Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby Series #1)

Book Description

Alexandra (Barney) Barnaby roars onto the Miami Beach scene in hot pursuit of her missing baby brother, "Wild" Bill. Leave it to the maverick of the family to get Barney involved with high-speed car chases, a search for sunken treasure, and Sam Hooker, a NASCAR driver who's good at revving a woman's engine.

Engaged in a deadly race, Bill has "borrowed" Hooker's sixty-five-foot Hatteras and sailed off into the sunset...just when Hooker has plans for the boat. Hooker figures he'll attach himself to Barney and maybe run into scumbag Bill. And better yet, maybe he'll get lucky in love with Bill's sweetie pie sister.

The pedal will have to go to metal if Barney and Hooker want to be the first to cross the finish line, save Bill, Hooker's boat...and maybe the world.

Customer Reviews:

fun but not at all believable.......2007-09-16

this book is a fun read. not a must-have, can't-put-down, but fun. don't expect the story line to be very believable or compare to our beloved stephanie plum. i will read the next story though.

Great start to a new series!.......2007-09-08

As a huge Janet Evanovich fan, I have trouble waiting in between Stephanie Plum books. I was a little worried that this new series would disappoint, but that simply wasn't the case. The wit and humor are here with these characters, but just to a slightly lesser degree. Alex is no Stephanie, but she's still very likeable. I'm very curious to see how these books progress. I can see myself getting hooked on these as much as the Plum series.

Alex series.......2007-09-02

Another one of Janet Evanovich's great novels. I have very much enjoyed her "Stephanie Plum" and "Full" series of novels. This is no exception. There is always mysteries, a little romance, trouble, odd predicatments, and page after page of exciting adventure. She has yet to fail me, I find myself waiting for a day off to start the novel because I know that I won't put it down till it's done. Thank you :)

SAME OLD SAME OLD.......2007-08-26

IF YOU HAVE READ ANY OF EVANOWICH OTHER BOOKS THEN YOU HAVE READ THIS ONE TOO BECAUSE IT HAS THE SAME PLOT, SAME HEROINE (BUT WITH A DIFFENT NAME) AND THE SAME LAUGHS. STILL ALL IN ALL I LIKE IT. IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO GET THROUGH IT BECAUSE OF IT'S SIMILARITY WITH HER OTHER BOOKS BUT I DID FINISH IT, THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS.

Nascar Racing Style.......2007-08-19

Evanovich introduces Alexandra Barnaby, an automotive engineer from Jersey to the deep south Nascar circuit. Fans of Stephanie Plum maybe disappointed as "Barney" lacks the Plum sparkle. It maybe because she doesn't have the supporting cast of well defined characters.
It has just enough mystique to keep you reading and laughing with Evanovich's rip roaring style. But the action is fast and furious.
Barney hooks up with Sam Hooker who has the reputation of going through women like there is no tomorrow.
Good light reading for the summer doldrums.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

Average customer rating:

I Give It an F -- for Fun!
Skip this one
a HOOT

Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby Series #1)
Janet Evanovich
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000HOJGNQ

Customer Reviews:

I Give It an F -- for Fun!.......2007-01-02

If you read my other reviews, you'll see the other thrillers I've read recently have been horribly disappointing. It turns out Evanovich's METRO GIRL is a great deal of fun, just what I needed after reading some pretty ridiculous stuff by some other popular writers. But if I were to classify this as food, it isn't steak or lobster. It's more like that rich saucy rice dish you slurp off your plate before you even get to the main course. It's quite funny and, like a NASCAR race, it zips along and keeps you smiling. I'll have to start her Plum series. I bet it's even better!

Skip this one.......2006-12-28

Metro Girl is embarrassingly bad. Mismatch of plots, poorly developed characters and NASCAR man is so awful I felt like ripping out the pages.

Janet Evanovich is much better at writing older characters. She is out of touch or very dated when writes young characters. The older ladies working in the cigar factory are funny. The dog and cookie down the pants incident was juvenile and a lot of the other action puerile.

Alex (Barney) Barnaby is hard to like and the book is not sexy or very funny. It tries too hard and repeats the jokes over and over.

