Customer Reviews

Remains Silent

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I wasn't really sure how to review this book....3,4 or 5 stars....it was a really fast, fun, interesting, hard to put down book...yet it was a little shallow, and.....surface.....
not sure how to explain.
I guess what I am trying to say, it was predictable, and mystery "light", yet it was so fun, and I read it in a day...it has been a long time since I started a book and couldn't put it down until it was finished. Well worth the read, I hope there will be another one coming with the same characters because I am not ready to let them go.....
Hard to explain....fun, quick book, good mystery, interesting forensics, not a five, but a strong four.

Michael Baden is a former New York City Chief Medical Examiner and his wife, Linda Kenney, is an attorney and television commentator. Baden and Kenney are also the joint authors of "Remains Silent," a mystery featuring forensic pathologist Jake Rosen and attorney Philomena "Manny" Manfreda. Jake is a recently divorced workaholic and Manny is a crusader who specializes in helping the downtrodden. In many ways, Manny and Jake are polar opposites. She is a fashionista. He dresses in rumpled and out-of-date clothes. She is passionate and excitable. He is cool and collected. However, both Manny and Jake share one important characteristic. Neither one can stand idly by when someone needs help.

Jake's mentor, seventy-two year old Pete Harrigan, is one of the few people in the world whom Jake truly admires. Pete retired from his job as a forensic anthropologist in New York City, and he is now a medical examiner in upstate New York. Although Pete appears to be troubled and physically ill, Jake cannot find out what is tormenting his old friend. All Pete will say is that he wants Jake to come up and examine some old bones that have been found at a local construction site. Jake soon determines that the bones are human and that the skeletons may be the remains of homicide victims. He enlists Manny's help in solving what turns out to be a decades old crime.

Unsurprisingly, there are people who do not want the truth about these old bones to surface, and when Jake and Manny dig into the past, they find themselves in danger. As the plot plays out, there are burglaries, assaults, murder attempts, and quite a few twists and turns. "Remains Silent" is a competently written and mildly humorous novel, and Jake and Manny generate some romantic sparks. However, the novel goes downhill towards the end when Baden and Kenney come up with too many far-out revelations. Overall, this is an average thriller in what promises to be an ongoing series featuring these two amateur sleuths.

I found this book horribly dull and unbelievable, not to mention very poorly edited. Who edited the book - the authors' dog? Not only the car snafu, but on pgs. 28-30 Harrigan is misrepresented repeatedly as Harrington! A huge disappointment after the back cover's glowing reviews. So glad I didn't spend a penny on the book, rather, checked it out from my local library.

This humdrum novel features a pathologist who seems reasonably plausible and a trial lawyer who I believe is supposed to come across as a real courtroom star but who probably should have her license revoked for incompetence. Her real talent appears to be in wearing expensive clothes, which might lead to some sort of viable career after her legal practice expires.

I read that the coauthors of this volume are in fact a well-known forensic pathologist and his wife, who is an attorney. Considering this, the book's mystery becomes less to do with its plot and more with why the lawyer protagonist is such a ditz when she obviously is not supposed to be seen as such.

I did find things about autopsies and other forensic esoterica that were interesting, although the characters are not quite believable. But weak character development is a common problem with most of the vast number of crime novels flooding the market these days.

By page 19, it was clear that the authors and editors of this novel don't respect the intelligence of their readers. I gave up entirely at page 47. Within these few pages the authors establish themselves as celebrities trading on their fame, not their ability to write passable fiction.

One of the two primary characters, Philomena "Manny" Manfreda, "a crusading attorney for the disenfranchised" is as believable as a three-dollar bill. "Only five years out of law school, with an apartment not much bigger than one of her Prada show boes and a burgeoning reputation as one of the city's fiercest litigators . . ." raves the dustjacket, a theme further described in the first 19 pages.

However, Manny Manfreda is portrayed as one of the most incompetent litigators ever seen in print. The story opens with Manny rushing to federal court. Of course, Manny's court wardrobe must be described with a catalog of famous names: just the kind of clothes one would wear to impress a jury determining whether the "establishment" had wronged the "underdog" - or if a money-grubbing attorney were simply picking someone's deep pockets. (A federal marshall suggests she not wear her "Italian designer black-on-black fabric-embroidered d'Orsay pumps" with the metal in the heels, so she stop setting off the courthouse security system. Manny, of course, is running late for court when she is once again pulled aside for special screening because of her shoes. Gotta admit: this Manny is one smart cookie, reminding me of Paris Hilton.)

Manny is cross-examining an expert witness, the famous pathologist, Jake Rosen. (Of course, let's not forget for a single moment, that authors Linda Kenney and Michael Baden are, respectively, a civil rights lawyer and patholigist and both television celebrities.)

In four pages of what is supposed to be a riveting cross-examination, Manny (and the authors) reveal themselves as poseurs in the world of fiction and contemptuous of the intelligence of their readers.

