Customer Reviews

Stripped: Library Edition

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Detective Jonathan Stride has relocated from Minneapolis to Las Vegas and is living with new love Detective Serena Dial who is working hard to get over her troubled past. The two detectives are working different cases--Stride the murder of a wealthy trust-fund baby and Dial the hit-and-run of a small boy. As the investigations proceed, the two cases collide with more murders and a secret kept since the 1960s.

Freeman creates complicated characters that are fascinating and very involving. The plot is a complicated one, dealing with secrets, power, trust, betrayal, loyalty; all the characteristics that can either lead to the best or worst in people. In this case, it's mostly the worst. There is suspense, gunplay, and secrets revealed, long with love and sex. Although I felt plot was a bit overcomplicated and the story bogged down a big in the middle, it was still exciting and definitely kept me turning the pages.

I finally got around to reading "Stripped" after having read Freeman's initial novel, "Immoral" some time earlier and all I could think was, what took me so long. I enjoy Freeman for his believable characters, his sense of place, and his ability to turn a plot in unexpected directions...all while keeping me breathlessly turning page after page. He can handle violence and sex as plot devices in such a smooth manner that you never feel outraged or imposed upon.

In "Stripped", Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial have relocated from Minnesota (his home) to Las Vegas (her home). While initially assigned to different partners, their cases eventually intertwine and pick up a head of steam. A series of seemingly unrelated murders eventually reveal possible connections to a 40 year old murder that may or may not have been solved.

Before the novel runs its course, we are treated to a hodgepodge of bigger than life mobsters, strippers, prostitutes, hit men, retirees hiding secrets, and a transsexual cop, among others, who all have a part to play in this investigation of a crime in the past to solve a crime in the present. The plot is complex, winding, and fast paced. There are more than a few unexpected twists and turns as the story unfolds. Even after the apparent climactic confrontation, there are surprises in the denouement that will add to the reader's enjoyment.

As is typical of Freeman's efforts, there are numerous psychological aspects to this novel, both in character development and plotline implementation. There are multilayered issues regarding loyalty, familial love, power, corruption, and different ways to love different people. What his characters feel and why they feel that way is always a background element of Freeman's novels. I like this complexity and feel it contributes greatly to why I am attracted to his psychological thrillers.

Stripped is Brian Freeman's second novel and builds on the personalities we first encountered in Immoral. It is a remarkably believable and powerful study in violence and how past events can come back thirty years later to haunt you. The personalities are totally believable, the action is on-going and at no point do I figure out how the novel would end. I strongly recommend it.

Brian Freeman--just "found" him a few months ago. REALLY enjoy his writing and was afraid #2 wouldn't be as good as #1. No worries--I enjoyed this as much as his first book and have since read his 3rd which continues to not disappoint.

Jonathan Stride is back. He's moved to Las Vegas to be with the mysterious and seductive Detective Serena Dial, where he quickly gets a job with the LVPD. He's assigned a murder case, the victim a young man whose father is a big wig in the movie industry. However, the clues as to why the victim was shot are few and far between, way between.

And while Stride is trying to solve his first case, Serena is working a hit and run case, the victim a young boy. Stride's victim is from a wealthy family, Serena's, to say the least, is not. The cases seemingly have nothing in common, but Stride figures out that they are related. Not only that, but they seem to somehow be related to a decades old murder of a showgirl.

As Stride and Serena dig into the past murder they find secrets that someone will kill for, secrets that have caused the present day murders. However to bring old secrets to the light will put them in the path of someone who will do anything, stop at nothing to keep the secrets bottled up in the dark.

Brain Freeman has written the kind of crime story that will have you reading all night long. This is his second book, following IMMORAL, where he introduced us to Stride and Serena. I loved his first book, love the characters, who danced around in my head for weeks after I finished the book. Now they're dancing there again as I'm getting ready to read the book again. This is one I'll read several times.

In Brian Freeman's latest thriller, Stripped, we find Jonathan Stride in Las Vegas where he has followed the new love of his lif,e Serena Dial. After a few months bumming in Sin City, an unexpected opening in the Detective Unit at Las Vegas Metro lures Stride out of his self-imposed retirement and back onto the job.

His first assignment is the cold-blooded murder of a famous Hollywood director's son. MJ Lane is not your run-of-the-mill tinsel town party boy. MJ is flying high and running with a fast crowd and spending Daddy's money, and ultimately it's what gets him killed.

