Customer Reviews

The Maze (FBI Series)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This book is my favorite out of the entire FBI series. It has to be the most imaginative one (but only by a little) Sherlock and Savich are a great couple and you have to wonder what kind of mind would come up with that plot and how to pull off everything so it was believeable for the most part. The Maze, as logic would have it is about a criminal who ingeniusly uses mazes as his calling card. Not only did this book keep me on the edge of my seat but it kept me turing pages faster and faster to see what would happen next. I also finished the book with such a happy and warm feeling. If you have to be up early the next morning DO NOT start this book just before bed. I can guarantee you will still be up reading when the sun comes up. I was!!! Catherine keep up the excellent work, I am looking forward to your next book, whatever it might be.

Dillon is the head of the FBI's CAU. With his computer MAX, he gathers information to crack crimes. Lacey Sherlock entered the FBI to hunt down the serial killer who murdered her stepsister seven years before. This killer chose women who used foul language and bad mouthed their husbands. He would hit them over the head, take them to an abandoned warehouse, and make them search their way through a maze. When they reached the center, instead of being set free, he would punish the woman by multiple stab wounds and then cut out her tongue. Dillon chose Lacey straight out of training because she was able to kill him in the final exam for the job. She had the instinct just right for the job. This is a real puzzler and a real page-turner!

I read all of Catherine Coulter's contemporary novels in this series except The Edge. It is a good thing I read this one first! I did not like the other two at all, but from the moment I started reading The Maze I was hooked. It is an incredibley good book and second in my list of favorites only to Jeffery Deaver's The Bone Collector. I liked Sherlock a lot, she is probably my favorite female character. However, it was Savich that made the book remarkable. You can't help but fall in love with Savich, with his karate and his country-western-singing and his easyness with Sherlock. Not to mention his dreamy blue eyes.. LOL Savich is in fact so memorable that I am going to name my Siamese cat after him when I get it. You have to admit, also, that Dillon is a great name. I like Catherine Coulter's style of writing in this book, it is unusual but good. The novel is very suspenseful and has a climatic ending. The tension between Savich and Sherlock as their relationship developes from work to friendship to love is intense. I loved this book, and I just wish the other two were as good...

My mother got this book out of the library for me. I had only read Catherine Coulter's historical romances & thought that those were the only type of book she wrote. When I got the Maze, I was stunned. It is one of the best comtemporary thrillers I have EVER read - and I read all the time, I have read thousands of books & the Maze rates up there w/ the best of them! The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, to use a hackneyed phrase. :) I adored Savich & Sherlock, they have become two of my favorite characters & I hope Coulter continues to develop them in future books. I was pleased to see them return in "The Target". Catherine, your thrillers are AMAZING, please keep them coming! So many women can write the historical romances but not many people can write a thriller as well as you can! I would highly reccomend this book to everyone!

This embarrasingly adolescent book has absolutely no redeeming virtues, and I would recomend fans of the genre to look elsewhere: to James Patterson, Martin Cruz Smith, or Patricia Cornwell.

Although the book is supposed to be set in Washington, DC, the city is unrecognizable. Compared to Patterson, who salts his Alex Cross books with details that reflect knowledge of and affection for the city, Coulter seems to have never visited DC, or even bothered looking at a map of the city.

Worse, her characters are disconnected from the world the rest of us live in. One of the two main characters openly engages in what can only be called sexual harrassment towards the other main character, but the other characters watch this with approval, as does Coulter herself.

Naming this new organization within the FBI the "Criminal Apprehension Unit" is another example of Coulter's laziness. What, exactly, does she think the rest of the FBI does, if not apprehend criminals? Another lazy shortcut is the "magic computer" that is the chief investigative asset of this "Criminal Apprehension Unit". While computers are indispensible to the modern investigator, Coulter doesn't bother including them in ways that make sense. She pays no attention to their real capabilities.

In short, this book is terrible, with amateurish style, unbelievable characters, and a ridiculous plot. Don't waste your time.

This is the story where Dillon and Sherlock first meet. If you have not read/listened to this one yet it is a must in the FBI series by Catherine Coulter.

Lacy Sherlock has decided to become and FBI agent after a terrifying issue in her past makes her afraid to even go out of the house. She decided that if she does nothing else she will find the person who killed her sister and have vengeance.

Enter Savich who Sherlock bests in one of their first meetings which intrigues him quite a bit. Then he requests her in his unit at the FBI.

She finds this is the perfect opportunity to look for the string killer and at the first opportunity lies to Dillon and takes off for Boston to track him down. At the same time she has been doing well in the unit and helping to catch killers.

Her sisters old husband also seems to be a bit to infatuated with her and this causes a lot of tension. As well as her dysfunctional family.

I really enjoyed this story!

Lacey Sherlock has been plagued with nightmares and is scared of her own shadow since her half-sister, Belinda, was murdered by the San Francico serial killer called "the String Killer." She decides to do something about it and quits music and a possible career as a concert pianist to major in political science and forensics and later a master's in criminal psychology and join the FBI. The reader is treated to one of her nightmares at the start of the book and it is scary. We come to the present and find Sherlock and partner MacDougal climbing a rope as part of their final physical tests.

From this exercise and a scenario in the FBI's "Hogan's Alley", we can see Lacey Sherlock's grit and determination. Lacey meets up with Dillon Savich, head of the Criminal Apprehension Unit, as he poses as the villain in the Hogan's Alley scenario. He admires her "never say die" attitude as he bests her again and again until her partner tosses her a weapon and she "shoots" him -- red paint all over his shirt and tie now.

Lacey is excited to be asked to join Savich's unit as while she had wanted to be a Profiler she found that it was just too intense an gory for her. Savich's unit uses computer databasing and modelling -- programs Savich wrote -- to help find patterns and similarities to other crimes to catch criminals that have crossed state lines. The CAU as it is called is asked in by local law enforcement or go in on their own when the crimes become national.

Lacey is lucky enough to accompany Savich as his partner is with his wife who is giving birth and go to Chicago to apprehend the killer know as "The Toaster." The process that went into figure out who The Toaster is has been thought out and detailed very well in this plot line. Lacey also gets to see that Savich is not a glory hound and that he helps the locals come to the same conclusions he did so that they get the notoriety.

However, after a seven year hiatus, the String Killer strikes again this time in Boston and Lacey is off and running. Her single mindedness and persistence are both frustrating and worthy of admiration to Savich as he works to get to the bottom of her focus.

I found this to be a scary story with many suspects including her half-sister's widower, and more!! Ms. Coulter also supplies some comic relief and humor which I feel is essential to a good mystery story. One of her best!!

I had a lot of trouble putting this book down (and I tend to be hard to please when it comes to finding a book that will keep my attention!). If you're a James Patterson fan or a Patricia Cornwell fan, I think you'll love this one! The story lines are similar and it is just as fast-paced.

Lacey Sherlock devotes her life to tracking the monster that murdered her sister. After waiting 7 years, she is now an FBI agent prepared to take on the killer when he resurfaces in Boston. Fortunately, she has a hunk of a boss who is on her side in more ways than one.

This action packed tale will keep you guessing up to the last page - nothing is ever as simple as it seems. The love story is not to be missed. This book sets the standards for romantic suspense.

This was one of the first books that I have read by Catherine Coulter and it was the catalyst for my love of all of her books. The story was amazing and the characters seemed very believable (but as I have yet to meet any FBI angents I simply don't know). Her way with words and the scenes which she paints bring the story alive and throughout the book you find yourself rooting for Sherlock and Savich (the heroine and hero) in all that they are doing. It is my fondest wish that she continue with her amazing writing and that she continues to come out with these amazing books.