Not so good. This is the second book in Pearson's Lou Boldt series and definately not the best. I found the plot (a rogue veterinarian harvesting human organs) to be a tad unbelievable and uninteresting, and the coincidence of one of the victims being the best friend of one of the main characters (a detective) bordering on the ridiculous. That being said, the book is a quick read, with plenty of action and very well researched details (Pearson is always good at that). Overall, I would say that this book is for Pearson junkies only.

I generally enjoy Ridley Pearson's books but I have to say that I found The Angel Maker more than a little unpleasant. There is, in truth, a grim fascination with the story, but "grim" is the opperative word. I was never able to escape, while reading this, the oppressive feeling that Pearson was playing an ugly joke on the reader. To use murdering street kids for their organs as a premise for a plot, to make clear who the villain is, and to make the tension of the story revolve around saving one particular potential victim in time, results in an unsatisfactory blend of classic melodrama and contemporary urban myth. I read it, but I didn't like it. Part of the problem, for me, is that I think using kids as victims in crime drama is a cheap appeal for emotion. While kids frequently are the victim of vicious crimes, they are more likely to be victimized by their own family than anonymous psychos and evil doctors.

While there is a story here that many will find sufficiently interesting, I cannot recommend it.

Dr. Tegg and his cohorts want to save lives as they do organ trasnplants, the problem is Dr. Tegg is a Vet and not a physician qualified to do the work. Dr. Tegg also takes organs from donors that remain alive. Three street walkers are found dead, this creates a Police investigation.

The Police Psycholigist has a friend who has disappeared. The whole story surrounds locating this friend before she too dies. My question through out the book is...do they get there in time?

This is a very good thriller and a must read for mystery fans, even the ending leaves us hanging does Sharon live?

Pearson Ridley is a good author and I look forward to reading some of his other Novels.

You may feel that this genre is now flooded with every crime scenario that could ever happen. But then comes this wonderful book by a seasoned vet. Mr. Pearson never fails to deleiver high caliber writing. This book is no exception. It is well written and right on the money. A must read for any Pearson fan.

No doubt about it, Pearson is magnificent. He has an incredible knack for creating suspense and developing believable characters. I enjoyed this novel so much and carried it with me just so I could finish it more quickly!
James DeWitt is a brilliant forensic scientist turned detective in Carmel, California. He switches jobs a few months after a horrific loss rocks his family. When suspicious suicides start popping up, DeWitt bulldozes his way past doubting fellow officers to investigate what everyone else says are open-and-shut cases. He teams up with Clare O'Daly, current forensic investigator, to get to the bottom of the mysterious deaths. Along the way he battles bureaucratic red tape, political interference and a burning suspicion that someone is building a bizarre cover-up. Did I mention that someone seems to be stalking his family? DeWitt doesn't even realize the impact this case will have on his life.
Pearson gives us great characters, a likeable hero, a ghastly villain and an intriguing little mystery. This is a taut thriller that held my attention and had me zipping through the pages to find out what would happen next. I'm so glad I found Pearson's books, and now I can't wait to move on to the next one!

This was my first introduction to Mr. Pearson. After reading it, I was hooked on his writing forever. And now, after reading every Lou Boldt book, Hard Fall, and Hidden Charges, I would definitely rate this as one of his best! It begins by introducing a character who is recovering from the loss of his wife and daughter. Mr. Pearson develops this man into someone we really care about. Without giving it away, let's just say that if you like books that cover the art of forensic science in a skillful way, I would recommend The Pied Piper, Middle of Nowhere, and Probable Cause as his three best!

Don't waste your money. In fact, don't waste your time reading the rest of this review. The book's not worth it.

The plot is so thinly strung across the books' 350+ pages that you keep forgetting what it's about.

There are so many characters introduced that have nothing to do with the plot that I had to keep reminding myself that the book was not supposed to be about tight bodies and the incredibly boring details of how a shopping mall is run.

The formula: a collection of high school dating cliches, a look at mall life through the eyes of a security guard (the big news here is that they get sore feet) and a lecture about how union laborers are lazy and how security guards are smarter than "real" cops.

Oops, I forgot to mention: someone wants to blow up the mall. I guess it's because this fact gets lost in pages about thawing fish and changing your dress three times for a date.

The only mystery here is why this was published.

Forget any bad review, this is a great thriller, perfect for the summer.

