Customer Reviews

Winner Take All

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I'm a big fan of James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell and I think there's a new star on the horizon in North Carolina. Jeff Pate is a police detective in High Point, NC and has written a novel that surpasses all the others in the genre. "Winner Take All" took my emotions on a ride from nail-biting suspense to crying and laughing. I found myself rooting for Clark Hager as he tried to catch a serial killer. When I finished the book, which was in two days, I didn't want it to end. For fans of the big name authors, "Winner Take All" is a MUST READ! You won't be disappointed.

Author Jeff Pate is a veteran police detective who draws on his years of experience to lend a very special authenticity to Winner Take All, a powerfully written suspense novel that is packed with action and cutting-edge tension. Clark Hager is a special agent with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. With his partner Lloyd Sheridan, Hager delves into the death of a young woman found in rural Hertford County. This leads to another recent murder of a college student in Wilmington. Then another body is found in Greensboro, apparently the victim to the same killer. Winner Take All is an epic battle of hunter versus prey, a struggle between good and evil with no quarter given and the end result very much in question. Winner Take All is a terrific debut novel that established Jeff Pate as an author of substance, imagination, and talent.

There are so many dumb non-cop things in this book, it's hard to believe that the author was a police officer. A few examples: 1. He is looking for a serial killer posing as a photographer. His daughter gets a call from a doubtful photographer from Playboy magazine but he neglects to check it out for two days. 2. He gets a reliable car description, a 1993 Datsun 300ZX - RED, and does not do a DMV search in the suspects known area of operations, i.e., Wilmington, NC. 3. He drinks 8 beers and gets snockered while guarding his threatened daughter and girlfriend from the serial killer. 4. A non-sworn lab technician, not authorized to carry a weapon, is sent with his partner to guard a suspect under death threat.

It just goes on and on. This book has about twenty great pages but the whole thing goes to pieces with the lack of reality.

Not in the class of Caunitz, Wambaugh, WEB Griffin or any of the REAL police writers.

Jeff Pate's debut suspense novel WINNER TAKE ALL is a true rollercoaster ride of thrills and action. Characterization is excellent (protagonist Clark Hager, a man with many personal demons, is especially well-drawn) and plotting and setting are equally outstanding. An added bonus is that the reader learns fascinating insights into how the police really do their jobs (Pate is a police officer in High Point, NC and the novel contains much inside info). WINNER TAKE ALL is a gripping look inside the mind of a serial killer and those whose job it is to catch him. The real winner in this battle of wits between the brutal killer and Clark Hager is the reader. A real scorcher. Enjoy!

A friend gave me this book to read on the plan from Washington D.C. to London. I did. As a TV director and writer, Winner Take All is a winner for me. Keep an eye on this ex-cop. Jeff Pate's first suspense novel Winner Take All is a true ride of thrills and action. I very much liked his characterization. Clark Hager, his cop is especially well characterized. The plot and setting are super. A good insight into how the police work from a man who was a cop. Jeff was a High Point, NC policeman and he gives out good inside information. Winner Take All is also a fascinating look inside the mind of a serial killer. And again into the minds of those out to catch him. I brought and read this book because of the positive comments from readers. I never had time, or thought to look for the typos or bad page layout. If that's what interests me as a reader I would have to go back and look for them. I got into the story and stayed there. Thanks Jeff Pate. Let's see another Clark Hager novel.

This is an embarrassingly bad book. The character and his partner are attractive people, but the sex scenes seem to have come from Hustler. Even worse for me, the writer and/or the editors can't spell. "He was puddy in her hands." Further, it's formulaic in the extreme. Mr. Pate may has some promise, but he needs a good editor.

I'd hoped for something better.

As a fan of this genre I look forward to discovering great new authors. Sorry to say, Jeff Pate is not one of them. The writing is so appallingly bad that it is difficult to concentrate on the story. I kept thinking, "How did this book get published?" The writing is trite, cliched and stilted. Some sentences are so bad that they are incomprehensible. Do yourself a favor and and stick to the likes of Michael Connolly, T. Jefferson Parker, Jan Burke and Kathy Reichs. Don't waste your money on this one.

This book is absolutely, without a doubt the biggest grammatical error of all time. I'm astonished to read that he gave an editor credit for making it better. The sentence structure of this book reads as if it was written by a 10 year old. Spelling errors abound including: "During her childhood he was "puddy" in her hands, but she was the clay a sculptor molds into a Venus de Milo." pg 115. I live in VA and I'm pretty sure that putty is spelled with "t's" in the south as well as the rest of the US.

I read over five books a week and this is the first book that was so poor that I wanted my money back. I kept reading it thinking it surely had to get better. Trust me, it's a disaster from page one to the end. I wish the publisher would quit cutting down trees to publish books by this author. Jeff Pate would do us all a huge favor by signing up for some English classes. The storyline is weak and disappointing. If Clark Hager were a "real" detective, I hope they would fire him for all of his errors. I'm planning on mailing my copy to the publisher with notations indicating the numerous (100's) of grammatical and spelling errors.

The dust jacket of this first novel is purple. Good choice--it matches the prose in the first chapter. I'm sorry to say I could not finish this book. I got through about 100 pages and found it just too painful to continue. The plot is standard serial killer stuff, the writing is bad to the point of being embarrassing to read, and the editing seems non-existent. I hate to be so cranky, because any writer who writes a 300+ page novel and gets it published has done far more than I'm capable of doing. Pate does seem to know a lot about police procedures, but that's not enough to carry a book so noticeably lacking in character development, original plotting, graceful writing and competent editing. Sorry, I can't recommend this one.

Suspense novels have always appealed to me, and this was one of the more exceptional ones I've read recently. An intriguing plot pulls the reader in immediately and the pace kept me turning the pages. Pate's characters are well- developed through their actions and dialogue. Agent Clark Hager is a very fasciniating character, and I look forward to seeing a lot more of him in future books. What Grisham has done with law, Pate is most ably capable of performing in detective work.