Customer Reviews

Gray Matter

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

 

 

I'm a big fan of suspense, so when a friend told me to check out this book, I got it right away because I'm always looking for new authors. This book blew me away! It is one of the best written, most creative, and most suspenseful books I've read, and I've gone through a lot of them. You can't go wrong here. The main character PJ Gray is a real woman, not a cardboard creation, and her sidekick Leo Schultz deserves a series of his own. Kennett provides a view into the mind of one of the most interesting and evil villains I've come across.

I read Firecracker first then looked for this one. I'm hooked. The good guys are refreshing, Leo is not a drunk with a cigarette dangling from his mouth and PJ is a real life career woman, not a pseudomale in drag. The killer is REAL bad. His killing is not for the squeamish, as if any of it is acceptable. I was riveted. I am not generally a detective novel fancier, but these I like. Look forward to number 3.

One of the 5-10 best psychological thrillers I've read. Gory, but fascinating. Good as Red Dragon and Lawrence Sanders's Deadly Sins series.

Her orignal in her great series! Don't miss her 4th in the series of P. J. written under the name of Avery Morgan titled Act of Betrayal!

It's been years since I've read a good thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I saw a comparison of Shirley Kennett to Patricia Cornwell, and I agree. Gray Matter is a smart, thrilling, fast paced read. It's not a romantic suspense, but rather a gritty, mystery and crime novel where the reader is taken into the world of a serial killer.

P.J., the main character, is smart, compassionate and feisty. Her new partner is a grizzled experienced detective who joins her team only because he wants to get back out in the field to work. He took awhile to grow on me, but then I truly liked him as he learned to work with P.J. and they found common ground.

This is the first book in a series, and it's not for the faint of heart, but it's fascinating and kept me reading nonstop. Fans of Kathy Reiches and John Sanford will also love Gray Matter.

For a first in the series this was a pretty good book. The characters are likable, we all know a cafe owner/waitress like Millie, we all know a sexist cop like Schultz and we know the divorcee-new career-new single parent Mom like PJ. We, if we are lucky, have not met any serial killers like Pauley Mac, The Dog. Although Dr. PJ Gray is supposed to be a computer whiz psychologist and Leo Schultz is supposed to be a 20 year veteran cop, they miss clues that play, dance, hum and hang before their eyes. The killer stands across the counter from them and hums the "Star Spangled Banner" in the same note he did on the crime scene video, and they don't notice. They discuss the case in detail while eating the food he has prepared for them, and considering he lives on a diet of victim's, brains you would think PJ and Leo would be more careful about who cooks for them.

I enjoyed this book as a good "airplane read." It's short and simplistic and, despite the gory subject material, is mindnumbing enough to make it a good 'time-killer.' It requires no thought on the part of the reader.

What I disliked was the heroine. This deified 'single mom' takes her 12 y.o. son out of state so she can take a lower-paying job because SHE doesn't want to run into her ex and new wife at the market. When her new lower-paying, out-of-state job puts her son in harm's way, she immediately capitulates to her 12 y.o.'s whims and sends him to live with a stranger without ever discussing it with the boy's dad or offering him the opportunity to care for the child. Very nice. I suspect the heroine is a reflection of the author, and it shows in the self-satisfaction the heroine projects.

At first I was bored with the "Silence of the Lambs" theme. Then, somehow, I became engaged with PJ and Leo. They did seem like "real" folks...I especially found it refreshing to find a female main character who is not reed thin and actually likes to eat milkshakes, coffeecake and burgers and fries!! But.....was anyone else disturbed at the lack of concern she seemed to have over her home being burgalized and vandalized??? She didn't change the locks? Get a security alarm put in or at least beef up what little security she had (Leo could have helped her there)? I found that highly unrealistic. ANNNNDDDDDD..... she's home all alone after the break-in, and there's a knock on the door. Does she go to the door and ask who is it? No. Does she go to the door and look through the peephole? No. Does she peek out of a curtain? No. What does she do? She stays put and yells, "it's open!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid.