9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Connecticut Yankee Go Home, September 19, 1997
This review is from: Gator Aide (Rachel Porter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
Every other character in this 300-page cliché is a cajun, from Jake Santou, the dark, dreamy homicide detective, to Hillard Williams, mayoral candidate and former leader of the local Nazi party. Strangely enough, though, none of the cajuns in this book have French names. There's even a Gonzales, for heaven's sake.
The story is roughly this: when the nude, razored body of Valerie Vaughn, a cajun stripper/prostitute is found next to a dead alligator, the Fish and Wildlife Service is called in (!) to dispose of the `gator corpse. Not content to let Santou and the rest of the New Orleans Homicide detail do their jobs (because they're all crooked and incompetent) Rachel decides to solve the murder herself.
Chief suspect is Hillard Williams, who used to date the stripper. As a matter of fact, he's the only suspect.
If there were such a thing as a "Central Casting" for authors, Jessica Speart would have maxed out her credit cards ordering characters for this book. Her boss, Charlie Hickock, is the tough, hard-drinking loner who refuses to warm up to a woman yankee. Hillard is the blustery southern good-ol'-boy politician who smokes cigars in the office of his opulent, Garden District home. Hillard is married to Dolores, the faded beauty queen who - get this - actually carries around a three-legged French poodle named...Fifi. Gunter Schuess is the sinister German terrorist. Hillard's body is guarded by the hulking Vinnie, an Italian mobster who loves to cook. Oh yeah, Rachel's upstairs neighbor is the gay, transvestite performer, Terri. These characters are nothing more than a potpourri of New Orleans books of the last two years.
Weaker than Speart's casting is her plotting. Whenever Rachel is at a loss for direction, Speart employs the old "Deus ex Machina" trick, dropping Hunky Delroix, a backwoods poacher who seems to know everything, in the middle of the action. For example, Rachel decided she needs to capture Trenton Treddel, her boss' old 'gator-poaching nemesis, in order to get in Charlie's good graces. Charlie, in all his years as a Wildlife agent, has never been able to capture Trenton. Rachel nabs him in a day. How does she do it? She asks Hunky where he lives. Ol' Charlie should have been slapping his forehead over that clever trick.
I wanted to like this book. Honest. The cover, showing a 'gator in bright pink sunglasses made me expect a light, amusing read. Instead, I found myself grumbling through the whole thing. But, his is not the worst book I have ever read. Robert Walker's "Pure Instinct" holds that position, hands down.
The bright spot is that, as the book progressed, I found myself more entertained. It was as though Speart was finding her voice before my very eyes. I think with a better editor and a little more practice, the Rachel Porter series could become a solid staple of the New Orleans mystery genre. Few Spenser fans will admit that Robert B. Parker's "The Godwulf Manuscript" was an unholy mess. But the series grew up as Parker did. Maybe Rachel will turn out okay after all
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Do You Do With A Dead 'Gator?, November 17, 2001
This review is from: Gator Aide (Rachel Porter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
Rachel Porter is a special agent for the US government. Big deal, you say. Been there, done that. However, Rachel is a special agent for the US Fish & Wildlife Service - not one of the typical literary government crime-busting agencies. This allows the author to approach the crime from a completely different direction, which was a nice change of pace.
The characters were interesting. Rachel is a person who is used to running from her problems, and here she's forced to make a choice and decide whether or not to take a stand. Her boss, who initially seemed like a stereotypical boss from hell, has depth to his character. The detective in charge of the investigation is not one of the usual stalwart heroes - there are a lot of dark shadings to his character. The secondary characters all have their own charm.
The story takes place in New Orleans and its surrounding swamplands. Rachel is called in when a dead alligator is found at the scene of a murder - a hooker has beeen ritualistically slashed to death. The story begins with that and then takes off into political corruption, murder, drug running, neo-Nazis, and the Mob. The descriptions of the people, politics and places are vivid and realistic.
This is the first of the Rachel Porter series. I enjoyed this one so much, I bought the sequels.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Slow start but a great book, September 5, 2000
This review is from: Gator Aide (Rachel Porter Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
After a rather sluggish first couple of chapters the book picks up with the murder of a stripper and the discovery of a dead alligator in her bathtub. From that point on the book is hard to put down. The descriptions of the French Quarter are wonderful especially to those who are very familiar with the area. The characters are interesting and develop believably. All the different sidelines tie in to a fairly solid ending
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