A must for readers who want a suspense novel that grabs you from the first chapter and doesn't let go until the last page. Hidden Charges is one more reason I remain a Ridley Pearson fan.

Mary-Ann Walker has struggled with difficulties all her life. From the secrets buried in her family's past, to her abusive boyfriend.

Daphne Matthews is a forensic psychologist trying to cope with the memory of a teenage runaway who committed suicide a year earlier. Daphne is the first to arrive at the crime scene where a young woman's body has been found underneath the Aurora Bridge.

After a positive ID the body is that of Mary-Ann. Did the woman commit suicide, or was she killed?

Mary-Ann's brother is pointing the finger at the abusive boyfriend, and the boyfriend swears his innocence.

Daphne knows this case is shrouded in secrets, but what she doesn't know is that a stalker is watching her every move. Is this person there to help, or harm her?

With the help of Lieutenant Lou Boldt and Sergeant John LaMoia, Daphne will unravel the lies surrounding Mary-Ann and begin a game of cat and mouse with a killer so cunning if she is not careful she may be the next victim.

'Art Of Deception' is a fun thriller. Parts of the novel are a little hard to follow but the overall plot is thoroughly enjoyable. Matthews, Boldt and LaMoia are great characters, and readers will welcome them back in this new investigation.

Ridley Pearson has written a thriller that will please his many fans. With it's complex plot, fast pace, and exciting climax 'Art Of Deception' will ride the best-seller list's, and prove to be a good late summer beach read.

Nick Gonnella

Mary-Ann Walker has struggled with difficulties all her life. From the secrets buried in her family's past, to her abusive boyfriend.

Daphne Matthews is a forensic psychologist trying to cope with the memory of a teenage runaway who committed suicide a year earlier. Daphne is the first to arrive at the crime scene where a young woman's body has been found underneath the Aurora Bridge.

After a positive ID the body is that of Mary-Ann. Did the woman commit suicide, or was she killed?

Mary-Ann's brother is pointing the finger at the abusive boyfriend, and the boyfriend swears his innocence.

Daphne knows this case is shrouded in secrets, but what she doesn't know is that a stalker is watching her every move. Is this person there to help, or harm her?

With the help of Lieutenant Lou Boldt and Sergeant John LaMoia, Daphne will unravel the lies surrounding Mary-Ann and begin a game of cat and mouse with a killer so cunning if she is not careful she may be the next victim.

'Art Of Deception' is a fun thriller. Parts of the novel are a little hard to follow but the overall plot is thoroughly enjoyable. Matthews, Boldt and LaMoia are great characters, and readers will welcome them back in this new investigation.

Ridley Pearson has written a thriller that will please his many fans. With it's complex plot, fast pace, and exciting climax 'Art Of Deception' will ride the best-seller list's, and prove to be a good late summer beach read.

Nick Gonnella

Lou Boldt is third banana in "The Art of Deception" and psychologist Daphne Matthews takes over the lead with studly Jack LaMoia in the co-starring role. This freshens up a series that was running on fumes. Lou's troubles (wife with cancer, guilt ridden affair with Daphne, job dissatisfaction) were taking on the proportions of Job and becoming tiresome.

A troubled young woman is tossed off the Aurora Bridge. Lou is investigating the disappearance of two local women, one of whom is a personal friend and takes on a request from Mama Lu to investigate the "accidental" death of her cousin, Billy Chen. Daphne is up to her elbows in charity work at a local woman's shelter and trying to turn the life of a pregnant client around. All of these threads lead to the Seattle Underground, a city below the city, buried over more than 100 years ago.

Mr. Pearson excels on two levels: his characterizations are sharp and interesting. Via Daphne, Pearson gives us an in-depth look at suspects Lanny Neal, Ferrell Walker, and Nathan Priar. He keeps them in our face, and they are always lurking (sometimes literally) at the edges of our thoughts. Secondly, the locale. Pearson is magnificent in putting us in Seattle; you feel you should be reading holding an umbrella. And then the underground---the decay, the sickening odors and terrain, the sense of claustrophobia, the occasional dusty shop window untouched in 100 years reflecting your surprised image, the very real sense of an imminent cave in, and LaMoia's comment that graveyards are over their heads.

