Customer Reviews

They Never Die Quietly

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I was so excited for this book to arrive that I stayed up last night finishing it.

The characters are first rate, explained well, and (for the most part) stay consistent. The book moves along at a pretty good clip--not stopping for you to catch up but its so well written you won't be left behind. From the first couple of words written you will be hooked (line and sinker) and you'll feel compelled to keep going to discover if tragedy awaits or if Rizzo will be able to outsmart a killer.

The killer in this case, Simon, is portrayed so distinctly that you feel as if you were watching a movie of him in your head. The fact that you get inside his head and his victims head is nothing short of genius that will give you heart palpitations. I literally could feel my adrenalin pumping and my heart racing as my eyes continued to devour this novel.

I must admit to having a passing thought about the author--this book is spooky and I kind of wondered what mind could dream this up you know? So clearly there is MUCH talent here in the writer--research was definitely done.

I will say the only thing that could knock this down a bit (I really would give it 4 1/2 stars) is that Detective Rizzo made a judgement choice that I did not feel suited her or how her character was portrayed early on. I had a very hard time believing she would make that choice (you'll know when you read the book) and even with the authors explanation I found it hard to swallow. Why is it always the female detectives that make a stupid judgement call? It was enough to knock it down half a star for me but I rounded up because the tension was just superb--you really cannot put this book down!

The subplot revolving around Rizzo's ex husband I thought was superfluous and at times just felt forced and out of place. It didn't detract from the story but it didn't add to it as it wasn't explained enough for you to be invested in the events that ensued. I'd of bought her as a single mom without a lot of back story just fine.

Anyway that should, in no way, indicate to you that I have anything less than the heartiest recommendation for you to pick up this gem. I'll warn you ahead of time it will make you freaked out, nauseated, scared, and biting your nails up until the end. Lets hope this author writes more novels of this type or a sequel (hint hint)

I wanted to like "They Never Die Quietly," I really did. I love the idea that Amazon is releasing work that wasn't published by a major house, and think there are plenty of books out there worthy of getting picked up. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them.

Warning: minor spoilers ahead, though no more than in the publisher's description. That said, the plot basics are simple: Simon, the crazy, religious, killer that was overly-involved with his mom (who he believes is speaking to him from beyond the grave), kills and necro-rapes women in order to cleanse those nasty sinners' souls. All the killing is done in his always-init-capp'd Room of Redemption, where the women are also (surprise!) crucified.

Killer Simon is being hunted by ace chick-detective Sami Rizzo, who is (of course) the only female detective on the squad and is implied to be (also of course) smarter than all the men. Sami and Simon meet coincidentally outside of the investigation (because that happens ALL the time - you know, killers meeting the lead detectives that are hunting them), and Sami begins to suspect, through hard-to-believe leaps of logic and poorly-based assumptions, that Simon may just be the killer. Suspicions she fails to share with her longtime detective partner, Al (who's in love with Sami from afar - of course), which pretty much undercuts that whole "she's smarter than the other guys" thing.

Because she keeps her suspicions to herself, when she goes to Simon's house (without telling ANYONE where she's going), Sami ends up captured by Simon (of course), and stuck in the Room of Redemption. Will she outsmart Simon? Will she get away? Will Al save her? Will the clichés ever stop?

This book appears to have been written by taking a fistful of standard plot points from a bag, stringing them together, then adding extra gore. The gore is overdone, voyeuristic, and for the most part pointless, feeling more like grabs at attention than necessary parts of the book (no, I'm not squeamish, and I don't have a problem with graphic passages), the characters' behaviors are hard to believe, and the plot points are (have I mentioned this yet?) incredibly clichéd.

I know I'm going to get railed for writing a negative review - it's the nature of the beast - but I gotta call it like I see it, and this book is simply not worth the time.

On the first page of this novel there is a note, warning that this novel is not for the faint of heart. There are some gruesome scenes, involving torture, but overall I found them tolerable.

This is a captivating story depicting a serial killer, daring to look into his methods, mind, and background. The author's considerable research is evident. The characters are fully realized and believable, as well as likable. And the serial killer's warped religious thinking is particularly intriguing.

There is suspense a plenty, no doubt about it. I constantly felt compelled to keep reading to find out what was going to happen.

