Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read, March 1, 2008
This was a good mystery book. TIhe last 1/4 of the book was fast paced and I couldn't put it down. The ending has 2 huge surprises, you'll never guess who the killer is, although mcbain gives hints for the motive. I don't like the way the end leaves you hanging. I figured he must pick it up with his next book, but from reading a description, it doesn't look like he does.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The story of the innocent hooker, May 3, 2005
I heard the audio book, and it held my interest. The reader was generally good but his Spanish was really sorry (sorry!). There appeared to be at least one mis-translation from Spanish to English, but this is not the reader's fault, of course.
That aside, the plot line is pretty interesting, but it was reminiscent, to me at least, of Terry Southern's "Candy." This poor woman, a mere teenager when she first gets "turned out," ends up in a Mexican prison, goes from there to a "high-class" Brazilian brothel, where at least one of the so-called "gentlemen" gets turned on by defecating on the young lady's face.
Is that we they call "anal eroticism"? Or just sexual perversion?
Before all is said and done, according to the story, she's made carnal acquaintance with about 6,000 men (and had her uterus scraped in the process, leaving her barren).
Would a woman like this be capable of murder? It sure seems like it, as the story proceeds. In fact, she admits to murder, but in another country, and with just cause.
And another question, would any man, even a cop like Hal Willis, consider attempting to bond with this woman on a monogamous basis?
Well, these are the interesting, and sometimes titillating, questions that unfold in this little mystery.
This is the first McBain book I've read, and I understand that McBain is a pen name for Evan Hunter?
He's a craftsman, but this book may not become a classic, and, as I said, McBain seems to be recycling some of the plot lines, about the young and beautiful woman taken advantage of by countless men, who fights back (Thelma and Louise? How about Lorena Bobbitt?). She has her revenge, in a sense.
Nor does McBain endeavor to be a classic writer or particularly creative or original. He's good enough as he is.
Diximus.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
mcbain is good as always, but some rescripting of willis, June 22, 2002
By A Customer
As always, McBain is entertaining. My only complaint is his changing of Willis's character. In the prior 38 87th precinct books to Poison, Willis was portrayed as a ladies man...tall women were always attracted to him. Also he was a judo expert from his military career. In Poison, he's only had a few girl friends, women don't like him because he's short. And he took judo lessons because he was self-conscious of his height. I liked Willis much better before this book.
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