At the murder scene, Stride meets his new partner, a stunning woman named Amanda Gillen, who turns out to be a transvestite. Here I have to tell you that when I first read the synopsis for this book to do the review, I passed on the book. This just didn't sound like something that anybody who was writing their second book could pull off. I was wrong.

Not only does Freeman pull this character off with an edge as sharp as Damascus steel, he breaks a few of the other criminal thriller stereotypes and weaves a story that will keep you captivated from the first chapter all the way through to the climax.

The core of the plot revolves around the mysterious death of an adult nightclub performer named Amira Luz. Her death, in the Rat Pack era of the 1960's burgeoning Las Vegas, was obviously covered up by powerful people, who as time has gone by have become older and more powerful. At the center are casino owner and millionaire playboy Boni Fisso, his muscle man Leo Rucci, and a mysterious pool boy that no one ever questioned.

The case gets stranger and more obtuse as a series of widely disparate individual stories are expertly woven into the novel. Stride, Serena and Amanda follow up on bizarre clues and meet one eclectic personality after another, all of which can only reside in the thin, dry air of the high desert of Las Vegas.

Stripped is a granite cornerstone, which Brian Freeman will use to keep the character of Jonathan Stride alive for a very long time.

Armchair Interviews says: Wow, sounds like a great read.

It's just an absorbing and enjoyable story. In this sequel to IMMORAL (Freeman's debut novel) Detective Jonathan Stride has moved from his home town in Minnesota to the bright lights of Vegas in order to live with his luscious new lover, Detective Serena Dial, and while they are not active partners on duty (Stride has another partner of somewhat left-field sexuality!) they are very much partners in the bedroom and I'm pleased to say that this element of the story has been described much more professionally (i.e. less explicitly) than in Immoral, yet not for one moment lessening the erotic atmosphere the writer creates. Indeed this is raised to another level entirely with the introduction of the Mob boss's estranged daughter who has the hots for Serena too. The sexuality (as opposed to just sex) is always tasteful, arousing and very much in keeping with the story itself - never gratuitous - despite the fact that the main storyline is the hunt for a man who is seeking out specific but seemingly unrelated individuals in a mission of revenge assassinations. The story has a little of everything if not actually everything; greed, power, corruption, murder, love, revenge, desire, family feuds dating back forty years and mysteries carried over that period as to the real identities of mothers, fathers and siblings.

I don't hand out 5 stars unless a book satisfies on every level and fulfils its objective. There are a lot of very good thrillers out there, but STRIPPED is in a class above. It has several characters to really believe in, it's got pace and touches of real style, and I won't hesitate to buy STALKED, the third in this outstanding series.

Every so often an author emerges who takes you on a thrill ride, a ride you don't want to get off of. Such is the case with Brian Freeman. His two novels, Immoral and Stripped left me wanting more. Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial are such realistic characters with plenty of flaws but so understandably human. Stripped takes us to Las Vegas where a 40 year old unsolved casino murder ties directly into a string of current murders. Once you pick up this book, you can't put it down. These two books are right up there with Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme's mysteries. Enjoy!

This is definitely one of the better books I've read this year. It's fast paced with very good character development. This is the second book in Brian Freeman's Jonathon Stride novels. It's my second time reading him also. I can't wait to read Stalked, his third novel. This book picks up a couple months after Mr. Freeman's first novel, Immoral. Stride is now in Vegas dating Serena from his first book. It's got everything in it from celebrities to Vegas to murder to revenge to sex to dirty cover ups. It will keep you reading way past the time to put it down. I love how Mr. Freeman doesn't write shallow characters. You get to know about them and care about what has happened and what is going to happen to them. It's the part that draws you in. Not to mention all the twists and turns in the plot. I would say he's comparable to Harlan Coben. You don't have to read the first book in the series to enjoy this one but it would help understand the character development. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves a good thriller.

I picked "Stripped" up from a super market when I was desparate for something to read. WOW! I couldn't put it down and I think he is better than the established "masters of suspense": Patterson, Sandford, Patricia Cornwell. Forget them...here is a new, wonderful writer. I was so impressed that I emailed him and he emailed me back telling me that he was very thankful and for me to spread the word to my friends. Condider this spreading the word. I am ordering his other books.