabeth's husband but to spread this thin plot over a book was too long.

"Fallen" is George's second novel and even better than the first, "Taken." Her sense of plot and character development is excellent. These characters stayed with me days after I finished the book. Her books take this genre up a notch and make for great reading. Highly recommend!

What sets this novel apart from the usual thriller is that it really uses the genre as a jumping off point to study it's main characters. Several reviewers have noted the lack of action in the book. This really isn't the case. One could say that of many great works of literature, including Chekhov, Shakespeare, and Coward just to name a few that come immediately to mind. Nothing much happens, and yet worlds are changed. Ms. George sets us in the aftermath of a murder, a murder that is the result of events that have happened in the character's pasts and we then read about how the main characters respond and change to this murder. I found the characters fascinating as they navigated around each other- particularly the two female leads and the "villian" of the piece. They were psychologically well rounded and deep. And along the way, there was enough suspense to make me annoyed at having to put the book down at the end of my morning and evening train ride to and from work! If you're looking for a thriller that is plotted with quick chases and flashy effects, this may not be for you; but if you're in the mood for something subtler, deeper, more noir-like, more realistic perhaps- then you will find TAKEN to be a very rewarding read.

Well this doesn't appear to be a very popular book, or else readers weren't interested enough to write a review. I would have to agree more closely with reviewer #2. The book was very slow and skipped around so many characters it was difficult to keep them straight. It's a wonder, Gerald,Paul/Frank could keep his story straight he told so many lies. He must have had some talent tho' to be hired by 2 different Universities and didn't seem to lack money, dressed nicely, drove a BMW, etc. The story does make one stop and think tho' about the effort a twisted mind goes to to pull off the subterfuge he did.

Everyone knows that Pittsburgh Doctor Dan Ross is a humanitarian and he proves it to any doubters by funding Pacusset Safe House, a place for young adults in danger to go to for a safe haven and counseling. He is such a good person nobody understands why he was murdered. Although the police have no leads, a determined officer, working on his own time, tries to find Dan's murderer. Dan's wife Elizabeth takes her husband's death hard, withdrawing into herself and rejecting the help of her friends.

She has a new next-door neighbor Frank Razzi, a man who rented the housee just so he could be next to Elizabeth. He spies on her and goes out of his way to be her friend. He has a teaching job in Athens Ohio where he is letting Christie, an eighteen-year-old girl stay there working for him. Both Christie and Elizabeth find out who is has at approximately the same time putting their lives in danger from a man who killed twice before.

By the time readers figure out who Frank really is they will be glued to their chairs, frantically turning the pages to see what he does to the two women he loves and hates. The obsessed police officer is an interesting character, a jaded cop who becomes obsessed with bringing in the killer of a very decent man. Kathleen George has written an engrossing work of psychological suspense that takes into account not only the crime, but also the heartbreak that caused it. She makes it easy to understand the killer even though the audience hates what he has done. FALLEN has one of the most conflicted antagonists this reviewer has ever read about which makes him fascinating in a sorrowful kind of way.

Harriet Klausner

She's from Pittsburgh and describes things so wonderfully. Places she has been, you have been! Great stories too.