9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great start for the Mindhunters series, October 19, 2009
This review is from: Waking Nightmare (Mindhunters) (Mass Market Paperback)
While the conflict of the criminologist creating a profile and the detective who doesn't believe in "psychobabble" has been done before, it's handled well here. Ryne isn't over-the-top or oblivious in his doubt--he just needs to be convinced. And Abbie has dealt with doubtful cops before, so she handles it pretty well. The characters have quite a bit of depth and are interesting and enjoyable; the chemistry between Abbie and Ryne feels real, and their mutual desire to ignore that attraction feels believable rather than serving as an artificial means of keeping them apart.
My favorite part of Kylie Brant's Waking Nightmare, however, is Abbie's sister, Callie, who's bipolar (among other things). This is one of the best (i.e., most accurate) depictions I've seen of someone who's bipolar--from a single paragraph of dialogue I immediately found myself saying, "she's hypomanic!" Followed, of course, by amazement that there was so much accuracy to the flow of the dialogue that I could tell that so easily.
While there's plenty of tension and great pacing to the suspense and mystery portion of things, one thing disappointed me. To me, the best part of a suspense/mystery novel is trying to figure out whodunit. This requires a tricky balance of foreshadowing/hints, and red herrings/obfuscation, such that the reader waffles on the identity of the perpetrator until the very end, but feels satisfaction and a feeling of, "of COURSE it was him/her!" at the end. To be fair, this is extremely hard to achieve, and to a certain extent this line will rest at a different place with each reader, so take my complaint with a grain of salt.
Despite that, however, I enjoyed Waking Nightmare enough to immediately pick up its sequel, Waking Evil, so it definitely isn't a deal-breaker problem. Besides--it's more than made up for by how Callie and her illness are handled throughout the book!
[Standard adult material warning: explicit sex between the romantic leads and dark subject matter.]
[Review book provided courtesy of publisher]
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A little less love, May 19, 2010
Kylie Brant's book is built around an original idea and deals with a very interesting case, though the dénouement is a little unconvincing. I won't say why, not to spoil the fun, because fun it was reading this book.
But I ask myself why in such a novel the male and the female investigators invariably have to fall in love with each other. And do I really have to learn about each and every muscle in the hero`s body? Do I have to be reminded again and again that nipples - all four of them - get hard during the lovemaking process? I would have liked to read a little less about love and a little more about crime.
In spite of what I consider a flaw in the story I immediately downloaded "Waking Evil" by the same author because all in all she has convinced me of her writing skills. I would have given this novel five stars if ... (see above)
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
exciting action-packed thriller, September 5, 2009
This review is from: Waking Nightmare (Mindhunters) (Mass Market Paperback)
Savannah, Georgia is shook by a brutal serial rapist. Police detective Ryne Robel leads the investigation, but needs manpower to capture the violent culprit. The tough cop is extremely unhappy when the best the brass can give him is waif like forensic profiler Abbie Phillips of Mindhunters, a private firm.
However, Abbie quickly proves her worth as a criminologist when she figures out the motive of the sociopath. They also learn the predator uses a designer drug that induces extra fear from the victims because the rapist customizes the cocktail to the person. As they begin to work on how a person is chosen, the pair is also attracted to one another. However, taking down this vicious monster supersedes personal desires.
The first Mindhunters romantic suspense emphasizes from the onset the suspense leaving the romance somewhat in the background. This is critical to the thrilling story line as the scenes with the killer in them are nightmarishly gruesome so that kisses would seem inappropriate (except perhaps for Rocky Horror fans). The story line is somewhat standard serial killer police procedural. However, the changing relationship between the lead partners from disdain to respect plus the deep look at modern day criminology make for a great opening act for whodunit fans.
Harriet Klausner
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