Customer Reviews

Glass Houses

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

On the heels of her successful Key West best selling author Stella Cameron has brought back the crafty Aiden Flynn for a suspenseful adventure of his own. In Glass Houses as a master of disguises, Aiden is caught up in a trap not of his own making or is it? When he encourages an ordinary English Miss, through emails, to cross the big pond losing his heart is the least of his worries. Apparently someone is stalking the young women for supposed secrets she may possess and Aiden has unwittingly fallen into a trap someone has set for him as well. Can they be connected?

Aiden, a NYC detective, while in a fellow officer Ryan Hill's apartment to take care of his orchids, uses this man's computer to pick up his own email. What he finds is that Ryan has been corresponding with one Olivia FitzDurham, but under the assumed name of Sam. Added to this, Sam's characteristics mirror those of Aiden. When he digs deeper into the correspondence he finds less and less to his liking. So, against better advice from his own partner Vanni, he sends a few emails in the guise of Sam encouraging Olivia to come to the states. Why he feels he needs to protect her is not clear, but his own suspicions of Ryan's activities are put into high gear.

Olivia FitzDurham is an ordinary English Miss who earns her way as a freelance photographer, but on one of her assignments she apparent has taken pictures she shouldn't have. Even the owner of the place as left for parts unknown and has encouraged Olivia to do the same. However, this is not before Olivia has been contacted to kill the assignment, has someone willing to pay big bucks for the photos but could they be they be willing to kill her as well? A bit naïve and ordinary, Olivia has been pouring out the story to her cyber friend Sam, who has encouraged her to leave London. Alarmingly along the way toward that end she is witness to a subway accident of woman who is curiously dressed like her as well is being followed by a man who is set on paying her for the photos. Is it any wonder she is keen on leaving England to reach America where cyber pal Sam has offered to help, but can she afford his kind of help?

When she arrives in the States it is our hero, in the guise of Sam, who meets her at the airport. Aiden knows that Ryan(Sam) is up to no good but he and his partner aren't sure just what Ryan is involved in, but they know they must protect Olivia from Ryan's scheming. What they are not prepared for is how Ryan and his partner, when they learn that Aiden are on to them, have skillfully implicated both Aiden and Olivia in a crime. Our couple are now on the run from those who after Olivia's photos and the police community who have labeled Aiden a rogue cop. Staying one step of the bad guys is made even more complicated as Aiden has more than brotherly feelings for Olivia.

At times the story seems to bog down with a large cast of villains and it would have been nice to have had a scorecard to keep them all straight, especially as they fought as much with each other as our couple. Aiden, even with his endearing rough edges, at times does not come off in a good light as a hero when he seems to lose it with Olivia's self debasing. She on the other hand is a bit of drab dish rag, who needed a bit more color through thoughts or actions if she was to be deserving of our hero. Because of these quirks or shortfalls in the characters it is hard to understand at times how brilliantly sensual their couplings are. However, this is one area where Ms Cameron is a master and can be forgiven a lot for this often time slow and confusing tale.

I found the first half of the book to be the most enjoyable, but got bogged down near the end as I struggled to finish. For me this story lacked her usual mounting edge-of-the-seat suspense which is crucial to move me along toward a satisfying end. Yet, as a reader (rather than reviewer) I wouldn' t have put the book down as I wanted to arrive at a conclusion that satisfied: this one provided a limited satisfaction lacking her usual style. For Cameron fans, especially those who enjoy her romantic suspense, GLASS HOUSES will be a must read. However, Glass Houses is not the book I would recommend for first time Cameron readers: French Quarter or Key West are books that showcase this exceptionally gifted author's talents making her one of the Queens of Romantic Suspense.

Ultimately, the lesson offered here is to follow her example and carve out your own path.

Jody S. Allen, Reviewer

To the despair of his friend and partner Vani, NYPD detective Aiden Flynn has no social life outside of the cyber-zone. When Aiden's computer goes on the fritz, he goes upstairs to use his neighbor's computer. His neighbor is also a cop who happens to be away on vacation. While going through his e-mail, Aiden finds several notes addressed to FBI agent Sam Ryan from a terrified British photographer Olivia FitzDurham. Aiden thinks his neighbor Ryan, aka Sam, must be dirty and has involved Olivia in something dangerous. Aiden pretends to be Sam and asks Olivia to come to the States so he can protect her.

A series of frightening incidents leads Olivia to conclude she is safer in America than her home in London where people want to buy some worthless photos. Ryan convinces his superiors that Olivia and Aiden are violent criminals and now have all of NYPD chasing after them. Ryan and his cohorts want them dead so Aiden and Olivia flee the city, ring to catch the criminals and clear Aiden and Olivia's name. While on the run they fall in love with each other.

The amazement of a Stella Cameron novel is that her taut romantic thrillers contain offbeat humor that leave the audience laughing yet concerned, and definitely hooked. GLASS HOUSES is one of Ms. Cameron's best works due in part to the innocent heroine caught in someone else's web, the befuddled hero trying to protect her from bumbling crooks, and a dog with iron teeth. This novel is another winner from one of the great authors of the past decade.

Harriet KLausner

The hero in this book, Aiden Flynn, made his first appearance (along with his killer collectible cars) in "Key West". This book is a fast-paced and believable tale of Aiden's rescue of the heroine, chases across country by the villans, a reappearance of the hero and heroine of "Key West". Both Aiden and Olivia are enjoyable characters. The book is not as good as some of Ms. Cameron's earlier contemporaries, but is well worth reading. I buy very few romances in hardback -- Stella Cameron, Jayne Krentz and Linda Howard being the exception. This book is worth every penny!

