Customer Reviews

Infamous

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I'm going to begin with a couple of observations about Suzanne Brockmann with the full realization that anybody who is unfamiliar with her body of work will probably have not a single clue what I'm talking about. If this is you, go ahead and give me an unhelpful vote right now and go pick yourself up a copy of The Unsung Hero. Start there and read away. You can come back to Infamous in a month or so - once you've read her most famous series.

For the rest - in a genre that is rife with generic cookie cutter writing, Suzanne Brockmann is a sparkling gem of originality and for that I love her. I may not always love her writing, I may not always love her books, but I absolutely adore her willingness to take a risk and be original. This book Infamous, it is original. That plus her rock solid history is going to prevent me from totally trashing the novel.

Now for the bad part. Suzanne Brockmann is a passionate woman of opinions which are frequently reflected in her writing. Loudly, blatantly and unashamedly. That is a fact that I totally respect and even enjoy, because if a writer isn't passionate about her work, how can a reader ever be?

My problem with this novel is that when the two points made above, the originality and the passion, go crashing into each other they can very often create a mess. And that is pretty much where this book Infamous leaves the reader - in a befuddled confused mess where the discord of Ms. Brockmann's passionate social beliefs and agenda overwhelm the story she is trying to tell. Really. Paranormal Cowboy Movie Romance with a Murder Plot, Alcoholism, Gay Rights, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Native American Mysticism, Homelessness, Remarriage After Spousal Death, Gulf War Vets, Fathers Who Murder Sons for Undisclosed Reasons and a Sister Who Got Married As A Teen Because the Love Of Her Life Was Critically Ill.

Whew.

If only we could have spent a couple of pages exploring corporate greed and that oil spill in the Gulf, but I'm guessing this book went to print before that ever happened. Okay I've headed into sarcasm so I'll try to say it more nicely. Not everything belongs in every book and in the end the STORY should trump the author's agenda. If it doesn't enhance the story, then it should be saved for the book where it does fit. And on that major rule, this book is a Fail with a capital F A I and L. FAIL.

So the good part? Underneath all that clutter there really is the makings of a pretty nice novel here. And it's a novel we all haven't already read hundreds of times before. There's a nontraditional heroine, a nontraditional hero and a pretty sweet story of how love, honor, respect and trust can bind a family through the generations. If you can keep your mind on the story, ignore a couple of nonsensical huge plot holes, dropped storylines, and shaky characterization of the major players - you might even enjoy it. I'm going with 3 stars with a major nod to the author's past history and thanks that I didn't pay hardback prices for this.

I have been a fan of Ms Brockmann's since Prince Joe was a Harelquin and I have enjoyed most everything she has written, but this is by far her weakest effort to date.

The plot can be reviewed above so I won't bother to repeat it.

I am getting fed up with Ms Brockmann's views of the world making their way into her books. I understand that a good way to change people's minds is to gently show an alternate view point, but enough is enough.

1) In this book we are told over and over WAR IS BAD. I am an Army wife and I can understand this point of view, but it seems to me that an author who has made a career out of warriors that this is asking to alienate her core audience.

2) Gay men love and lose and are JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. I happen to agree, but Ms Brockmann enough is enough. How about gay women? It would have been refreshing to see a relationship with two women (though I know she is the mother of a gay son and has more knowledge in that arena).

3) Alcoholism is a DISEASE and no one is to blame since it is genetics. Again, I am in agreement with Ms Brockmann, but get off the soap box.

I could go on, but it seems to me that Ms Brockmann chose to air her views and then wrote a plot around them.

Characters are pretty flat, not much effort put into them. Alison is a professor, tall and had a rough childhood. AJ is a war vet with a troubled past due to the Army mistreating Soldiers and allies. Gramps is a plot device that is not consistent (he died in 1977, but uses today's slang and has the hang of technology (unless it is better for the story he does not). AJ's family is even more stereotypical--there only to be a contrast.

