Customer Reviews

Hemlock Bay

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(45)

 

 

This is possibly the worst book I've ever read. This had some of the worst dialogue I've ever read and most of the details in the book were used multiple times and were completely unnecessary. The story was completely implausable and offered no explanation as to any information behind the supernatural phenomenon. Not even the characters in the book are confident enough to state that the criminal had supernatural powers or if she was just some david Copperfield wanna-be. What was up with the cartoonist sister who drew some terrible comic strip. An androgenous computer, an androgenous criminal? Crazy swedes. Sure, I like to suspend my beliefs and enjoy out of this world stories, but this was just garbage. After 5 pages I knew that it was bad, but was compelled and perversely curious as to how bad the book could really get. I should've stopped after the five pages. How is that a NYT bestseller? No one in that books should be named sherlock unless it's someone looking for talents because Ms. Coulter doesn't have any.

Having read other books by Coulter, I looked forwqard to this, BUT was greatly disappointed. It was unbelievable..even as science fiction (which it should have been touted as). There wasn't any resolution, the characters did not ring true, and the F.B.I. depictions were unrealistic and oversimplified. In case you haven't guessed nt now, i thought this book was awful..and a waste of my time and money.

The latest in the series featuring FBI agent Dillon Savich and his wife Lacey Sherlock involves two subplots: a kidnapping of two teenage boys and the apparent suicide attempt of Dillon's younger sister Lily. Lily's daughter died in an accident 7 months ago, and she has been depressed and distraught since then, but her brother and sister-in-law believe that she is not suicidal and that someone is trying to kill her.

The complicated plot involves Lily's second husband, who apparently is not as sincere and loving as he pretends to be, Simon Russo, art broker, and the invaluable paintings, now worth millions, left to Lily by her grandmother.

The subplot involving the counterfeit paintings is interesting and believable, and the developing relationship between Lily and Simon is worked out to a satisfactory conclusion; however the plot involving the kidnappings and the bizarre, evil woman who ruthlessly preys on innocent victims is incredibly weird and contrived and not well integrated with the rest of the book.

The author should have developed one plot or the other, but not both in the same book. Some of the characters are not well developed, the dialogue is stiff and contrived, and some aspects of the plot just plain silly. Fortunately, I borrowed this book from the library, so it wasn't a waste of money as well as a waste of time!

I just finished reading this book over the last three days and I feel like I wasted valuable personal time. This latest installment of Savich & Sherlock was a real disappointment.

The story finds our daring duo on the trail of a serial killer who is either male or female, has supernatural skills and can only be seen in her true form by secret agent man, Dillon Savich. I've never been a fan of mixing supernatural hocus-pocus with suspense. It never seems to add to the believability. Are their killers who seem superhuman and are hard to catch...of course but magically disappearing from crime scenes is lame. It also gives our hero and heroine less validity as top crime fighters.

The major reason to keep reading the book is the sub-plot of Lily Frasier's stolen artwork. Lily is Dillon's sister and has survived an abusive husband, her daughter's death, a new marriage where she has supposedly tried to commit suicide twice, and just had her grandmother's paintings stolen. Enter a college friend of Dillon's, Simon Russo. He is an art broker and helps Lily track down the true whereabouts of her grandmother's paintings. I liked the underworld of forged and stolen art by ruthless collectors. This really should have been the story.

I hope that the next installment is written with more care since this is definitely the weakest book in the series so far.

Despite amatuerish dialog, poor character development, and contrived plots, I had to finish reading this book to see how the author would resolve the storyline of the one-armed, telepathic, mass-hypnotizing, demon-summoning, male-impersonating mass-murderer. I'd hoped for something better. It was so bad, I could only laugh.

This author does not believe in question resolution and left many large and small plot items unresolved (e.g., what was the Tammy/Timmy thing all about, was her power based on mass hypnotism/telepathy, what gives with the whirling dust-bunny demons, how did Lily's daugher die, why would the FBI have a spouses working so closely together, what prompted the FBI agent's wife to conclude that her husband could see through Tammy's illusions if he only got close enough without any example of this happening to anyone let alone her husband, what possible explanation is there that the FBI agent's sister would be able to see through Tammy's illusions when no one else could, will anyone ever explain to Marilyn the real meaning of half and full sisters, etc.).

