Customer Reviews

The Harbor

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

 

 

Carla Neggers has once again given us a story with great characters, fast pace dialogue,an intriguing, suspenseful plot, and as always a hero to sigh over. I have yet to be disappointed in anything written by Ms. Neggers. She gets better and better with each book. Its easy to see why The Harbor made the New York Times bestseller list, as well as The USAToday top list. If you're looking for a good book to read, you can't go wrong with The Harbor. Its money well spent.

This is the first novel that I have read by Carla Neggers. While I do not find her prose to be a sophisticated as say Iris Johansen, I am a big fan of mystery romance, and Carla Neggers can spin a tale. I have a six month old daughter so my choices in literature have run to books that are not that difficult to read and keep up with, but still hold the reader in suspense (and a little bit of romance doesn't hurt when your at home alone all day with a baby!). I was pleasantly surprised by this book and intend to read more of Ms. Neggars works.

This book engrossed me from the beginning, both the characters and the locale were intriguing. The combination of family tensions and the mystery gives it depth and poignancy. The writing is crisp, the descpritions vivid, the page turning unavoidable. You find yourself intrigued and engaged until the very end.

This is the first book I have read by Carla Neggers and it may be my last. The story has been pretty well summarized by previous reviewers so I won't repeat that here.

I found Ms Neggers creation of the little harbor town in Maine (not Vermont) to be very compelling. It was almost like being there on a terrific visit. This and the fairly fast paced mystery kept me reading to the end.

Unfortunately, I found the characters sort of static. Both the hero, JB and the heroine, Zoe were drawn very well - with lots of unresolved personal issues that had tons of potential for development; alas, that's all it was: "potential", very little character development took place.

I also enjoyed watching the mystery unfold, although I twigged the probable villan early on - due to lack of believable alternatives. There were lots of potential suspects, but most - to me at least - were too sterotyped to be the real bad guy.

What really turned me off - and why I probably won't read any more books by this author - is that the motive for the crime came out of "left field". Unless I missed something pretty subtle, there were no clues to be followed. Which is pretty ironic, when Zoe muses on why she enjoys her deceased Great Aunt Olivia's books so much: the "basic premise" behind them is that "Jan Periwinkle" - Great Aunt Olivia's fictional detective - solved her mysteries "by following clues"!

Ah well - at least I finished it; I have no desire whatsoever to re-read it though and for me that's what makes a keeper.

This seemed like the perfect book to take on vacation to Maine. Indeed the descriptions and daily lives evoke Southern Maine quite well.
Neggers uses some of Mary Higgins Clark's techniques to give you the inner thinking of possible villans. It does keep me guessing, but I eventually found the linking of clues and characters not well plotted (or else I missed something vital).
More satisfying, was the developing romance between the vacationing FBI agent and Zoe, who'd lost her police career. The supplemental characters, including Zoe's sister and the 101 year old aunt who wrote mysteries, add depth to the story.
I look forward to trying another book by this author.

I really like this book the last couple of books of CN have been a 3 stars but this one you can tell she's back to the older books she has. It was worth the money...

I gave this thre stars because it is average. There's nothing terrible about the story of an ex cop determined to find her father's killer and to get her life back on track. Zoe West has abandoned her career and fled from her home town, but now she is back to confront her demons. Just her luck FBI agent J. B. McGrath is 'vacationing' in Goose Harbor and together they tackle the case and eachother. Its ordinary stuff and Negger's fans might enjoy but she'll get no new readers from this one.

This is book #4 in this 4 book series & my advice would be to read the first 3 & that's all. The first 3 were tied together quite a bit by many different people but this book did not have any people from the books in it at all with the exception of Zoe herself which made a small appearance in the last book.

After meeting Zoe in book #3 I didn't really care for her & I wasn't hyped up for her book & J.B. never really captured my interest either. Usually I like many of the other characters in the books but in this book everybody was a suspect & you really couldn't find yourself liking any of them. I thought there was too much going on in this mystery of who was the bad guys & why. Seemed like everyone was a bad guys for one reason or another & the reasoning behind it all & the connections were just too much. And then when it came down to the final suspense scene the main bad guy wanted to shoot 2 people & he could've because no gun was pointed at him but he didn't. Just didn't make sense.

I really enjoyed the first 3 books in this series but I highly recommend skipping this last one. You aren't missing anything. The 3rd book could've been the finale & you'd have never known differently.

I agree totally with reviewer "stiminey2". She summed up every thought I have about the book. I was tempted to count how many times she referred to the meddling FBI agent. I haven't finished it yet but I did read the last chapter so I now how it ends, it just takes way too long to get there. So slow, never sizzled at all IMHO.

My first Carla Neggers book and my last. There are so many things wrong with this book I don't even know where to begin. First off we'll tackle the writing style. She beats a dead horse to a pulp with every character. I can't stand author's who insist upon repeating a characters first and last name so often it feels like a Bob Dole speech. Then not only does she constantly repeat each characters first and last name so often, she repeats their past histories so much it practically consumes half the novel, like reminding us over and over that JB is from Montana and is the long lost grandson of Olivia's friend Posey and a "loose cannon" FBI agent, that Zoe is a failed cop who ran away to Connecticut, that Chris is obsessed with her Cafe, that Kyle is a spoiled rich kid, that Luke is a hypocondriac, Betsy is an RN who once worked for Olivia but is now leadina blase life with Luke, Stick was the town Judge, Teddy is an ex-con with an arsenal in the backseat, Bruce is a lobsterman who has the hots for Chris. Those tidbits are CONSTANTLY repeated so often you just get sick to death of it. Then there is the weak love connection between Zoe and JB. The scenario setup for them is just unrealistic unless you count it as a weekend what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas one night stand, but yet we are supposed to expect it to be romantic? An ex-cop who gives it up that easy for a perfect stranger is just nauseating. Then we have the Jen Perriwinkle bit that eats up another chunk of the book. Jen Perriwinkle is to this story as Nancy Drew is to us in real life. It adds no value to the story, but yet we get bombarded with the pounding home that Olivia West created Jen Perriwinkle...good for her, but it's irrelevant to repeat it so dang much. Then there is the whole small town hates snooping FBI agents and if you are an FBI agent don't come here because we will hate you and get all suspicious of you stirring up trouble. Gag. A small town who is so dead set on an unsolved murder to just get swept under the rug, but yet supposedly loves our heroine Zoe so much that they like seeing her suffer and fail. Sounds to me like a place I'd never want to set foot in let alone have it be the setting of a budding romance. All in all this book was a complete waste and I skimmed through the last half of the book just to see "who did it" and it was no suprise. That person stood out from the get go. This book lacked in every way and there are far better reads to be had.