Customer Reviews

Garden of Evil (Bookcassette(r) Edition)

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

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed Garden of Evil, the first Edna Buchanan crime novel that I have read. The protagonist, Britt Montero, a reporter for a Miami newspaper who covers the police beat, obviously owes a great deal to Buchanan's own experience as an award winning crime reporter. The story is fast, the characters are interesting and the dialogue is crisp. This is the kind of entertaining read that many readers long for.

On the negative side, the plot is advanced by a series of coincidences that would make Dickens blush. And the fact that the book deals with a serial killer, at a time when the public at large is probably getting sick of that very overused topic, would have been more of a limitation except that this killer is female and her M.O. - leaving her male victims with their pants down and their genitals shot off - will strike an emotional chord, though not the same one, with male and female readers. The ending was something of an anti-climax after the very long and exciting buildup, but I had so much fun in the reading of the book that I didn't even think of that until later.

My wife insists that this is far from the best of Buchanan. If that is true, then her best must be very good indeed. For anyone who likes their crime fiction fast and on the gritty side, this is very entertaining fiction.

Edna Buchanan's latest Britt Montero novel is very different sans the usual suspects; e.g., Cuban patriots and expatriates. This time out, newspaperwoman Britt goes one on one with a female serial killer as she cuts a bloody swath across Florida. Killer Keppie Lee Hutton is about as warped a character as ever penned by the inimitable Ms. Buchanan. Her main criterion for killing is the mere existence of men who, responding to her sexy mannerisms and seductive come-ons, make love to her. Once the deed is done, this gruesome Southern black widow dispatches them painfully and messily. Her progress across the state into Miami, Britt's bailiwick, is charted by the missing vehicle of each new victim, since the previous victims' wheels are always found near the latest crime scene. Sound familiar? Keppie Lee has a dark and deadly past and a shocking family secret which Britt discovers only after she and a small child are taken as hostages on a joy ride from hell. Britt not only has the little boy to protect from Keppie's murderous mood swings, but is forced to fend off Keppie's amorous advances while helplessly watching this sick puppy scope out her new victims. Quick thinking and a 1-time window of opportunity provides Britt exactly 1 chance to save herself and the boy.

Keppie is finally captured in Barbados and, in a jailhouse confrontation back in Miami, reveals to Britt her final secret and ace in the hole, providing for a shocking but ambiguous ending. We may see Keppie Lee Hutton again.

This book is well plotted, quick paced, distressingly plausible and, while perhaps not one of Buchanan's best, is nonetheless highly entertaining and recommended.

A great, galumping read that romps playfully--and scarily--through Florida like a hurricane (author Edna Buchanan did that in another Britt Montera book.) It's all in her funny details, like when she washes ashore in Miami Beach and the Beach police, acccustomed to Cuban or Haitian refugees, asks where she's from as they pluck her from the surf, and she answers, "The Miami News." Buchanan keeps you riveted with twists and turns but never strays too far from the rdiculous ironies of contemporary life, especially as she knows it in Miami and Miami Beach. Who knows as many excruciatingly funny details about crime as the great Edna Buchanan?

Edna Buchanan is a writer with a wonderful conversational style. Five minutes into reading her gripping non-fiction or her Britt Montero books and I feel like I'm back with an old friend. Buchanan doesn't disappoint in Garden of Evil. We are quickly caught up in Britt's hectic business life and almost non-existent personal life. We find her at a low point in her career as she is assigned tedious and demeaning stories and has to fight again to show her bosses what a great reporter she is.

This time she is on the trail of the Kiss Me Killer - a woman who murders sexually predatory men. Things begin to click and Britt is able to connect with the killer. After a disasterous meeting Britt is kidnapped by the killer and unfortunately this is when the books begins to fall badly.

The life seems to go out of the book as Britt becomes a passive captive watching the killer, Keppie, committ mayhem. Maybe there is an inherent problem in having the protagonist of a mystery series be quite so helpless. The same problem seemed to hurt L is for Lawless, Sue Grafton's only Kinsey Milhone misfire. There is also a hideous scene where Britt is aware that Keppie is going to murder a harmless man while Britt takes care of his very young child. Realistically there is probably nothing more that Britt can do but the scene is very creepy and the moral implications of Britt allowing the man to die without putting up more of a fight are never explored. The novel even ends passively with Britt having little to do with the capture of Keppie but again, uncomfortably, having some complicity in the death of another, far less innocent man.

Any book by Edna Buchanan is worth reading. But if you have never read one of her books before, I suggest that you start with an earlier Britt Montero book and come to this one later after you are already addicted to Buchanan's imminently readable prose.

Pam W., a crime writer I knew in college, introduced me to Edna's world. Since then, I've been hooked. I have read every one of Edna's books, including her first, Carr. Her two auto-bios were terrific, fast-paced, excellent. Her first novel, Nobody Lives Forever, was searing. I loved it from the title to the last page. Then came Britt Montero, diva of all Miami journalists. Edna became such an inspiration to me that for one year, I was proud to call myself the college newspaper crime reporter. I kept my faith in Edna, buying her books only days after release, sometimes the day of. I looked forward to where she would take Britt each time another book came out. Before Garden of Evil, I read Pulse, which was a disappointment. Although I will always applaud any writer who experiments outside their form, I don't think Pulse was as accomplished as some of Edna's other books. I've noticed how Edna works the events around her into her books, which I think lend Britt and the plots credibility. These snippets are also, at times, a huge source of humor in Edna's fiction. (Regarding some use of true-life events, there have been some technicalities I could mention, but I'll forgo the nit-picking.) Meanwhile, Garden of Evil has really done for me what the last few books haven't done, which was introduce an archenemy. After Britt did away with the city editor several books ago, with the photographs of the editor in the act while at the workplace, Britt really hasn't had any real conflict, besides her daily deadline. There hasn't been another constant force out there always hovering over her. Without an editor, Britt was just running lose, not kept on track. I have learned that the importance of an editor-nemesis should not be underestimated. Now, there is a cliffhanger, a source of greater anticipation of what will happen next. I now look forward to the next installment with even more interest. I had lost my touch with reading until very recently. Crazy over a broken heart, I started reading a book by by Rona Jaffe, which, after I finished, I followed with Garden Of Evil, which, in turn, lead me to a book by John Kennedy Toole. I can now recall what I loved about reading. The pace of Garden of Evil kept me going on my first real reading splurge in a very long time. Also, as always, there was some wisdom to be gleaned, as Edna really has been there and done that. I highly recommend this book. Good job, Ms. Buchanan.

Britt Montero is back. It is a sizzling Miami summer. Rain is just a memory. Perhaps the heat has addled Montero's (or Buchanan's) brain.

Montero gets hooked up with a different (read female) serial killer. It is literally a long wild ride. As she explains to the four year old who is dragged along for part of it, sort of like Mr. Toad's ride at Disney.

There is something wrong with a book that has you rooting for the bad guy (or in this case gal). Here, the killer is a much more interesting character than the regulars or even the victims. The reader gets the feeling that the child was added in as a character because even Buchanan was developing too much sympathy for the devil.

There is no question that Buchanan can write. Her skillful character development, particularly of characters new to readers saves this book from total disaster. Still, technically there are HUGE glitches. In the version I read one character's last name switches annoyingly from Moran to Mason and back. Have her editors (if not Buchanan) ever HEARD of find and replace?

There is a theme "Evil lives forever" that Buchanan does back flips to endorse. Her thesis that some people just have an "evil gene" is simplistic at best, morally bankrupt if carried to extreme. She claims she cannot explain the killer's actions but for this paradigm. A junior high school student could explain to Buchanan how the killer's formative years as described in the book may have contributed to her behavior.

It is a credit to Buchanan's writing that we can be annoyed by her thesis, irritated by poor editing and still enjoy the read. Would I recommend it to others? Despite all, probably so. But it is NOT Buchanan's best.

Edna Buchanan is back with Britt Montero after a nonseries book. A page-turner about a female serial killer that I couldn't put down.

As an Edna Buchanan and Britt Montero fan I was filled with immense disappointment after reading this one. "Garden of Evil" required more suspension of disbelief than I am capable of. And, Britt's photographer friend at "The News" has become one very annoying character. James Lee Burke and Clive Cussler have proven that a continuing character can get stale and become a parody of itself. It may be time for Edna Buchanan to give Britt a rest and during the pause give us a new protagonist. Then Britt can return refreshed, much like James Robicheaux and Dirk Pitt have after interludes by their authors. Michale Connelly has broken up his Harry Bosch series three times, and that certainly looks like the right way to keep a character vibrant. Edna Buchanan has given us much much better about Miami (and Britt) and is capable of so much more. This is not up to the usual high Buchanan standard.

First there's Britt, our heroine. A self-actualized reporter enjoying her career and her on again/off again affair with a cop. Then there's Althea, the discarded trophy wife whose claims of being in peril are dismissed by everyone, including her family, as a pathetic plea for attention. Then there's Keppie, the sexpot serial killer (perhaps based on Aileen Wornoss -- sp?). What a thrill ride! As a fiction reader, I would have preferred it if Buchanan had tied up the loose ends a bit better -- was Britt ever investigated for the role as Keppie's accomplice, whatever happened to young Joey, does Keppie ever meet what seems to be her ultimate fate? But maybe the author handled it this way because this is how life is ... we don't always get the answers we want when we want them.

At first I found this particular Britt Montero mystery a bit slow. I wasn't sure where it was going, but when it got there -- WOW! Yes, it was a bit farfetched at times, but certainly no more than the most recent Patricia Cornwell books. If anything, Montero and her cohorts are far better company than Scarpetta's clan. Buchanan's writing is consistently witty and clear, devoid of literary pretensions but never illiterate. (For illiterate, check out Gene Hackman's "Wake of the Perdido Star" -- but only if you must.) Anyway, a welcome addition to the catalogue.