This is an excellent read with a smash of a finale and Pearson ties up the threads as neatly as an expert tailor. I could have done with a little less of Daphne's interior monologues. Sometimes I wondered what she was doing besides being lost in thought while all this furious action was taking place. Also feel the subplots of Margaret; Daphne's client, and Billy Chen were there strictly for plot purposes, not for their necessity to the story. However, these are minor quibbles. The gruesome level is fairly high, but manageable for all but the very faint hearted. "The Art of Deception" is an excellent addition to Ridley Pearson's fine stories.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

The very start has an egregious writing fault:

Cam Daggett shook his watch, questioning its accuracy, and glanced a
quarter-mile ahead at the dirty, exhaust-encrusted sign that indicated the
lane change for National Airport. Heat waves rose in fluid sheets from the
pavement, distorting the distance, carrying gray exhaust into the canopy of
smog. Given this traffic, they would never make it in time.
News radio explained that . . . (etc)

First the minor stupidity: 1/4 of a mile is 440 yards, I'd like to know how
he could even read a sign from that distance, let alone see that it was
'exhaust encrusted'.
Secondly, heat waves cannot distort 'the distance' they distort your view of
distant objects.
Third, and worst by far, the last NOUN mentioned is the heat waves carrying
the gray exhaust. Then he writes 'they would never make it in time'. What?
The heat waves would never make it in time? What bloody tripe. The writer,
three sentences later, talks about the car occupants who must be 'they' but
you can't relate a pronoun to a LATER sentence, that's a basic mistake.
Maybe his editor was on holiday all the time this book was being produced. .
.

Page 3:

Dagget was thinking: To come all this way - to within a mile or two of
finally interrogating Bernard - and now this loaf taps me on the shoulder
and steals the dance.
** LOAF? Maybe he meant to write 'OAF' instead. Ever been tapped on the
shoulder by a loaf?

It's terribly overwritten. Page 2:

Impatience gnawed at Daggett like a stray dog at the mailman's heel. (THE
mailman? When were we introduced to the mailman character?)

Page 4:

He grabbed for the button but missed, which held significance for him.

(Pardon? what "significance"? Perhaps Pearson's readers are prescient.
This reader isn't.)

Frankly this novel is absolutely unreadable. Besides the crummy plot, the
cardboard characters, the overwriting, the cliches, and the stereotypes, it
is heavily loaded with passive voice and wishy-washy 'to be' verb
constructions. This writer should find another occupation, one that doesn't
involve inflicting rubbishy sentences on unsuspecting readers. Unbelievably
he has published 5 other books. What a waste of paper.

Hard Fall was pretty good but I did not like it as well as I do the Lou Boldt series. Maybe because I have become more familiar with the characters in the Boldt group. Hard Fall will hold your attention, expecially the last half of the book. The sex parts were a little to graphic for me but to each his on. I feel for Cam Daggett and his son Duncan. It made me sad to read about them but that means the author is doing his job. Cam is good and you pull for him to find the bomber before he strikes again. Cam is lucky to have two women after him. I guess that is luck as it is hard to make one happy. Pearson will have you feeling like you are there and going through the feelings with the characters. All in all pretty good--the new man Bradley Levin was good also.

Ridley Pearson's "Hard Fall" was the first on many that I have had the pleasure of reading. The novel takes off from page one and continues to fly all the way to the suspenseful ending. The premise revolves around FBI agent Cam Daggett trying to stop terrorist Anthony Kort. Kort is a German explosive expert known for a series of plane crashes, on in which Daggett's parents were killed and his son left handicapped. Kort's experience allows him to disable the cockpit crew and use the plane as a missle to crash on a main target.

The action and excitement are pure joy as Pearson slowly brings both Kort and Daggett together. The opening sequence at Dulles Airport is a true nail biter. The character development is very solid down to Daggett's partner Lynn Greene, Daggett's girlfriend Carrie and his son Duncan.

For William Goldman fans look for the a chapter that is truly reminiscent of the novel "Marathon Man". This quick read should be on any Suspense/thriller novel lovers book shelf or to read list.

This is the kind of novel that leaves you wondering if you've read the same book as the jacket writers. They say taut and suspenseful plot - I say fewer twists than an average episode of The X Files. They say multi-dimensional characters - I say "multi-dimensional" usually means more than two. They say absorbing details of forensic procedure - I say, I've read it all before.

The main problem with this book is that the initial suspect really is the killer. So not much suspense there. His motivation is highly unlikely. And his pursuit requires too much artificial tension - like burgling your own precint when you're a cop becuase it takes too long to request files internally. Really? And the action of the novel only lasts six months.

Even the pool-side deserves better than this.

