Customer Reviews

Shades of Red

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

 

 

Vera Hart (read Martha Stewart), her empire, her family, are all at risk, somebody's out for vengence. Enter Can't Do Wrong daughter Martie, a heroic boy friend, a three star general father, and a dramatic personality turn for Vera, and we have a pretty standard sorta-thriller, albeit well written. It's obvious from the beginning who is the bad guy, and it's a fairly simple story. But why do we care how each room is decorated? Why spend a half a page to full page on every room? Geez, that gets old. Then there are the legal errors, pretty egregious ones. Someobody's poisoning the flagship lipstick line. Remember the Tylenal scare? Remember how fast the recall went out? Not here. Even though one of the protagonists is a lawyer, he doeesn't think to advise anybody they need an immediate recall? Imagine the punitive damages due to his malpractice. Nope. Seems nobody in management, nor their lawyer, the good guy, seems to think about warning the consuming public or taking the product off the market.

While I finished the book and will admit I enjoyed it, I don't think it was one of this author's better outings. Doris is a very good writer, but I don't think she did her homework on this book. And I could use a little less description of every room visited.

First, there's the main character, a brillant and beautiful doctor, a veteran ex-POW, who is also a single mother (her equally brillant doctor-husband was killed in a tragic car accident). It follows that her daughter is precocious and charms every adult that comes into her force field. Could Mortman layer on any more sap! Yes, she can and does. Then, of course, there is the equally talented lawyer who joins her estranged mother's company and who just happened to have been her lover while they were both stationed in Kuwait during the first Gulf War. Her father, a highly decorated Army officer, now runs a top-flight security firm that is hired to protect her mother (his ex-wife). It turns out that the antagonist served with the brillant and beautiful doctor & lawyer in the Gulf War and... Well, it gets worse from that point on.

Don't waste your time.

This is a wonderfully written and fast paced mystery/romance. The author has done a great deal of research, which gives the book authenticity in every area that it touches on, from the cosmetics industry to the military. The characters are well-drawn and believable. The plot twists and turns keep the reader turning the pages to the very end, and the small touches that the author adds to her descriptive prose make this book a pleasure to read.

Well done, and highly recommended!

I understand that this was a used copy, but I wish I had been told that it was a former library copy. It had labels on each of the disks and the disks were very scratched. I needed this for a specific purpose and I would not have purchased this copy if I had known about the scratches and the labels. Shipping was quick.

Shades of Red was a great mystery book and was very exciting. Doris Mortman did a good job describing the characters, and showing you their point of view. Throughout the book you expect someone from Vera's company to contaminate the lipstick. But while you read the book, your murder suspect changes. At the end of the book i was shocked to find out who the real murder was. One thing i didnt like, was how the beginning of the book was really slow. It took a long time for me to get into the book.

I love Doris Mortman's books. I believe her earlier ones are better than this. This was contrived and not enough emphasis was given to developing the main characters - too many other characters were mentioned to keep track of them all. She hasn't totally lost her touch, but I agree with the other reviews that this one felt like the story of another well-known celebrity who in recent history has had legal problems & corporate problems of a gigantic magnitude. I will continue to buy Doris's books, but I hope they have a little better story line next time.

My mother recommended this writer, and Mom is usually right on the mark, so I was shocked by this soap opera mishmash. Every character is a stereotype. We have the gorgeous movie-star, her handsome ex-husband the general, two sisters who hate each other, the perfect child, the hillbilly with a heart of gold. They are all here. I tried reading the book, but couldn't get past the first chapter, so I thought I'd try the audio book. That was even worse. The dialogue is embarrassing and the writing sounds even worse read out loud. The author must be a frustrated interior decorator, because every room the characters find themselves in rates a detailed description from the carpeting to the wallpaper. Even if you have a long commute, as I do, this book is a waste of time. I finished it because I figured out the "mystery" midway through and wanted my suspicions confirmed. I was right.