SECRET SINS [Import] [Hardcover]

Kate Charles (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Allison & Busby (September 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749080361
• ISBN-13: 978-0749080365
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best I've read in a long, long time, March 24, 2007

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Sins (Callie Anson Mysteries) (Hardcover)

It's been so long since I read a truly great mystery: absorbing, suspenseful, well-written, cleverly plotted, three-dimensional characters worth following. I hear publishers are pushing the more contemporary suspense novels, but give me a good detective read anytime.

Author Kate Charles masterfully controls a handful of parallel plots. Some characters are common to all, but thankfully we don't have a contrived ending where everything nicely dovetails. In fact, at least one plot ends with a revelation of a cruel tragedy.

This series inevitably gets compared to other clerical mysteries (such as Spencer-Fleming) and English mysteries (such as Veronica Stallwood). But I think anyone who appreciates great detective fiction will be delighted to stumble across Kate Charles. I'd compare her to Nevada Barr, Sarah Stewart Taylor, and even some of Sharyn McCrumb.

An author, in my mind, can be called great when we readers commit the secret sins of reading their work when we should be working. A rare and highly pleasurable experience. Secret Sins qualifies.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a quality of story that is too few and far between, September 30, 2007

By 

HCJL "crowpal" (Tacoma, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Sins (Callie Anson Mysteries) (Paperback)

I agree with Dr Cathy Goodwin's assessment of the book, except I would say the quality is right up there with Deborah Crombie and Jill Mcgown (and that IS high praise). Lots of characters, but depicted so well and concisley that they are easy to keep track of. This is the type of writing I long for, and the paperback looks so blah on the cover--just goes to show once again about not judging by a cover! I started the book this morning and couldn't stop till I was through, not so much because the mystery is so suspenseful as that the characters and their lives really draw you in. Will definitely check out her other books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting London investigative tale, March 10, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Sins (Callie Anson Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In London recently ordained Anglican cleric Callie Anson is happy with her relationship with police officer Marco "Mark" Lombardi though he seems to avoid having her meet his Italian family. Callie tries to provide solace to new parishioner Morag Hamilton, who is worried about her beloved preadolescent granddaughter Alex who never goes outside unless she has to; her father Alex is to busy with work and her stepmother Jilly is too busy with her own needs to care that Alex lives on the Internet.

While Callie worries about Morag and Alex, Detective Inspector Neville Stewart investigates a missing jogger, computer guru Trevor Norton whose wife is about to give birth. Though he hopes the runner is found okay, Neville fears the worst while welcoming the respite from his personal problems of a maybe romance with the woman he has always loved who dumped him a decade ago. Now Neville has a second vanishing to investigate; that twelve years old Alex whose grandmother reported her missing.

The key to this exciting London investigative tale is the extended cast are fully developed three dimensional people who make the several plots merge into a terrific one sitting thriller. Alex is the link that ties the multitude of plots into one superior story line. Readers will want to obtain Kate Charles' fine character driven tale SECRET SINS and the previous novel with much of the same lead players EVIL INTENT.

Harriet Klausner