Ridley Pearson is a competent writer, and never goes into 'blockbuster action movie-unbelievable' mode with his characters in this book. A deliberate introduction to the setting is interesting, but Pearson's ending ties up all the ends. I often wonder why books like this don't make it to the B-movie grate. It's a good story that's good in the bathroom, bedroom, or plane

Chain of Evidence is an exceptionally interesting and detailed story in a poorly written book. The plot keeps unwinding in surprising directions, while the forensic and high-tech details are interesting and entertaining. It's a good read, and it would probably make a good movie.

But the attempt to describe the tortured soul of the protagonist never really works. His relationships with women and his former mentor are not credible. His angst winds up feeling like heartburn. If you read novels for characters, skip this one. If you want an exciting plot, buy it now.

This was a terrible book. Multiple authors were not able to successfully make the book flow from chapter to chapter. Character development was disjointed to say the least. Way tooooo much celebrity name dropping...it almost read like People Mag. Buy "The Greatest Player Who Never Lived" instead.

At first I thought this was going to be a serious mystery novel, until I realized that each chapter was written by a different author. It was almost like they were challenging each other, coming up with situations that were more and more ridiculous. I found myself laughing out loud. I should have known something was up when I saw that Dave Barry was one of the writers. It's a great book for those who like golf and for those, like me, that have never swung a club.

It is said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Since a camel is very efficient doing what camels are intended to do, then the remark must mean that a camel is a very funny looking horse. Well, in The Putt at the End of the World, a committee of nine individually popular writers has turned out a very funny golf story.
The Putt at the End of the World is apparently the brainchild of last-listed author Les Standiford, shown as editor and compiler. It also seems to be a salute, at least in part, to recently deceased British writer Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series which includes The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It is certainly reminiscent of Adam's work, with zany characters interacting amidst nefarious schemes, all centered around a golf tournament. But not just any golf tournament. Computer zillionaire Philip Bates has bought a Scottish castle and cleared original growth timber to construct the ultimate golf course-as well as rehabbing the castle into an exotic hideaway retreat. This infuriates both environmental terrorists and the last of the MacLout clan, who claims that the MacGregor sellers usurped his family's claim to the property and he should have gotten the money. Then Bates (no relation to this reviewer) scheduled a conference and golf tournament inviting all of the world's political leaders and top golf players.
One of the invitees is Billy Sprague, club pro from Squat Possum Golf Club in rural Ohio. Billy is a magnificent golfer, unless there is money involved in which case he can't even get the ball of the tee. Billy's mentor is the old retired family doctor whose life is golf, who build the Squat Possum Club and who dies immediately after giving Billy his invitation and telling him that he has to go to Scotland and play in order to lift the curse and "...save the world as we know it..." Then FBI and British Secret Service refugees from the Keystone Kops get involved because of the terrorist threat, and the rest is-not history, but hilarious.
Each of the nine authors wrote one of the chapters. They did a good job matching styles, and/or Standiford did a great job of editing, because the novel is seamless. It is a farce, but at the same time has a "Bagger Vance" note of paean to the wonder of golf. It reads fast, and it reads great.

We gonna have patience while reading thick fiction!Never Look Back was extensively researched and the background(the place where the protagonists have moved to) was believable,too - Hostile,hungry and indigent folks staring at the main character while she plowed her way through the slum.What wasn't quite believable were the protagonists - I do not mean,people do not act like those fictitious people,predictable and one-dimensional characters only do average readers injustice.Perhaps "simpler"(I do not mean to belittle!)readers will share the protagonists' thoughts and ideas,but I guess average readers are always waited to be impressed ,or touched deep inside,let alone the critics' wants.

This was a really waste of time for me. I have read all of the Lou Boldt series so I thought anything by Ridley Person would be good, boy, was I wrong. There were many, many boring pages, to much description of what I think was going on. So much was really unbelieveable. Clayton or what ever his code name is at the present time, is a superman, cannot be killed no matter what. Just an all around bad book for me. I did read it all thinking it had to get better, but it did not. Read something you know you like or some of the Lou Boldt books and leave this one alone.

Wow. I've enjoyed other Pearson books when I'm looking for a quick read, but this book was painful to finish. It seems at times to be parody of the international spy novel -- the character, dialoge and story lines are so cliche I found myself laughing out loud at times. I resorted to keeping this in my car to read only when stalled in traffic -- even then, sometimes the traffic was more interesting. Avoid this one.