This leads to the biggest unresolved question of all, which is how a repeat author generated such trash. It's definitely not good fiction and it doesn't qualify as a spoof of the genre either. It's just bad. This book would be an excellent text to use for illustrating novel-writing pitfalls to budding writers - there are at least a semester's worth of examples. I'm inclined to agree with the other reviewer who speculated that this book was authored by a ghost-writer. No one who writes this badly could have published dozens of books.

If you've got a lot of time on your hands and need a teeny-tiny laugh, this book'll do it. Otherwise, I'd encourage you to spend your money elsewhere.

If Catherine Coulter wrote this book, I'll eat it! It is the last of her books that I will ever buy. I can only agree with the other reviews in that there is no chemistry between any of the characters and the plots, sub-plots, and sub-sub-plots were absolutely so convoluted as to be impossible. I am a proofreader and, therefore, it is extremely difficult for me to read anything without proofing it. This book was so bad that I literally took out my "blue pencil" as well as a highlighter and began marking it up (so much for foisting it off on some unsuspecting used book store). Marilyn is supposed to be illiterate yet her speech is not consistent. Bad grammar where it shouldn't be is as glaring a good grammar where it shouldn't be. And "all the way to [whatever]" was too redundant and boring. All the way to her bones, glad to his soul, etc. Too much telling each other what they already knew or what they had already done or already said. With appologies in advance to Ms. Coulter's husband...did you edit this in your sleep? Maybe its because I loved Ms. Coulter's earlier books that I just found so much wrong with this one. Too many mistakes, too often. For instance, on page 201 Vincent Arbus is referred to as "bald as a Q-tip." It should have been "cue ball." The only thing that would save this book is for it to be re-written. You'll never convince me that Catherine Coulter even read this book, let alone wrote it. It had to have been "ghosted."

Catherine Coulter's new mystery Hemlock Bay brings back two of my favorite characters, Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, who are now married and have a child, Sean. Savich's sister,Lily, is in a terrible mess which involes her husband of 18 months,his parents and her Sarah Elliot paintings. Lily is helped by a friend of her brother's ,Simon Russo, who is an art dealer of sorts and discover's that four of Lily's paintings have been stolin and replaced with very good forgeries. Savich and Sherlock are also on the trail of the Tuttle brother's who kidnap young boys and then kill them. The Tuttle brother's are not what they seem. The supernatural highjincks involve the Tuttle's and and unknown force only known as the Ghouls. Overall I enjoyed the book. It was a fast read and fun. Ms. Coulter is getting better with her modern mysteries. I do enjoy her historical romance novels more but, I am becoming a fan of her modern mystery novels as well.

I picked this book up at the library on the day they received it, since it was on display at the entrance of Borders so must be good, right? Wrong. I have never written a review before but just felt that this book was so bad that I wanted to save people the time and effort of getting it. The only reason I finished it was because it was the fastest read I have ever seen, since the language was so insipid that it was as if a high school student had written it for an English project. The two unrelated and poorly resolved plots,were not believable at all, and one kept hoping that something would happen, but nothing ever did. The author jumps back and forth between the plots so many times that you have to read the titles of the chapters or subchapters to know where you are, and after a while you don't really care! This book makes John Grisham look like a genius. THere are so many good books out there-find a different one to enjoy.

I purchased this book for two reasons. First it was on the NYT Bestsellers list. Second it was a FBI thriller. Frankly, it was stupid. I couldn't get over the fact that a publishing house had actually spent money to publish this book. At one point in the story you are reading about being on an airplane and the next sentence jumps to talking about sleeping in a house somewhere, with so-n-so down the hallway. What? When did they get off the plane? Did the author forget to go back and correct the story line? Did anyone bother to proof this book?

I was greatly disappointed with this author. I was excited to find a new author, one who had a number of books written, as I am a fast reader and read everything by an author. Unfortunately, I will not buy another book by this author.

I find it difficult to believe Ms.Coulter actually is a best-selling author! This book was probably among the worst I have ever read. The plot was unbelievable; characters were unbelievable; and paying any kind of money for this book is most unbelievable! Even if you can borrow it for free, don't bother.