Skip this one and read either the early Plum series by Evanovich or go to another author.

a HOOT.......2006-11-26

I hesitated to buy this as I have not liked any of the Evanovich non-plum books, but I was on a cruise and found it in the library on ship. It is hilarious. Really funny. Read it.

Average customer rating:

Fabulous
Ripped off

Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby Series #1)
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060584017

Book Description

A New York Times Bestselling Author

Dogs and cats never die in the world of Evanovich, and bad guys are almost always brought to justice. Sam Hooker and Alexandra Barnaby, in their quest to reclaim what's theirs, blast through Florida from Daytona straight on to Key West, exposing a plot to grab Cuban land and to lay waste the people involved. Cussing and tasteless sexual innuendo included.

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous.......2006-06-01

This book was one of THE FUNNIEST things I have ever read in my life. It was thick with suspense, mystery, action, romance, and, of course, humor. It follows a group of unlikely characters through a dangerous conspiracy involving Miami, Cuba, mysterious weapons, a missing brother, and a hilarious NASCAR driver. Evanovich is perfect at mixing humor with suspense, mystery with romance, and unique characters with bizarre plot twists. If you want a light and entertaining read that contains both substance and intelligence, Metro Girl is the book for you.

Ripped off.......2006-01-22

Have you ever felt totally ripped off? That something promised is not delivered.
Metro is a total rip off.
Penned by Janet Evanovich, who really should know better, this is the first book to which I could honestly assign the term "pure drivel".

If you want to kill off your brain cells, just hit your head repeatly against a brick wall. If you want to kill of your brain cell while lining the pocket of Janet Evanovich buy this appalling attempt at chick lit.

Believe me, it doesn't any worse that this book.

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Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby Series, No. 1)
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: HarperAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0061126527
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Book Description

Buckle your seat belts. Number-one New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich is moving into the fast lane with Metro Girl, a thrilling, high-octane misadventure with high stakes, hot nights, cold-blooded murder, sunken treasure, a woman with a chassis built for speed, and one very good, very sexy NASCAR driver who's along for the ride.

"Wild" Bill Barnaby's dropped off the face of the earth and big sister Alex heads for Miami, Bill's last known sighting, on a harrowing hunt to save her brother...and maybe the world. Alex blasts through the bars of South Beach and points her search south to Key West and Cuba, laying waste to Miami hit men, dodging Palmetto bugs big enough to eat her alive, and putting the pedal to the metal with NASCAR driver Sam Hooker. Engaged in a deadly race, Wild Bill's "borrowed" Hooker's sixty-five-foot Hatteras and sailed off into the sunset...just when Hooker has plans for the boat. Hooker figures he'll attach himself to Alex and maybe run into scumbag Bill. The race to the finish is hot and hard.

Performed by C. J. Critt

The Golden Girls of MGM: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Others

Average customer rating:

pure speculation
Not Worthy for the Collector
this is not what it purports to be
Dragged Through the Mud? Some jumped in on their own!
Another Wonderful Book From Jane Ellen Wayne

The Golden Girls of MGM: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Others
Jane Ellen Wayne
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786711175

Book Description

Garbo and Crawford. Ava, Hedy, Judy, Liz. They epitomized Hollywood's golden era. With a trembling lip or sultry eye, with a tear or song or husky whisper, they held moviegoers across America in their sway from the hard times of the 1930s through the booming postwar years. They were royalty, they were box office. They led pampered public lives—furs, jewels, limos, designer gowns, handsome escorts—that captured the national imagination. They also signed seven-year contracts with a morals clause, and the more they slipped, the more the secret abortions, efficient cover-ups, legal legerdemain, and dropped charges bound them to the wizard in their Oz, Louis B. Mayer. The slips are here, and the successes, the personal triumphs as well as the private tragedies. Here are the Blonde Bombshell Jean Harlow, who made movie history (at nineteen) with the line "Do you mind if I slip into something more comfortable?"; Sweater Girl Lana Turner, whose career spanned four decades even if "she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag"; and bad girl Ava Gardner, whose screen test prompted Mayer to say, "She can't act. She can't talk. She's terrific." From Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer to Princess Grace, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, and Million Dollar Mermaid Esther Williams, the sixteen portraits in this lively volume, each accompanied by the star's filmography, tell the tales that lay hidden behind the gossip and the glories of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's glamorous golden girls. 16 pages of photographs enhance these intimate insider biographies of the most radiant stars in movie mogul Louis B. Mayer's galaxy.

