63 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, fast paced thriller spanning one day, has flaws, but good overall, November 28, 2007
Greg Iles latest novel, THIRD DEGREE, is a harrowing thriller that takes place over the course of an afternoon. Lauren Shields teaches a developmentally disabled class at the elementary school. Her husband Warren is a doctor. One morning she wakes up and finds Warren frantically searching the house for something. In fact, he's been searching all night. He says it has something to do with an IRS audit of his business. Lauren has problems of her own. She's pregnant, and the baby probably isn't Warren's. For the past several months, She's been having an affair with Danny McDavvitt, a war hero and a kind man who has marriage problems of his own. Danny wants to leave his wife for Lauren, but can't for fear that his wife will get custody of his autistic son. Warren's office is also under investigation for Medicare fraud, and Warren's partner, Kyle Auster is devious and amoral.
You throw the above beginnings of a plot into a a 12 hour period, and you get this novel. I glanced at a few reviews, and many negative reviewers seemed to dislike the story as not a traditional Iles novel. Iles is a great novelist and one of the few out there that constantly change genres. He started out with World War II novels, then moved onto standard thrillers. He wasn't afraid to try new things, like Footprints of God (a sci-fi look at the nature of religion) or Dead Sleep (a novel all Steven King fans would love). Iles has tried this before. His 24 Hours spanned a day. He's trying it again in this character driven thriller. If the entire novel is compressed into a day, then what keeps the pages turning? Iles introduces a desperate man in Warren and a confused wife in Lauren, thows in a couple of kids and then keeps adding characters who have parts to play in the drama. We miss out on character development, although Iles does add just enough backstory to let us know what is going on.
I liked this book because I like Iles, and I trust that he knows what he is doing even as he tries to tell a different type of story. The book has some weaknesses as well. Telling a story over a 12 hour period means you lose a lot of characterization. The decision to cheat on your spouse and potentially destroy a marriage is not one entered into lightly, yet the relationship between Lauren and Warren gets neglected in the format of the novel. Why did she cheat? Why did she feel the need to cheat. What did she ever see in Warren in the first place.
Don't worry, by the end of the novel, Iles has resolved most plot threads and even offered and explanation for Warren's sudden erratic behavior. He also tries to explore some themes such as marriage, family and forgiveness, but never really offers any answers. By reading the reviews, it is obvious some fans were disappointed in Iles' latest effort. Not me. I found it quick and easy to read, and highly suspensful. The only negative is that there weren't really any sympathetic characters to root for. They weren't all truly evil, but when your heroine is an adulterer who refuses to tell her husband who she is sleeping with, there isn't much room for sympathy. Overall, I recommend to all Iles and thriller fans. Just know you are getting something different, and be thankful that Iles is one of the best authors around and very capable of pulling it off.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
3.5 Star 'Box-of Chocolate', November 11, 2007
This effort by Iles is one-part Lifetime Movie of the Week, and one-part Robert Crais-like thrill ride. The Lifetime sections can be long and overwrought, but the thriller sections are taut with anxiety. The problem is that there are too many parts reminiscent of Lifetime movies, compared to the parts that we thriller fans are looking for.
Iles is a skilled writer, but because he doesn't stick to a tried-and-true formula, he's a box-of-chocolates kind of author; we never know quite what we're going to get until we've bitten into the offering.
If you skim wisely, you'll be holding a page-turner. If you read every word, you might doze off.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Third Degree: should be called "Chinese Water Tortue", November 23, 2007
I'm a big fan of Greg Isles but this novel was pretty awful. I had to muddle through this one, it was torture. Where's the quality that was in "The Quiet Game" and his other novels. It's as if he wrote it over the weekend. His prose, especially when he describes the characters sex life, reads like a 15 year old boy wrote it. I always buy his books as soon as they come out but I may be waiting for the paperback on his next book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
