Customer Reviews

Hush

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A few months ago I was browsing Amazon.com in search of some new thrillers to read. I was particularly interested in reading debut novels, picking along the way Danielle Girard's "Savage Art" and Bruce Elliot's "Still Life". I was recommended HUSH and after seeing what it was about and reading one or two reviews I decided to give it a shot.

Am I glad I did.

I must say I didn't have much hopes, with the typical storyline of the serial killer on one side and the tough detective aided by the out-of-town female profiler who hides her horrible past. First thing that comes to my mind with novels like these is that the lead characters are going to be living a secret affair by the middle of the novel (this has happened, for example, in Tami Hoag's "Night Sins" and at least two of the books in Kay Hooper's "Shadows" trillogy). Then the suspense is sometimes just opaqued by the romantic element.

Big surprise, that does not happen, and that's just one of the things that make this a great read. Despite of course there ARE some traces of interest between Max and Ivy the novel always keeps the focus on the case and -this being another winner in this novel- on the characters' personal conflicts.

Thus Ivy, Max and the Madonna Murderer are skillfully portrayed, though the best are Max, with the love for a son who doesn't love him back, and the killer, with remarkable glances at his twisted mind.

Other interesting characters are Abraham Sinclair who appears briefly but who I feel I know so much about and Ethan with his teenage conflict with life and the way he feels alone in the world. Yes, Ethan sometimes appears as a selfish brat, but who can deny most teenagers behave like that?

Now, I am not saying this is the best thriller I've ever read. I really haven't thought about which one it is to begin with. But I can undoubtely say it's one of the best I've read this year (along with Jeffery Deaver's "The Bone Collector"). The book in my opinion has a few flaws but the work as a whole more than makes up for them.

I strongly recommend it.

I read my first Lisa Gardner book because of a little blurb on the cover saying that Tess Gerritsen said something good about it. I picked up Hush by Anne Frasier because of a quote on the cover by Lisa Gardner. If it's good enough for Lisa, it's good enough for me. I certainly wasn't disapointed. This was a great book with a truly twisted, sicko bad guy. Other reviewers mentioned that there was no wrap up to the book. I went and re- read the ending thinking I had missed something, because it seemed to me that all the loose ends had been taken care of. It seemed pretty clear what the futures of the main characters held. Anyway, this is the first Anne Frasier book I have read and it will not be the last. I loved it. Borders on being 5 star worthy. I'm kind of hoping we get to see Max Irving and Ivy Dunlap together again to solve another crime. Good job, Anne Frasier.

18 years ago, a killer ravaged Chicago killing unwed mothers and their infant sons. A total of 13 women and babies were killed in the rampage, and the killer was never caught. The Chicagp PD named the killer the Madonna Murder, after the Virgin Mary. But unknown to the killer, one of the women survived. And 18 years when the crimes resurface, a woman with a different name and no past returns to find the man who ended the life of her son. With the help of Detective Max Irving, Ivy Dunlap gets on the case. But the search to find the killer will take her to places she never thought she could go.

With a damaged heroine, an original and terrifying villan, HUSH is a fantastic freshman effort which covers new ground with the serial killer plot. An entirely absorbing plot, HUSH is required reading for the thriller buff. One might want to settle down in front of the fire just to read it in one sitting to get all the clues together.

Anne Frasier's Hush is the best crime/thriller/suspense novel I've read in a long time. Very tight plot line. All questions are answered at the end, yet like real life not everything can be tied up pretty with a red ribbon. Some things are left open ended, but this talented author leads the reader so that they can definitely read between the lines and come up with their own satisfying solutions. The main characters are complex with the same problems real people have. I found myself relating to some of the same issues that Ivy and Max faced on an emotional level. Of course not on the same twisted psycho level! The Killer is not some cardboard cookie cutout bad guy, this guy has real issues! A very complex and frighting character, but one that at times evokes the readers sympathy. Of course he is really crazy and must be stopped! This is fiction, and fiction at it's best. It will keep you entertained until the very end. Some books just go on and on, blah blah blahing, but this storyline keeps jumping ahead and keeps the readers interest, not easy to do with so much on the bookshelves to choose from in this day and age. You will not be disappointed with Hush. I am currently ready Sleep Tight and that story is just as promising as Hush. Anne Frasier is a welcome and refreshing author to this genre! I will continue to buy and enjoy her novels.