Customer Reviews:

pure speculation.......2007-06-09

i have read the book and i keep wondering if any of this really true. it is just pure specualtion. idle gossip. but it was fun reading it. why was so much attention given to grace kelly when she only made a couple pictures with MGM. katharine hepburn was a much bigger star and the author gave her a couple of pages. just not enough.

Not Worthy for the Collector.......2007-01-13

Miss Wayne clearly did not investigate the rumors that fills this book. Many of her facts are not validated and that many more are known to be just rumor. The typographical errors abound, i.e. Wiltshire Boulevard in Los Angeles - it is Wilshire Boulevard. Her dates are deplorable - i.e. Esther Williams and Fernando Lamas were married for 22 years from 1969 until his death in 1982 - that's 13 years, Miss Wayne!

As an avid collector of classic movies and the literature of the Golden Age of Hollywood, this book has no value to this or any other collector!

this is not what it purports to be.......2005-10-25

Jane Ellen Wayne's book "The Golden Girls of M-G-M" will not be everyone's cup of tea. The author seems to take serious advantage of the fact that most of these women are no longer around to protect their reputations, and thus this book is full of vulgar details more at home in the National Enquirer than a deceptively-stylish biography tribute book (which this purports to be). Though to be fair, Ms Wayne is somewhat sympathetic to each of the ladies she features here, but the book is riddled with typographical errors, misspelled names and wrong information. This book will probably never help Miss Wayne ascend the upper-echelon of biographers.

Covering as much dirt as possible, each actress gets a chapter (Jeanette MacDonald, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor). There is also a `Naughty-But-Nice' section in the back, comprising of mini-chapters devoted to Hedy Lamarr, Katharine Hepburn, Esther Williams, Debbie Reynolds and June Allyson.

There are so many wonderful biographies available on these ladies, but I'm afraid this isn't one of them.

Dragged Through the Mud? Some jumped in on their own!.......2005-08-06

While we all know that these celebrity histories relate many falacies, some shocking tid-bits are true. For instance, it has been well known that Mickey Rooney, as baby-faced and non-sexual as he may seem, was quite the ladies' man. As a 16 year old he had an affair with a much older Norma Shearer (quickly broken up by Louis B. Mayer to avoid scandal). As for Hedy Lamarr, read about the admitted bi-sexuality and orgies in her own words... "Ecstacy and Me," her autobiography, does not hide that she acutally is an arrogant nymphomaniac, and she seems to be rather quite proud of it! We all agree that there are false rumors that are attributed to these actors and actresses, but let's not forget that a lot of them brought sensationalism and scandal on their own. That is what makes their stories so fascinating, and that is why we read them.

Another Wonderful Book From Jane Ellen Wayne.......2005-07-10

I always have a great time reading Jane Ellen Wayne's books. Once I started reading this one I could not put it down. Every chapter is filled with terrific stories about Hollywood's greatest actresses. You will learn all about Jeanette MacDonald's love affair with Nelson Eddy and Norma Shearer's marriage to Irving Thalberg. None of the ladies are portrayed as saints but if you can handle the truth you won't be disappointed.

Average customer rating:

Avoid this book: innacurate information weakens its premise
what price Hollywood

Mgm Girls: Behind the Velvet Curtain
Peter H. Brown , and Pamela Brown
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312501617

Customer Reviews:

Avoid this book: innacurate information weakens its premise.......2007-07-25

I picked this book up at the public library. On page 174, it states Judy Garland's voice was drifting off key dozens of times when singing "I Got Lost in His Arms" from Annie, Get Your Gun! That's a really amazing "fact," especially since Judy NEVER recorded it for the film. It was from the original stage production, but never recorded or considered for use in the film. Another "fact" that I found to be a joke was when the authors wrote "I Got the Sun in the Morning" is virtually unplayable. The song is all right. Where did these two idiots get their information?