Anyone even barely familiar with the civil litigation process will recognize that Manny is a total incompetent: she is cross-examining an expert witness in a civil trial without having deposed him. In civil litigation, an expert witness may be deposed before trial about their opinions. This is done to prevent exactly the kind of surprises the bumbling Manny encounters in court. The expert reveals information about the alleged victim of police brutality that Manny has never seen or heard before. This means Manny did not read the expert's report which must contain all of the expert's opinions. It also means that Manny did not depose the expert prior to trial, something impossible to believe (in real life).

Manny is not only unbelievably incompetent, she's a walking target for malpractice. In short, Manny is not only utterly fictional, but even as fiction she is unbelievable.

Linda Kenney, if her dustjacket biography is at all factual, must know this. That she ignores it is not because of any kind of fictional license: rather it is a blatant insult to her readers.

Some readers may be able to move beyond this portrayal of the well-dressed "fierce" litigator who doesn't seem to have a clue about trial procedure. I can't. For me, fictional characters must be believable. Clancy's Jack Ryan, for instance, is believable. Grisham's lawyers are often believable.

Baden and Kenney's Manny Manfreda is simply nonsensical.

There's a lot more wrong in the 47 pages I read: this is simply the absolute worst of it. This is clearly a novel published because its authors are celebrities: they and their publishers think their names alone will sell a bad story. Hopefully the reading public will prove them wrong --- as wrong as Manny Manfreda's courtroom practice.

Jerry

"Remains Silent" is the first book co-written by Dr. Michael Baden, former New York City Medical Examiner,host of HBO's "Autopsy;" and his wife, Linda Kenney Baden, who has appeared as a guest legal commentator on Court TV, CNN, and MSNBC. They're quite the pair of high flyers: Linda is an attorney who has won many civil rights law suits. Dr. Baden is one of America's leading forensic experts. He has overseen cases ranging from the death of John Belushi to that of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, and has served as an expert witness in many criminal cases, including those of Claus von Bulow and O.J. Simpson. He has been a consulting forensic pathologist to the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the FBI and the Russian Government. He has also been a visiting professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, and Albany Medical College. In this their first joint book, they have chosen to write about a famous forensic examiner and his crusading attorney girlfriend-wife. How challenging the stretch must have been.

The plot concerns skeletons unearthed where they shouldn't be, in excavation for a new mall in upstate New York. The book seems to have been written, and edited, in an extraordinarily slapdash manner. Cars change their make mid-page. Major characters change their surnames for pages at a time. The Badens' book opens on Philomena "Manny" Manfreda trying a case in New Jersey; and if she tries all her cases like that, it's a wonder she's ever won any. Furthermore, a self-congratulatory, self-regarding air hangs over the book from first to last: we're a celebrity couple, and you're not. Manny is just gorgeous, and dresses in high-society designer originals: you're probably not, and can't afford to, either.

The authors have also chosen to rely on many hoary plot devices, from the unexpected skeletons to the developer, and the local sheriff, pressing to build the mall; from the menacing,looming,abandoned mental hospital to secret government malfeasance. And yet, it is a forensic mystery. The forensics appeared to be accurate, and they interested me. The stories those skeletons told did keep me reading to the end. The plot line even had a couple of surprises. Perhaps the Badens' next joint effort, if there is one,could pay a bit more attention to the basics?

After reading the high praise given this book (in particular, the front jacket blurb by Patricia Cornwell), I expected an exciting and compelling read. Instead, I found a book with incredibly unbelievable and superficial protagonists, not to mention secondary characters, bad editing, and many errors on the part of the authors themselves. It's hard to imagine that a former medical examiner and an attorney/legal commentator with years of expertise between them, could actually write something as poor as this.

On page 19, Pete's Suburban is 'sick' and he wants to take Jake's car, described as a falling apart Oldsmobile and Pete piles boxes, etc. into the old car. In the next paragraph, Pete is driving and backs the Camaro out of the driveway. I have read and re-read this page trying to make sense of this. A Camaro is a Chevrolet and NOT an Oldsmobile. I have been unable to get past page 19. Has anyone else noticed this seemingly HUGE error in a book co-written by a Doctor who bases his notable professional career on the finest of details? Have I mis-read this page? Possibly, but would love input from other people who own/have read/are reading this book and have in particular read page 19. If I read and correctly understood the passages about the Oldsmobile and Camaro, I will probably consider the book a waste of money and choose not to read on to page 20.

I gave my copy of the book away with no regrets about not finishing the read. For a reknowned forensic scientist who is touted as paying attention to the finest of details in his lab - my goodness! Maybe he and his wife should have written this book in his lab - maybe some of that good old detail oriented work ethic would have rubbed off on this pathetic book.

This book was awful! I tried to care. I tried to stay interested but it was no use! I couldn't even finish the last 100 pages. The main female character was so shallow and materialistic. I couldn't stand her. When she was attacked and sent to the hospital? I couldn't possibly care less. I threw this book away. It was a waste of my time.

I picked up this book because I noticed it was written by Michael Baden and Linda Kenney Baden who are part of Casey Anthony's defense team. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was fun to read and entertaining. The main characters seem to be a reflection of the author and his wife, which I feel added even more to my interest in the story. Have fun and enjoy the book. Power Path to Love