I must add two criticisms. These are not major faults, but to a reader they are distractions.
1. The novel could have benefitted with a bit more careful editing. Some of the word choices just don't work well. I suspect--and I could be wrong about this--that when the author went to use a common phrase in his writing (one bordering on a cliché) he sought to modify it by changing it. Problem is, the substituted word doesn't often work well; it isn't accurate. This means, bottom line, in spots the writing is confusing.
2. Another issue is head-hopping, meaning when an author switches point of view frequently. For example, starting on page 40, The killer is entering his killing room, and he sees his victim. Next paragraph, the victim is looking at the killer (no warning or transition). We see through her eyes for two paragraphs. Then it's back to the killer again. On these two pages (40-41), there are three changes like this. The problem is this is both annoying to a reader and confusing. It's always a bit annoying to change from looking out one character's eyes to another's. But it is particularly so when effective transitions are lacking. I found myself going back to previous paragraphs to figure out what was going on.

In spite of these minor defects, the story is a good read. If this is your kind of story material--serial killer, some violence and profanity, some sex, some police work, plenty of suspense--then by all means give it a read.

Recommended.

This is a new author with who apparently has an "active" and "energetic" fan base. After reading the reviews and getting a sense of the stars awarded, I ordered this and began reading with a certain amount of good will and assurance that I was in for something pretty special. Somewhere around page 30 I became confused as I realized that the amateurish writing and absolutely linear and predictable plot was not some kind of ironic literary device but was actually what the book was going to be like. This would be an average effort in a a high school creative writing class. The characters are bare sketches with a couple of traits attached. The plot is typical of any tv detective show and there is absolutely no doubt how the book will end including who will be in trouble, who will save them and what will happen to the antagonist. For a quick comparison I checked the first detective book that came to mind and thought of Mystic River- a pretty good read. That book achieved 58% 5 star ratings. This book achieved 59% 5 star ratings. Yes, people have the right to give whatever reviews they wish but readers should think about the low total number of reviews and realize that it takes only a few very "motivated" reviewers to give a new and not very talented author the push he needs.

Straightforward thriller that flows well. Annoyingly, the first half of the book is devoted to the detectives stumbling around and achieving nothing of value. Despite obvious hints and clues the protagonist just paints herself into a corner amidst the reader's groans of frustration.

No surprises or twists to be found anywhere, everything is signposted clearly to a fizzly end.

When Hitchcock's black & white masterpiece 'Psycho' came out in 1960, America is said to have lost its innocence. The main character, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is a sociopath-transvestite afflicted by multiple personality disorder - a subject explored about the same time by Flora Rhea Schreiber in her best-seller 'Sybil', another shock to the unsuspecting public.

This was before short skirts, long hair and the secret bombing of Cambodia. Most of America in 1960 had remained - superficially - puritanical and comfortably unaware of the dark layers of human frailty and psychosis explored by Mr Hitchcock.

We have since been invited into the cannibalistic cravings of Hannibal Lecter in Thomas Harris's quartet 'Red Dragon', 'The Silence of the Lambs', 'Hannibal' and 'Hannibal Rising', followed by the brilliant Steig Larsson trilogy about a girl with a dragon tattoo and a fetish for erotica and bondage.

D. M. Annechino in 'They Never Die Quietly' follows the serial killer formula in a painting by numbers journey into the cerebral landscape of anti-hero Simon, a six-and-a-half foot film-star handsome religious freak transcendentally in touch with his dead mother (not unlike Norman Bates). Simon's task, set by God, is to purify the world by ridding it of young women - particularly young mothers - steeped in the evil of original sin.

On his tail is Sami Rizzo, the plucky female detective with a sixth sense and two year old daughter. We know early on that Sami will be drawn into Simon's web and Annechino holds our attention as she enters the insane labyrinth of his tidy, soundproof basement - a metaphor for Mother's tidy, soundproof mind?

There is a lot of gore and a lot to like in this book. There is also a lot more work that should have been done by a good editor. Annechino has written a well-paced story with some neat twists. But, like reflections in a mirror maze, the text is distorted by clumsy phrasing, a plague of redundant adjectives, the constant use, misuse and abuse of the word 'almost', and a fondness for the obvious: tires always 'squeal', people 'wait impatiently', Thanksgiving dinner and breakfast are 'hearty', big breasted girls tend to have long blonde hair and, when someone collapses, it goes without saying, it is 'like a rag-doll'.

When Mr Annechino writes such phrases as - to quote one of many examples - 'the awkward gait of a not yet nimble toddler', he has forgotten that all writing is re-writing and left us with the first clumsy effort to come rattling from the keyboard.

The downside of poor writing is that it takes you out of the story and back into reality which, in reading a novel, is what we are trying to escape. Good writing should not 'reveal' itself. It's quality is invisibility. Bad writing shouts at us from the page.

