Customer Reviews

ZEN AND THE CITY OF ANGELS

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Installment number two of the Zen series keeps up the tradition of a witty, fast reading book with plenty of twists and turns, including the first to my knowledge time that a detective locks themselves inside a major home appliance. THis time Zen is looking for a friends lost dog and the search takes both her and the reader far and wide. A must read for mystery lovers. As before, I can't wait for the next one to come out.

Maybe the author could use a better editor, but still the MINOR nitpicks didn't take away from the enjoyment of the book. This isn't a police procedural. It's FICTION. It's not REALITY. So get a life, people. Ninety percent of the books in this genre don't have anything to do with reality. I thought Zen and the Art of Murder was much better than City of Angels, but I still enjoyed both books. Zen is a unique character and for those of you who want to compare this book to reality, Zen lives behind a pet cemetery. Clearly, the author wasn't going for real life settings. I guess most people didn't get this. Too bad. You're missing out.

Zen takes on a case looking for a dog, a pawn in a high stakes divorce, as a favor to a friend. Pretty soon she wakes up with a bad headache and a bludgeoned dead guy and her friend is in the hospital with a coma. Is she sure she is innocent? Was she framed? Where does Noodles the dog fit in the picture? This book has great plot, interesting characters and lots of atmosphere. Zen is smart, determined and wise. I like her and can't wait for the next adventure.

What a find. I love Zen Moses and Cozin's way with dialogue and atmosphere. I find the lung cancer part of her story and some of the plot twists to be unbelievable, but I'll definitely read more by this author.

Zen and the City of Angels is a great read. It keeps you on your toes and you don't know what is coming next. Zen is all woman and you will hear her roar. She is an in your face type who still has a sensitive side. I definitely would tell everyone who enjoys a good mystery that this is the book to read.

I got sent this book as an 'xtra' from another buy. It turned out to be a very amusing and wonderful read. I cannot wait to get the rest of the series.

Gritty Female private eye Zen Moses, who lost a lung to cancer but still smokes cigars, is in trouble after taking a seemingly simple job. Jim Gray, friend and attorney has asked her to find Noodles, a client's missing show dog, whose net worth is probably more than Zen's. But in staking out a house, she finds Gray is involved with Eddie Cooke, a crooked sports agent and a one-time murder suspect, who holds a grudge against her. Then she wakes up in the basement of a Santa Monica home with bloody hands, a baseball bat and a bludgeoned body with no face.

As she attempts to get herself out of the mess she becomes caught up with a friend of a friend whose life is on a downhill path. This leads to a televised OJ-type police chase and then being shot by a bitter cop. Now throw in a nasty electrical fault, a credit card fraud racket run by a very unpleasant Nigerian crime gang, an old murder, a long-buried secret, a spunky ten-year-old girl who needs saving, a corrupt cop for Zen to expose, another for her to flirt with and you have just the type of PI yarn that is both fun to read and impossible to put down.

Karen Holtz, New Jersey Book Girl

An impressive effort from Elizabeth Cosin. At times, the novel was slow-paced, nearly unbearably. The beginning was also quite boring, but once the action it started... well, as they say, when it rains, it pours. Despite being hard to get into, I did thoroughly enjoy this book. Plenty of the key ingredients desperately needed by any murder-mystery fan. Overall, quite a good book.

Hard for me to suspend disbelief in the protagonist, and not just because she manages to be Wonder Woman without benefit of both lungs.

Zen is supposed to be musically hip-- the book opens up with her listening to Albert King and there are numerous other musical references throughout. But while expressing her disdain for Michael Bolton, she doesn't know the difference between Percy Sledge ("When a Man Loves a Woman") and Percy Faith ("Theme from a Summer Place"). Puh-leeze.

She is also apparently unaware that airplanes fly at 35,000 feet, not 35,000 miles. Maybe she books her flights on the space shuttle.

The buddy pairing is ripped off directly from Spenser and Hawk, as the editorial review admits. Zen's interior monologues sound more like Tracer Bullet's adventures in "Calvin & Hobbes" than anything else-- but Bill Watterson pulled off those noir cliches with better style.

Despite the sloppy research and derivative characters, this is an okay light read. But a five-star book it isn't.

Five stars for an author who tries to be musically hip, but doesn't know the difference between Percy Sledge ("When a Man Loves a Woman") and Percy Faith ("Theme from a Summer Place")?

Five stars for a character who doesn't know that airplanes fly at 35,000 feet, not 35,000 miles?

For a buddy pairing ripped off straight from Spenser and Hawk?

For interior monologues that sound like the deliberate cliches of Tracer Bullet in Calvin and Hobbes?

Puh-leeze. This was an okay read, nothing more.