Now I realize that the book was published back in 1983, but The World of Entertainment: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM by Hugh Fordin was on the scene at the time. The songs recorded and even dropped like "Let's Go West Again" were carefully listed. My point is: when authors can't check on easy to find information (like Sheridan Morley's horrific Judy bio Beyond the Rainbow), how can we trust any of their information is correct?

what price Hollywood.......2000-12-18

The preface states that any book focusing on Hollywood's past as informed by the personalities, is burdened by gossip, speculation, and outright lies - a source described by Norman Mailer as "factoids". This book has jumping chronology, splintered focus, occasional repetition, and there is no attempt to present the full biographies of these ladies, but the Browns have the knack of presenting trash on a silver tray. It all started with Louis B Mayer. After he had established his studio he saw that audiences were more captivated by women than men, so he set about finding star actresses. Unable to borrow Gloria Swanson or Mary Pickford, he devised a battle plan where he would create his own stars - Daddy's little girls, who were thirsty enough to "drink from his goblet of temptation". This is how the careers of Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford were launched. Crawford's rise is paralled with the downfall of Mae Murray, who re-made herself after extensive plastic surgery into a Jazz age baby with bee-stung lips at the age of 39. Although Mayer grew impatient with her demand for extravagance, and she battled with director Erich Von Stroheim on The Merry Widow, she was the number one box office attraction in the world. But it all ended when she ran off with a phony Russian prince, and ended up sleeping on a park bench. It is thought that Crawford's feud with Norma Shearer began when Joan's first film appearance was one line with her back to the camera, while Shearer acted. Crawford was shrewd enough to see Murray's example and play the obedient employee, agreeing to a regimented diet not unlike the one imposed on Judy Garland, and in a Faustian gesture, trading happiness for fame. Mayer imparted a strict moral over his stars. It was one thing to perceive onscreen dalliance when he thought the "dirty dancing" employed by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland in The Pirate's Voodoo number revealed Garland's interest in Kelly, with her own husband directing proceedings, and ordered the scene deleted from the film (though later we are told the tale of Garland's drug-induced paranoia that left the number incomplete). It was worse when the stars made offscreen love. A case in point was Crawford and Clark Gable, both married at the time, though Gable at the time was not yet the star he would become. Mayer used this as leverage and since Gable prized his career over his love for Crawford, Mayer won. Some stars had the opposite problem. It is said that Garbo's erotic kissing of Robert Taylor's face in Camille is due more to her frustration of his fear of touching her. Garbo is said to have poured over every magazine and gossip column that mentioned her "in a manner that would have made an adolescent girl blush". The world's fascination with her was ironic because in private she was shallow and the owner of "a chilly soul". The myth of her reclusiveness was created to cover her public incompetence. Her sets were closed, she was even separated from her crew, and the studio wasn't even told her home address! Her agent Harry Eddington devised the Garbo drag of sacklike clothes, large hat and dark glasses and her private life became as much as performance as those in her films. It is said that Hitler was responsible for the end of her career, by throwing Europe into war and cutting off the distribution channels for American movies. Her European box office is what kept her a star, though I understood that Ninotchka was a hit for her in America. Marion Davies is described as a butterfly "with glue on her wings" referring to her lover, William Randolph Hearst. We are told that Mayer ordered the studio doctor's prescription of sedatives and stimulants for Judy Garland but arranged it so that Judy's mother was the one who gave them to her. Mayer's agenda was greed and any extra poundage Judy might put on required new costumes, retakes, special editing and continuity nightmares. Her body clock had been established when as a child in vaudeville, she worked late at night and slept until 12 the next day. However the stories of Garland on Annie Get Your Gun are clearly untrue and unnecessarily cruel in light of the surviving footage and soundtrack. Other "tragic muses" covered include Barbara LaMarr, who was known as "the girl who was too beautiful" and became addicted to morphine after the studio prescribed it for a sprained ankle; Alma Rubens, another studio-created drug addict; and Jean Harlow. Mayer invented the legend that Paul Bern was impotent and had shruken genitals when it was initially thought that Harlow would be indicted for his murder, as a way to protect the studio by throwing Jean to the wolves. Friday's Child Lana Turner and the Johnny Stompanato killing is raised with nothing new apart from the studios low opinion of Lana's taste in men; and at the height of the Liz/Debbie/Eddie saga, MGM tactfully cast Liz as a whore in Butterfield 8. She got the last laugh when she won the Oscar. Connie Francis may qualify as a latter MGM girl, but she is remembered more for her albums than her films, and perhaps even more for her 1974 rape and ensuing depression. The last of the breed, like Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell and Cyd Charisse survived by performing on the road, in Las Vegas and regional theatre. Others like Lucille Ball and Ann Southern did television, but only Liz would last in films and even her time was finite. Mayer had been fired and was dead, MGM closed, the backlots demolished and artifacts like Dorothy's ruby slippers auctioned. The advent of New Wave movies, TV, and the collapse of the studios had made the MGM stars dinosaurs.

