Customer Reviews

Hotline to Murder

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

 

 

In a departure from his senior citizen Lillian Morgan mysteries Alan Cook introduces Tony Schmidt, an aging frat boy living in Bonita Beach, California. Volunteering at a suicide hotline to develop his communication skills and aid his job as a marketing manager for Bodyalternatives.net, Tony discovers that dealing with the emotional backlash of suicidal callers is the least of his problems. Tony is uncomfortably attracted to the seventeen year-old volunteer Shahla, and when her friend and hotline listener is murdered Shahla pulls him into an investigation despite his inclination to leave things to the police. As the two track down their weirder callers and fellow volunteers all the way to Vegas Tony must also cope with his irritatingly immature roommate and confront his growing suspicion as to his college friend's involvement with the murder.

Cook has created a very engaging hero in Tony, who realizes that has to grow up fast as he encounters the pain of the callers and sees just how much that he himself has to lose. Shahla is at times wiser than her years while still flashing glimpses of being a teenage girl, and her impulsiveness nicely contrasts with Tony's reserve. This is a very entertaining mystery that builds up speed and takes the reader along to its surprising conclusion.

Not long after Tony Schmidt joins the Central Hotline in Bonita Beach, California, Joy is found murdered. Both are listeners-people who man the Hotline and talk to the callers. Tony pairs up with Shahla Lawton, another listener and Joy's best friend.

They begin working many shifts together. Since Tony and Shahla work at the Hotline, they find they can often get information the police are unable to obtain. But instead of turning everything over to the police, they begin to follow up on much of the information themselves. Partly because the police don't seem too receptive to the information and partly because of privacy rules.

They begin looking into some of the inappropriate callers and others with a connection to the Hotline to determine who might have had a motive to kill Joy. There are many strange people and they have to sift through information to determine if the person is just having trouble or if they might have a motive to have killed Joy.

Tony and Shahla put themselves in many very sticky situations and find themselves in peril more than once as they work to uncover the identity of the killer.

This is a great story. It moves along quickly and keeps you guessing as to who committed this murder and why. There are plenty of red herrings and things happen regularly that made me change my mind continuously about who I thought did it.

I really enjoyed getting to know Tony and Shahla. Even though Shahla is only a teenager, she is such an integral part of this story. Their relationship is terrific. I hope there will be more books with these two main characters.

This story is well crafted and the California setting terrific. I highly recommend this book.

Through the vehicle of hotline encounters and deviations from protocol, Cook's cast of characters will keep you psychologically intrigued to the very last page. Terrific!

I discovered this author by first reading "Thirteen Diamonds." Have ordered all of his books on my Kindle as a result. Enjoyed this one as well. It's fun; I like his writing style. Because I'm a walker, I am looking forward to reading his walking book. (Actually the book doesn't walk, the topic is about walking.)

The is the very first book that I have read by Alan Cook. The book started off slow but didn't remain that way. It was a good fun read. I had issues at certain parts. 1)Tony is a mid 30's male that sometimes is lusting after a soon to be 18 years old female. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Even though their relationship was platonic, her mother not knowing him pretty much allowed him to have free rein with her. 2) What appears to me to be the gratuitous reference to 911. 3) Having a character who has never spoken with, had history or experience with the "nanny" in this story allude to a nanny in California being a Spanish speaker. Not all nannies are Spanish speakers. Not all nannies speak Spanish. These are a few of the instances where I shook my head.

Overall it's not a bad book. It was fun. I plan to read more by Alan Cook.

Tony Schmitt,an aging frat-brother, volunteers at a hotline. One of the teenage volunteers is murdered. Tony teams up with Shahla Lawton, another teenager who has been close to the dead girl. The chase turns into a hunt for Shahla.

The hotline setting gives a good twist to the traditional mystery. Fun--and informative--read!

Not everyone can be a listener on a crisis hotline. It takes a special type of person to listen to people who are anxious, depressed or suicidal. In addition, all hotlines have a certain percentage of callers who are "inappropriate." They use the lines to get off, sexually or emotionally, because they can't relate to people face to face. This book skillfully portrays the problems that hotline listeners face, and it isn't a stretch to picture one of them as a murderer.

Because of the subject matter, the book won't be everyone's cup of tea. In addition to the societal misfits who are the callers, it features a character who claims to be able to predict the the timing of the end of days, or rapture, whatever you want to call it. This is also a sensitive issue, but I thought it was handled well. I enjoyed the book.

I liked Hotline by Alan Cook. It had a good storyline and it pretty much kept me guessing till the end. I had an idea of who the murdered was, but kept second guessing myself. He should keep writing. I look forward to reading another by him soon.

Although it has been some time since I read this story, its vivid descriptions have stayed with me. The author does a marvelous job of describing the Southern California beach city setting, so much so that while driving on Sepulvida two months ago, I saw a drab three-story stucco commercial building and simply knew that it must be the building that houses the call-center. Also typically Southern Californian, the car chase contained endless minutes at a jam-packed intersection with the driver cursing himself for chosing the wrong route.
Overall, Hotline is an entertaining story that keeps the pages turning.

I have never entered a review before, but this book was so bad I had to stop you from wasting your time. I tried to enter a 0 rating but I guess 1star is as low as you can go. The reviews were mixed, but I bought this book anyway because I run a call center and I thought perhaps that would make it more interesting for me. Total waste of time, can't believe that the type A in me wouldn't just let me quit half way through. I kept thinking the "real" storyline was yet to be introduced, or maybe some interesting plot twist was coming. Boring characters, unrealistic scenarios. I will never read another book by this author.