The paranormal did not work for me. Not Tom (friend) who helped AJ but "wasn't really there". Not Gramps. Not any of it. If one wants to read a book with the paranormal in it, try Linda Howard's "Dream Man" (psychic), "Son of the Morning" (time travel) or "Killing Time" (time travel"). Or try Jayne Ann Krent's "Arcane Series" (too many to list here).

I was so looking forward to reading this book--I love most of Suzanne Brockmann's earlier books and was so excited to see a new one on the shelf. I have read and reread several of her books, but I just could not get through this one.

First of all, the back summary is totally misleading when I read "unable to ignore ghosts from the past" I assumed it was talking about people from his past or issues from his past, not an actual ghost that he has as a sidekick. The ghost's popping back and forth got very annoying very quickly.

Secondly, Ms. Brockmann does not seem able to seemlessly insert her political opinions into her writing. So much of her preaching comes out of the blue and doesn't feel like part of the character, but purely the author's way of getting on her soapbox. And she covers the same ground over and over again--we get it you're against secondhand smoke, we get it you are pro-gay and all that that entails, you are pro-ACLU and against off-shore drilling, WE GET IT! Since the author's son has "come out" her books have been VERY HEAVY on the progay mantra--gay marriage, gay is not a choice, gay romance--she goes so far overboard it's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Finally, even the writing in the book is subpar and the dialogue, at which Brockmann usually excels, is plodding and simple. The characters are not particularly likable. Unlike some of the author's previous work I did not become at all attached to these characters--they seemed very one dimensional. I'm the type to always finish a book even if it's not that great, but after getting nearly halfway through I just asked myself if I really wanted to waste the time and my answer was NO!

I want to be very clear that I am a huge Suzanne Brockmann fan even though I am a Southern Baptist, die-hard Republican. I think she is an incredibly gifted story-teller. I've read and re-read her Tall, Dark, and Dangerous series and her Troubleshooter series many times and I completely respect her choice to speak her mind through her writing even though I don't always agree with what she believes in.

Jules happens to be one of my very favorite characters and I loved the Jules and Robin story arc in the Troubleshooter series but the way she randomly threw in mentions of gay marriage and anti-war, in this book, made absolutely no sense. She has made a career out of writing about the brave men and women who serve our country. By bashing war, she is sort of bashing them.

The impression that I got from reading it was that she really didn't want to write the darn thing because she is so focused on her play but her editor or agent insisted that she really needed to get a book out in 2010 since she wasn't going to manage a Troubleshooter book until 2011. So she quickly threw together a paperback without giving much thought to the plot or character development just to please them and couldn't refrain from spouting all of her gripes with the world at large because writing this book obviously put her into a very, bad mood.

Her books are always in my read again pile but I would never torture myself again by re-reading this one.

If I were to rate the book itself it would be a 1, but because Suzanne Brockman is by far my favorite author I rated it a 3. If this is your first book by Suzanne Brockmann, please do not judge. She is an amazing author, I usually can't put her books down - in her two Navy Seal series and other reissed books.

Something went wrong in this book - perhaps because she wrote this book a dozen years ago and only tweaked it for this release - it is not up to par with her current novels. It's been two weeks and I can't bring myself to finish it.

I can't begin to describe how disappointed I was with this book, other than to say I couldn't finish reading it. Generally, when I dislike a book, I will give up at page 30. I had such hopes, this being a Suzanne Brockmann book, that I went to page 150. I couldn't force myself to read it anymore.

What's wrong with Infamous? It's a itemized checklist to verify if you are a left wing liberal. Or it's a checklist to verify if you are a tight right conservative. (It's a POV) Either way, it's a litany of the authors political viewpoints. And while I respect the fact that she has strong opinions and feels strongly and passionately about them to speak her mind. This book was not the place for that. I got the impression that it was trying to bully me. Throw in a ghost (Paranormal is not a good fit for Suz) and characters with too much emotional baggage - well it was a recipe for disaster.