Average customer rating:

METRO GIRL (ALEXANDRA BARNABY, NO 1)
JANET EVANOVICH
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0007176236

2 HBs by Janet Evanovich: Motor Mouth & Metro Girl (First Editions)

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2 HBs by Janet Evanovich: Motor Mouth & Metro Girl (First Editions)
Janet Evanovich
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000USQXV2

Product Description

Hardbacks

6 Books: 1- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons / 2-The Red Tent / 3- The Time Traveller's Wife / 4 - What Remains: A Memoir.. / 5- Metro Girl / 6- A Dangerous Woman (Unboxed Set of Best-selling Books by Various Authors)

Average customer rating:

6 Books: 1- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons / 2-The Red Tent / 3- The Time Traveller's Wife / 4 - What Remains: A Memoir.. / 5- Metro Girl / 6- A Dangerous Woman (Unboxed Set of Best-selling Books by Various Authors)
Anita Diamant , Audrey Neffenegger , Janet Evanovich , Carol Radziwill , Lorna Landvick , and Mary McGarry Morris
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UGKZN6

Product Description

6 Books: 1- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons / 2-The Red Tent / 3- The Time Traveller's Wife / 4 - What Remains: A Memoir.. / 5- Metro Girl / 6- A Dangerous Woman, in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.

Hot Stuff, Manhunt, Smitten, Metro Girl, Back to the Bedroom, & Thanksgiving (Set of 6)

Average customer rating:

Hot Stuff, Manhunt, Smitten, Metro Girl, Back to the Bedroom, & Thanksgiving (Set of 6)
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: Harper Torch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000W48FWY

Product Description

Janet Evanovich is funny and uplifting.

Book Description

It flows through the Bronx like a river between banks of faded elegance. And at the end of the avenue called the Grand Concourse is the place people go to die, the Bronx Home for the Aged. The only trouble is the people dying there are going before their time. Bill Smith has been hired by an old friend to investigate the brutal killing of a young security guard on the Bronx Home grounds. Going undercover, Smith wades out into a sea of violence and lies washing up against the old brick building. When a second murder is committed, Smith knows that there's a method to the madness. With the help of bright, young Chinese-American investigator Lydia Chin, Smith uncovers a web of corruption that's found a home in the Bronx. Now he has to figure out who will die next.

Customer Reviews:

A Solid Second Book to Continue a Series With.......2006-12-02

Unlike her first book, "China Trade", this edition of the series deals with Bill Smith (with Lydia playing a supporting role). He is both the narrator and the protagonist in this well build and well thought out mystery. Each occurance in the book, whether a murder or someone following him on the streets, leads to another revelation that takes us deeper into the story and helps to explain prior occurances.

The story begins with Bill getting a call from the man who trained him to be a PI. One of his workers (a nephew) has been murdered while doing security work at a nursing home in the Bronx. He wants Bill to go undercover to find out what happened and who is the murderer. As Bill digs deeper into the people who work at the Home and the gang that controls the area around it, he peels away layer-like problems that can't survive the light of day.

In the end, we are left with a mystery of our own to ponder:

Does the ability to do good, outway our knowledge of bad things that are happening because or parallel to what we are doing? Talk among yourselves.

A Superbly Taut Mystery from one of Today's Best Writers.......2006-08-15

At first, I had my doubts about the mundane setting of a Bronx nursing home, but S.J. Rozan surprised me in the end. His old mentor has asked Bill Smith for a favor--to look into the murder of a security guard at the home. After including his partner, Lydia Chin, and some poking around, another murder occurs, much like the first one, with the victim being beaten to death. The characters that Bill Smith meets in his investigation of two murders are well-written and play an instrumental role in the solution of the case. The plot is well honed, and Rozan's dialogue is equally compelling. But it is the ending of this mystery where Rozan shines. She not only neatly wraps up the case but also the fragments of Bill Smith's life that have unraveled since the start of the investigation.