Anne Frasier has delivered a very nice freshman effort with this book. The book flows easily and reads quickly. Ms. Frasier took two uncommon approaches that I particularly enjoyed:

1) Many of the secondary characters were fleshed out with unsympathetic characteristics, and the primary characters were similarly "blessed" with ambiguous, less-than-angelic motivations and actions.

2) Many tangential characters appeared, then did not return. For a reader used to seeing every single character reappear to have loose ends wrapped up at the end of the typical book, this realistic portrayal of life was much appreciated.

For example, the scene taking place in the bagel shop adds more realism to the book than any amount of police jargon could, even though it's completely irrelevant to the main story. Do I really need the co-worker showing up later as a witness or victim? No, I don't, and in this book, you don't get that.

This book is a very quick, very enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

Anne Frasier writes a high stakes, fast-paced tale with strong characters to make it a journey you won't forget. And what impressed me even more is that she does a great job with the details! She obviously knows her stuff when it comes to crime and police procedure and spoon feeds her readers to add texture to the story. The protagonists are both real, with real problems and that, too, adds to the books authenticity. Nicely done!

Frasier hasn't really added anything new to the serial murderer genre, but she has managed to inject it with mutlifaceted characters and a rather chilling examination of a murderer's mind.

Fleeing for her life after a brutal assualt which leaves her child dead, criminal psychologist Ivy Dunlap returns to Chicago, the scene of the crime, with a new identity to finally put a stop to the madman who changed her life forever almost twenty years ago. Aiding her in the mission is Max Irving, a veteran homicide cop with Quantico training, who has no idea who Ivy really is and is having problems of his own with his adopted teenage son, Ethan...who looks remarkably like Ivy. Unique to Frasier's characterization is that, at times, the protagonists aren't all that likeable. The plot progresses in a fairly predictable fashion, with some genuinely surprising twists, to a satisfying denouement, which leaves some red herrings as exactly that.

So basically, you have a very suspenseful, if mildly predictable thriller, with characters who surprise you, a killer who truly is diabolical, and some plot twists that will actually take your breath away. All in all, good fun and highly recommended. I look forward to future offerings from this author.

This book has so much to offer the reader who enjoys suspense. I picked up this book and could not put it down until I read the last page. I felt like I was part of the team trying to track this serial killer of new moms and their baby boys. I think Anne Frasier has a hit on her hands and I can not wait until March 2003 for the next book.

I got this book based on the reader reviews. I was hoping for a good suspense novel. I can say that it was fairly suspenseful after it got going, but it didn't quite do it for me. First off, it was too wordy. Many times I found myself skipping the boring descriptions to find the suspenseful stuff. It just seemed to drag on a bit too much with non essential information. Second, it didn't have any good twists in the plot or surprise ending that made you go WOW. Thirdly, and probably the most annoying thing of all was how it left you hanging. Not just like there was another story plot that could be made into a sequel, but like it was missing the epilogue. The story line wasn't completed, the characters didn't have any sort of resolution and it made me frustrated. I got her second novel as well thinking that the characters would be in that one as well and answer some of the questions left at the end, but it doesn't. I have to say that if this is how Anne Frasier is going to write, I won't ever read another one of her novels. She has potential, but needs some reader input before writing anymore. In all fairness, I will say that she did her research well, but once again, it was a little to wordy. She did have a knack of keeping you turning the pages, but it only led to a great let down at the end. If you like books that Keep you turning the pages, give you twists and turns throughout, has a touch of romance in as well, and then and leaves you in complete suspense until the very end only to stun you even more, than try reading Iris Johansen. Start with the Face of Deception. That is the first one in the Eve Duncan series. The Killing game is the next and that is the best by far. Iris Johansen will not leave you dissappointed as Anne Frasier does in HUSH.

I picked up "Hush" when it was free, being a long-time fan of serial killer crime fiction, and hey, this title has a compelling cover and interesting premise--plus, the sample pages didn't make me want to run screaming from the room.

Overall, I would call this a solid read. Good writing, minimum of typos/errors, nice pacing. I don't think I ever really fell in love with any of the characters, though, and the thing that bothered me the most was the regurgitation of everything that everyone who reads about serial killers (fiction or not) already knows (as a child, wet the bed and killed animals, etc.)...and in the form of conversations between the investigators, which was a bit unbelievable. Ditto on the passages talking about how a certain character would be forever marked by his run-in with the serial killer, need time and therapy, etc., etc. I guess I'm saying that some of what I read in this book was, by virtue of the fact that there are so many serial killer books out there, cliched.

Even so, there were some passages that I fell in love with, and I tip my hat to the very resilient Jinx!