In Key West I met Aiden Flynn and felt he needed his own story, and when I found out he was getting one I couldnt wait. Glass Houses more then lived up to what I was hoping for. Aiden is in his neighbor's apartment watering his plants while he is away. While there, he decides to check his email and reads messages meant for his neighbor. The woman who is sending him messages is in trouble and is heading for New York, and Aiden goes to the airport to meet her. This book has everything adventure, romance, bumbling criminals who make you laugh, cops turned bad and a sweet dog named Boss. You also get to meet Chris and Sonnie from Key West again and love Aiden's new partner Vanni and his family. Glass Houses is going on my keeper shelf and will definitely be reread more then once.

I normally enjoy Stella Cameron's work. This one is far from her usual impeccable standards. London photographer Olivia Fitzgerald has been told that her photos of an expensive interior are no longer required by the glossy magazine she took them for, but the "kill fee" seems excessively high to her. She is unable to contact her agent, and a ratty little man begins to follow her. She takes steps to evade him and a woman with the same build, raincoat, and red hat is pushed off a subway platform. Frightened, she contacts her new e-mail friend for advice. Meanwhile......back in New York NYPD detective Aiden Flynn is tending the orchids of his colleague and neighbour Ryan Hill who seems to be missing. As his own computer is down, he decides to use Hill's to get into his chat room and somehow gets into Hill's e-mail, where he reads the frightened Olivia's letters.( Don't these people use passwords?) As he is convinced that Hill is dishonest, and it's obvious that he's fed Olivia a lot of untruths, Aiden suddenly is overtaken with unlikely chivalry and advises Olivia to come to New York where he'll protect her. Olivia flees London, where she seems to conveniently have no friends, into Aiden's arms, still thinking he is her original e-mail friend. The plot gets murkier and more confusing with every turn. Even after all was supposedly unraveled I still couldn't figure out why the protagonists had to go to Seattle and London. And there is a meeting of the bad guys in some big city and it is absolutely not explained how in the world Aiden knows exactly where and what time they plan to meet. I have no idea how one of the bad guys got murdered in Seattle, let alone by who. As Aiden and Olivia are being closely tracked and the crooks always know exactly where they are, the villain of the piece is obvious, although why he'd take such a course is not very convincing. A murder in Olivia's London home is unexplainable. Ms. Cameron's loose ends are very, very tangled. Perhaps if I read the book again I could come up with the answers, but as this was not one of Stella's stellars, I can't be bothered.

I really enjoyed Glass Houses. I was taken on a fun, wild ride with all the story's twist and turns. I kept changing my mind about who the bad guys were and was surprised by the ending. I am very glad I didn't wait for the paperback. Ms Cameron has the perfect mix of Mystery and Romance.

This was my first book by Stella Cameron and let me tell you, I was not impressed. Maybe I went into this book with a lot of expectations...but hey, this book left me confused and mystified.

Glass Houses, is a story about a photographer, Olivia FitzDurham, whose on the run because she is being wrongly framed for an art theft. Aiden Flynn is a NYPD homicide detective who "accidentally" trips over her e-mails to his neighbor and fellow NYPD detective Ryan Hill.

So many things bothered me about this book. What in the world does the title "Glass Houses" have anything to do with the story line? There is no mention of it what so ever and even though it's a nice sounding title, it has no revelant meaning. Second, the plot was very confusing. I only figured out why they were on the run during the middle of the book. The beginning of the book wasn't catchy and it took a while for it to get started. And what is with Olivia FitzDurham? Why in the world is she portrayed as a sniveling airheaded female? I imagine not all women from England are like that but... she really does appear to be a poor character, especially with her constant apologizing for things that weren't her fault. And the characters were poorly developed. There were too many "bad guys" that is was too hard to keep tract of them all. And in the end, the bad guy was no surprise because you knew who the bad guys were from the beginning. And all the bad guys were all bad guys. That was weird. Usually in a mystery/suspense novel, the reader is lead to think that some characters are the bad guy but in the end they're not. But in this book, they all were...

The only good thing I could say about this book was the relationship between the two main characters, Aiden and Olivia. They had a relationship that I could admire, but wouldn't. The relationship was well developed and the tension b/w those two lasted through the whole book.

All in all, not recommended.

This is my first Stella Cameron novel and it may be my last. I gave the book's first 100 pages the benefit of the doubt but then I started skipping pages, then chapters and finally decided that I didn't care what happened to the characters and skimmed to the end. The storyline of a Brittish photographer who flees to a NYPD detective for help after meeting online wasn't convincing and didn't flow. I found myself asking "why would they do that?" a lot. I couldn't get into the characters and found the dialogue boring.

An extremely enjoyable and entertaining book. I loved Aiden, a real heck of a guy, and Olivia, although sometimes she tried too hard to hide her lights under the bushel. Suspenseful and interesting characters throughout. I will go for "Key West" next and any other book by Stella Cameron I can find.

Glasshouses falls down for me in the rather cliched (American)portrayal of Olivia as a supposedly eccentric Englishwoman. She calls her parents 'Mummy' and 'Daddy.' Ick. Honestly, who does this past the age of 5 to 7 years today? The numbers of adult people who do this today must surely be getting smaller...some UK upper class, some southern US states? The rest of us just cringe. Add this to her poor clothes sense, and being considered 'wacky,' and it adds up to a sense of her as someone to whom you want to say 'grow up!'

The dialogue is corny as another review has noted. Not only for the English characters, but also the New York cops. Olivia's mother says, for example, that she is 'bemused' by Olivia. It just doesn't read as something most people in the English-speaking world would say today.

The dialogue and characerisations give a cliched and somewhat old fashioned view of English people (twee upper class dialogue, darling) juxtaposed with a cliched view of New York cops.