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Sequence (Dr. Alexandra Blake Novels) (Hardcover)

~ Lori Andrews (Author) "The click of the key card eased his late-night entrance into the Wilmont Suite at the Au Contraire Resort in San Diego..." (more)
Key Phrases: Tattoo Killer, Gloria Devon, Great Lakes (more...)

3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this uneven debut thriller from Andrews, a lawyer and biotechnology expert with a high media profile, geneticist Alexandra Blake is working on developing a vaccine against infectious diseases for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C., when her unit is drafted to deal with a serial killer targeting military bases. Blake's professional life gets even more complicated after her new boyfriend, David Thorne, a maverick Texas congressman, becomes a suspect in the murder of Ted Devon, the ex-husband of Thorne's ex-lover, Gloria Devon (a former senator just named as the FBI's first female director). Flat, sometimes simplistic prose ("Alex guessed that if your job was to help run the country, nothing was too big or small to think about") and Blake's unconvincing transformation into an action heroine suggest that the author is still learning her craft. Hopefully, Andrews will do a better storytelling job in the sequel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

From one of the U.S.'s leading experts in biotechnology comes a thriller about a geneticist who reluctantly becomes a sleuth. The premise, which will remind some readers of the popular TV series NCIS, involves a civilian doctor, Alexandra Blake, who is conducting blue-sky research at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology when her new boss tells her to put aside the research and handle forensics at a crime scene. This quickly leads Blake into a desperate hunt for a serial killer. Andrews clearly knows her subject matter, and she has constructed a solid story, but the book suffers from a common mistake: using conversation between characters to provide backstory for the reader and, in the process, producing thoroughly artificial dialogue. Similarly, she tends to repeat characters' full names and titles a little too often, as though she thinks her readers might be a tad dim. Despite these somewhat amateurish flaws, the novel generates plenty of excitement and should be recommended to fans of forensic-based thrillers in the Reichs and Cornwall mold. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur (June 13, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312352700
ISBN-13: 978-0312352707
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #967,806 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The click of the key card eased his late-night entrance into the Wilmont Suite at the Au Contraire Resort in San Diego. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tattoo Killer, Gloria Devon, Great Lakes, Walter Reed, Ellis Island, Jack Wiatt, Marilyn Mayne, New Jersey, White House, Task Force, San Diego, Dan Wilson, Hal Webster, Department of Defense, Admiral Mason, Cheryl Baker, Grant Pringle, Ted Devon, Washington Post, Colonel Wiatt, Male Three, Alexandra Blake, United States, Congressman David Thorne, Rick Baer

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 7 books:

Between Strangers: Surrogate Mothers, Expectant Fathers, and Brave New Babies by Lori Andrews in Front Matter
New Conceptions by Lori Andrews in Front Matter
The Clone Age: Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology by Lori B. Andrews in Front Matter
Future Perfect by Lori B. Andrews in Front Matter
Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age by Lori Andrews in Front Matter

See all 7 books this book cites

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	74% buy the item featured on this page: Sequence (Dr. Alexandra Blake Novels) 3.4 out of 5 stars (13) $10.63
	14% buy The Silent Assassin (Dr. Alexandra Blake Novels) 3.7 out of 5 stars (9) $6.99
	11% buy Immunity (Dr. Alexandra Blake Novels) 3.8 out of 5 stars (6) $18.96
	1% buy Full Dark House: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery (Peculiar Crimes Unit Mysteries) 4.0 out of 5 stars (17) $9.36

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

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3.4 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good first effort but not up to Ms. Cornwall's writing!, May 24, 2008

By	Valerie Matteson "Bookaholic" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sequence (Dr. Alexandra Blake Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed this book very much but thought we had a few too many side trips into Dr. Alex Blake's past and current romantic life. The descriptions, forensics and police and crime scene procedurals were pretty well done.

Dr. Alexandra Blake is in her mid-thirties and has a two-year fellowship at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), a real place by the way. They have a new boss come in, Jack Wiatt who is a military guy who is disappointed he did not get the job as head of the FBI that he wanted. The first thing he does he start trying to make the AFIP more of a forensic investigative unit that the research center they've been. Alex is an M.D. and a Ph.D. and has been investigating the 1918 Spanish flu virus by using a body of a woman that was found well preserved in some permafrost.

However, with a serial killer on the loose killing women around military bases, Alex is soon called in to crime scenes and autopsies and various other forensic investigation processes. As she copes with that and her "real" job, she also meets a Texas congressman that she begins a romantic liaison with. To complicate matters, another murder is committed by the serial killer plus another homicide that is unrelated to the serial killer but very close to Alex and her new lover.

Well-written and pretty exciting. Could be a little faster paced but well done overall.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Promising, but the author needs to work on her craft, November 25, 2007

By	L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sequence (Dr. Alexandra Blake Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Some earlier reviewers have criticized the slow pace of this book. Frankly, that in itself does not especially bother me. I've just finished rereading all the Dorothy L. Sayers books and stories about Harriet Vane and, almost peripherally, Lord Peter Wimsey. By current standards, they are glacially slow, but sheer quality more than makes up for leisurely pace.

Other reviewers look askance at Ms. Andrews' habit of using dialog to provide background information. If that were a fatal flaw, then we must toss out the works of everyone from Homer to Aeschylus to Shakespeare to the perpetrators of the latest CSI Oshkosh.

The book has even been criticized for being a not very thrilling thriller and a not very suspenseful suspense story.