The plot sounded interesting, it was highly recommended and I like stories about serial killers, so...what's not to like, right? Well, the writing is pedantic, the heroine whines about everything and everyone and the bad guy spouts laughable cliches. Skip this one...

I see a number of five star reviews for this book and have to say I'm stunned. I think it's great that Amazon is providing a path to publication for new authors. But, contrary to those glowing reviews, I was severely disappointed in this attempt. I repeatedly wanted to walk away from the book without finishing it, something I rarely do, but kept going because I wanted to give a first time author the benefit of the doubt. When, 2/3rds of the way through, I realized that wasn't getting me anywhere, I kept going just to see if it would continue to be such a poor showing. It was.

Possible Spoiler Alerts Coming!

Super Detective Sami Rizzo is quite possibly the dumbest super detective ever. The publisher's blurb on this mentions how she is outsmarted by Super Bad Guy Simon. Um...he outsmarted her by inviting her to dinner at his place. After she already suspected him of being the Super Bad Guy. And decided, for no reason I could ascertain (yes, reasons were given but they were rather tenuous) not to tell anyone she was going out to dinner with her prime suspect. A suspicion which, also for the weakest of reasons, she hadn't shared with anyone. He outsmarted her by asking her out. That was it. That was his entire devious and brilliantly evil plan.

In addition to this rather impressive plot failure, the dialogue is atrocious, and some of the language choices are archaic ("womanly desires"? Are you kidding me?), the characters one dimensional, and as dim as Sami seems to be she is clearly light years smarter than the rest of the detective squad (it's, like, Detective 101 to check the tax rolls when looking for someone). I read an interview with the author that emphasized the horrific nature of the crimes and how brutal the violence was, etc. Wasn't that horrified by it, didn't think it was all that graphic. To tell the truth, I was kind of bored by the descriptions.

Which sums up how I felt about the book.

Plot/Storyline: 2 Stars

Although not particularly original, the plot to this novel was still interesting. The storyline was told mostly from three viewpoints: Sami, the lead female detective, her partner, Diaz, and Simon, the serial killer.

The portions told from the viewpoint of Sami were extremely draggy. They just limped along with entire chapters not forwarding the storyline at all. There was one chapter that stood out to me because the whole chapter was Sami driving home and thinking. That's it. Nothing else happened. Nothing was even hinted at happening.

The portions told from Diaz's viewpoint were a little better, but not by much. Both of these characters were so busy thinking and telling the reader about their pasts, that there was nothing going on in the present.

The sections told from Simon's viewpoint were completely different. He planned, schemed, or did something in every chapter of his.

I had one major problem with the storyline that almost ruined the book for me as it was an important scene that just didn't make sense. Sami did something that was just so phenomenally stupid that I couldn't imagine any woman doing it, much less a trained detective with inside information. This was such a pivotal point in the book, that it really should have been handled better and more believably.

Character Development: 3 Stars

Sami and Diaz were very well developed, almost too much so as the reader was subjected to every little thought in their brains, regardless of its relevance to the story. They were both pretty likable characters, though.

Simon was explained pretty simply. However, the author couldn't seem to decide what type of mental illness he wanted to portray Simon with, instead choosing to hint at many, from multiple personality disorder to being a sociopath. I'm not certain if he was trying to garner sympathy for Simon by suggesting the MPD with the blackouts, but it certainly didn't work as Simon was not likable at all, blacked out or not.

Writing Style: 5 Stars

Regardless of the issues above, the writing style was excellent. The descriptions were clear. The dialogue was realistic.

I would love to read a more planned out novel by this author.

Editing/Formatting: 5 Stars

Both were of professional quality.

Rating: NC-17 for Rape, Murder, Child Molestation, Incest

I bought this book thinking it was really going to give me a good scare. Well, I guess I've seen too many Datelines and 20/20's because finding out that a serial killer usually looks and acts like the rest of us just doesn't scare me like it used to. What I didn't expect and what I found as I got into the book is that is was a great detective story. The main detective who is trying to solve the crime, Sami, is very likable and we got to find out lots of interesting things about her family life. Her partner, Al, is interested in her romantically, but she doesn't seem to see it, which was also fun to read about. The killer was interesting too, just not scary in a Hanibal Lector way. The ending was really exciting and I was not able to put the book down for the last 1/4 and the way it ended was perfect for a sequel. I could definitely see this becoming a series. I'd love to see how Sami and Al's relationship evolves. I definitely recommend this book.