If this were the first book I had ever read by Suz, I can say with certainty that I would not pick up another one. But that's not the case. I am an avid Troubleshooter's fan and I am impatiently waiting on Izzy's story (the last in the series). What troubles me is, if this an example of what we can expect after the Troubleshooters, I may be scratching a fav author off my list. Something I hope will never happen.

It doesn't matter that I agree with many of Suzanne's viewpoints, it just shouldn't have been in this book. I want to be entertained when I pick up a romance novel, not lectured about politics and social behavior.

I have decided to rent the audio book of Infamous from the library. Patrick Lawlor is the narrator. Perhaps listening to Patrick's fantastic voice will make the book easier to digest.

I have to say first and foremost I love Suzanne Brockmann....but she fails way off the mark on this book. I don't really know what she was thinking to write a book in this format...I had a very difficult time trying to catch the story...so boring I couldn't even get into the book and had to just stop reading...at the beginning instead of setting up the story line, she's switched around so much you don't even know who the books about! Yikes...Don't waste your money on this one....

I almost didn't buy this book and now wished I had waited for it to hit the library. I agree with the sentiments of other viewers in regard to the political slant that was infused in this book. When I buy a book it is for the pure escape from my day to day life. While I didn't enjoy it as much as Suzanne's other books it wasn't a total loss. There were moments of entertainment in it. But they were few and far. I would just like to say to all author, singers, actor/actresses, when I pay to be entertained don't blind side me with your political rants. I paid for your entertainment and that is all!

The ghost may have seemed like a good idea when Brockmann was thinking up this book, but it really went off the rails during the writing process. Aside from the plot being really, really thin, I didn't think much of Alison and A.J. as characters. A.J., for all his difficulties with PTSD and related conditions, came across as much younger than his years. Alison was not very compelling and seemed a little dense. These were two characters for whom The Great Misunderstanding was made - they seemed so obtuse a misunderstanding between the two of them could go on forever.

The real trouble for me came in the form of Jamie, our ghost, who breaks into a book written in 3rd person to speak in 1st person. It was distracting, irritating and unnecessary. Instead of getting engrossed in the story, I was thrown out of it every time the 1st person speech appeared. And Jamie was all over the place - he appeared to A.J. as a young man, spoke with the wisdom of the aged, allegedly died in 1977 at 101 years old but has been keeping up with the times while on the ghostly plane. He spoke as if the world hasn't moved forward since he died - he's a thoroughly modern ghost 30+ years after he died an elderly man.

This story was so flat I'm not sure it ever would have made a good book, but the gimmick of the ghost didn't help things at all. Bouncing around from 3rd person to 1st person and back again didn't make this an easy or pleasurable read, it just highlighted all the problems with the book.

Brockmann can write a fun and engrossing book, but this was not one of her better efforts.

I put this book down many times planning not to come back as one soap operish plot element after another appeared. However, the ghost, Jamie Gallagher, caused me to return. Brockmann chose to impose all the genre laden elements of both romance and mystery upon one clever idea she had here. This was the creation of a ghost from the Old West who shows up on a movie set in Arizona to correct the script on a biopic of his life. He is the bad guy in the script when he was really the hero. This was a great idea and I loved the ghost character.

BUT Brockmann slathered on top of this a romance about the ghost's descendant and the writer, coupled with a mystery based on many attempts to kill the writer. Then she also pored into the mix all her own personal beliefs on a variety of subjects, as if she were on a soapbox instead of developing a novel. Brockmann was not always this clumsy and heavy handed. Years ago she did a similar novel, HEARTTHROB, and did it flawlessly.

This is an author who has bombarded romance sites all over the web with her own strident views and self promotion. Meanwhile, her novel writing has suffered from neglect of what she formerly did quite well: write genre based romance novels with intelligent characters and fresh ideas. She would do herself and her readers a favor to retire herself from soapbox oratory and self promotion and return to honing the ABCs of her writing craft. It is hard for me to think of another writer who has let her word craft desert her this completely.

note: to see how this idea is done infinitely better as a novel set in the Old West, try Emma Bull's TERRITORY.