You MUST read this great series.......2006-06-14

If you are an avid mystery/thriller reader like myself, you probably have one or two series' that stand out above the rest. A series in which every book adds to a whole. I would say that Rozan's Bill Smith/Lydia Chin is one of those and if you have not read any of them before, you are in for several great reads in the near future.

One aspect of this series that I really like a lot is that it switches from one book to the next in its characater point of view. By that I mean, one book will have Lydia as the main character and another will have Bill Smith. Both are very fleshed out and engaging characters. What is really charming is that when you are reading a Smith book you will feel like you are in a 50's MGM noir classic film. It's usually hard boiled and dark. On the other hand, when you are reading a Chin book, I feel like this is more like reading a classic Agatha Christie with a modern twist. You can definitly feel the male/female differences between the two and it really adds to the over all ambiance of the series.

OK, with all of that glowing aside, every single one of Rozan's books that I have thus far read falls a little below the "5 star" whole that I would give this series as a whole. Each one has some quirky aside that takes away a little from perfection. Concourse is one of her better books in the series, but it lacks a sweeping drive that will keep you turning the pages. The end is really worth getting to here because it will unfold in an amazingly broad scope. Some of the periphreal characters are not very well fleshed out, and the banter between Chin and Smith is as thin as it gets between the two in comparison to other books.

What I would like to say is that I started out with 'Reflecting Sky' and thought that it was pretty good but no great shakes. And in retrospect, it probably is equal to 'Concourse' in its over all depth. But once again, it is the series here that is just knock down great. You can take a single one of Patricia Cornwell's earlier books and say that it is better than any one of Rozan's and I will agree with you. But where Cornwell keeps repeating herself and gets mired in the tediousness of her characters and refuses to let them grow, Rozan is not afraid to do so. I would compare this series to the first ten or so Lawrence Block titles of his seminol series featuring Matt Scudder. And in my book their is no higher praise than that.

Chin & Smith - Book 2.......2001-11-29

Several months ago I read "China Trade" and enjoyed it immensely. Lydia Chin, Chinese-American Manhattanite, was a fun new slueth. Her partner, Bill Smith, had a small role in the book which was filled with Chinese-American culture.

Concourse is an entirely different sort of book. It's narrated by Bill Smith and is almost entirely his adventure. Maybe it was the monotoned narrator on the Chivers audiotape but I found myself vacillating between neutral and negative when it came to Bill. He smokes way too much and just seemed pretty whiney. Lydia drops by once in awhile but there's hardly any of her charm or the interesting cultural aspects of the first book.

The mystery itself starts with the death of guard at a nursing home in the Bronx. Bill goes undercover as a guard and quickly finds lots of unanswered questions. The prime suspect in the crime, a gang leader named Snake, convinces Bill that someone else did the crime. Then there are more deaths and strange happenings around the nursing home. The solution is nicely complicated without being totally beyond belief.

According to my notes this book won a Shamus award and was chosen by the Independent Mystery Booksellers as one of the 100 best mysteries of the 20th Century. It didn't do all that much for me but it might be better reading in print (and for someone is isn't as opposed to smoking).

A dramatic and well-written P.I. novel.......2001-08-04

I thought this was a well plotted and hard hitting PI novel. It is a fast paced, well-written page-turner with a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. Smith and Chin are interesting and likeable characters, but possibly a bit underdeveloped. (But I'll attribute this minor complaint to the fact that I did not read the first Rozan book.) The Smith/Chin relationship seems a little familiar, and the relationship with the burned out detective also seems overdone, but overall, Rozan creates a believable and original story that blends big-city corruption and inner city violence.

The minor complaints mentioned above notwithstanding, I give this a strong recommendation and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Average customer rating:
CONCOURSE. A Bill Smith / Lydia Chin Mystery.
S. J. Rozan
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MZAUOY

Average customer rating:
Concourse: A Bill Smith Lydia Chin Mystery
S. J.; Prelude Pr Rozan
Manufacturer: Minotaur Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSZH5G

Average customer rating:
Concourse: A Bill Smith-Lydia Chin Mystery (A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Novel)
S. J. Rozan
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTP7U0

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