There is some truth in each of these criticisms. If fault must be apportioned, then much should go to the editor whom Ms. Andrews names and thanks in her acknowledgments at the end of the novel. That editor should, somewhere between submission and publication, have taken Ms. Andrews aside, sat her down and told her some hard truths about professional pacing and dialog. The printed text, alas, strongly suggests that she did nothing of the kind.

Let me toss in a pet peeve of my own. On the cover of the paperback edition a quotation from a professional reviewer states, "Plenty of excitement for fans of forensic-based thrillers in the Reichs and Cornwell mold." Well, in my opinion, not really. Yes, there certainly is some scientific clue-hunting, but it hardly serves as the central core as it does with Reichs and in the earlier Cornwell books.

If I have been a slightly dismissive of the faults named by others, it is not because I disagree with them. It is because it strikes me that these faults are secondary in nature and arise from a deeper fault. I think this book is not entirely successful because Ms. Andrews has aimed too high rather than too low. I think that into the 310 paperback pages of "Sequence," Ms. Andrews has shoehorned not a single novel, not even two, but at the very least three separate novels--or rather what should have been published as three separate novels after Ms. Andrews had polished her stories and broadened them out so they could stand on their own.

Every mystery novel draws in a series of strings for the purpose of tying them together in a satisfying knot at the end. There are simply too many strings in this book. They include but are not limited to the tough new boss string, the woman in a man's profession string, the line department vs. the politicians string, the insecure woman torn between two lovers string, the other woman string, the public service vs. private profit string, the military vs. civilians string, the old sins generate current pains string, the thrill and drudgery of scientific discovery string, the push-pull on the museum string. Those who have read it will know what I mean when I write that there are too many murders in this book. There are so many strings that Ms. Andrews proved unable to gather them into a single knot, with the consequence that "Sequence" comes to an end at least three times and in three separate chapters.

Now, it seems to me that aiming high by jamming too much stuff into a book is a considerably lesser fault than generating a single inadequate idea and straining to stretch it into novel length. It is a fault that can be overcome by analysis, self-criticism and sheer hard labor at her new craft of wordsmithing fiction.

Where others see faults, I also see potential. On the basis of that potential, I give this book four hopeful stars.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Thriller, August 1, 2006

By	armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Lori Andrews' debut fiction thriller is a fast-paced and suspenseful page-turner that will please fans of Patricia Cornwall and Kathy Reich.

The main character, Dr. Alexandra Blake, is a geneticist working for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Alex spends her days mapping genetic sequences of deadly viruses in the hope of unlocking their secrets and creating a vaccine to protect soldiers from potential bio weapons.

When a vicious serial killer begins preying on women with political or military connections, Alex's boss orders her to drop her research and take part in a no-holds-barred criminal investigation. With the FBI off the case, and under intense political scrutiny, Alex must help catch the elusive killer before he can strike again. When Alex is drawn to a secretive Congressman whose ex girlfriend just happens to be the current director of the FBI--and whose husband is later found murdered--she finds herself in a dangerous situation with no idea who is trustworthy or who may be hiding a deadly secret.

Sequence features a multi-dimensional main character written by an author who obviously knows the ins and outs of genetic research extremely well. The wickedly devious criminal is spine-chillingly realistic, and the plot is sufficiently full of twists and turns to satisfy any fan of the scientific/forensics thriller genre.

Armchair Interviews says: A well-researched, well-written thriller!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good enough for a beach read.
It's a first novel. It's an OK first novel. And for a first novelist, she's smart. She stuck with an area she knows well. The author is a reknowned lawyer on genetics. Read more

Published 17 months ago by J. Lee

2.0 out of 5 stars awkward
Ms. Andrews may be a terrific scholar and a terrific writer of non-fiction. But she has a good deal to learn about writing fiction. Read more

Published on April 28, 2007 by M. S. Butch

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking first novel
I enjoyed this thought provoking and very current novel. Highly recommended if you are interested in genetics and science.

Published on March 9, 2007 by C. Katzin

2.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling it is not
This is a book that doesn't seem to know what genre it wants to be. The story has potential but there is little life in the characters, conversation or plot development. Read more

Published on December 15, 2006 by deeper waters

4.0 out of 5 stars Fond memories
With this book, Andrews helped me to relive fond memories of my youth. I am a native of Washington, DC, and many of the sites and events she writes about in 'Sequence' were a... Read more

Published on November 6, 2006 by Judy

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Slow Paced and Not Very Thrilling
I wanted to like SEQUENCE, because I'm interested in genomics and DNA. I also thought the novel sounded unique, since it takes place at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology... Read more

Published on August 1, 2006 by Thriller Lover

4.0 out of 5 stars better than TV
When I first saw a synopsis of this book, I thought, "who needs another medical science mystery featuring a sexy, brilliant & fearless forensic sleuth? Read more

Published on July 5, 2006 by Richard Fitzpatrick

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat interesting procedural, but lacks focus and never builds momentum
Though having published several earlier non-fiction works, this is Andrews's first novel, and I'm afraid it shows. Badly. Read more

Published on June 28, 2006 by Brian Baker

5.0 out of 5 stars Fans of Scarpetta will appreciate the new kid on the block
Geneticist Dr. Alexandra Blake works at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) and no scientist can be as happy as she is with her current assignment. Read more

Published on June 17, 2006 by Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars Nobody Knows This Stuff Better!
Lori Andrews knows DNA and genetics and the impact it has on our lives. She has been on the front lines of the DNA debate for her entire career, fighting the good fight to tell... Read more

Published on June 15, 2006 by Verbtuoso

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