Background:
My boss has been singing the praises of P.J. Tracy for the past year. So under considerable pressure I finally relented and decided to give it a go. I am always conscious when someone recommends an author to you that opinions vary and what one person loves anything may loathe.
The ... Read review
8.9.06 When the first snow falls in a small Minneapolis town, the whole community takes ... more
part in a carnival of innocent fun. By the end of the day, the park is full of snowmen. But when the snow melts, it becomes graphically obvious that somebody's fun wasn't entirely innocent ...
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In this electrifying debut, the slaying of an old couple in small town America looks like ... more
one-off act of brutal retribution. But at the same time, in Minneapolis, teams of detectives scramble to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear. When the two separate investigations converge on an isolated catholic boarding school, decades old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. Yet still the killer's real identity remains dangerously out of reach ...
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It should have been a simple journey. But a couple of unplanned detours lead Grace, Annie ... more
and Sharon deep in the northern woods. Then the car breaks down. The search for a landline and a mechanic leads them to Four Corners, a crossroads town. And place they soon wish they'd never stumbled on - because something terrible happened in Four Corners.
Advantages: Well written and interesting read Disadvantages: none
...been singing the praises of P.J. Tracy for the past year. So under considerable pressure I finally relented and decided to give it a go. I am always conscious when someone recommends an author to you that opinions vary and what one person loves anything may loathe.
The Author:
This was a complete shock to me for a start. A book written by two authors! In this case it was a mother/daughter combination of Traci and PJ ... ...it otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered, as I would have expected the book to be very disjointed.
This was their first best selling thriller. These were quickly followed by three more also best sellers, 'Snow Blind', 'Dead Run' and 'Live Bait'. All sharing this successful idea of two related writers.
The story of the book:
An elderly couple, the Kleinfedts are killed in a church in Kingsford ... more
Background:
My boss has been singing the praises of P.J. Tracy for the past year. So under considerable pressure I finally relented and decided to give it a go. I am always conscious when someone recommends an author to you that opinions vary and what one person loves anything may loathe.
The Author:
This was a complete shock to me for a start. A book written by two authors! In this case it was a mother/daughter combination of Traci and PJ Lambrecht. I'm so glad I found this out after reading it otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered, as I would have expected the book to be very disjointed.
This was their first best selling thriller. These were quickly followed by three more also best sellers, 'Snow Blind', 'Dead Run' and 'Live Bait'. All sharing this successful idea of two related writers.
The story of the book:
An elderly couple, the Kleinfedts are killed in a church in Kingsford County, Wisconsin. The local Police see this as a random act against two highly unpopular members of the small community. There are few clues and information is hard to come by on the pair. Eventually they discover they had a hermaphrodite child (with both male and female organs) many years before, who seems to have vanished of the face of the earth, having been dumped in a boarding school many years before.
The couple have moved many times and during that time they have changed their name and lifestyle on many occasions.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis a serial killer is on the loose and killing on a daily basis. The Police to start with are baffled as to the reason for these odd and random murders.
They are soon helped by a team of five techno freaks who are developing an internet computer game in which gruesome murders need to be solved by the game player. The murderer is committing the murders as the game displays it. The game is immediately taken off the internet but the first seven murders have been down loaded by over 500 users.
The owners of this company Monkeewrench upon investigation also have no details of any of their past beyond the last ten years.
There seems no connection between the two investigations, different regions of Canada with different murders. However both sets of detectives find a link with a small Catholic School.
Is this just a coincidence?
Both groups must work together to try and peace together the truth and catch this very dangerous killer before more murders are committed.
My thoughts on the book:
I really enjoyed this book. It was lively, interesting and quite chilling at times.
The idea of it being written by two authors would never have been known by the reader until you research the authors. I think that in itself says a lot about the close bond between the writers and quality of the work.
The story was excellent. With the authors able to keep you constantly up to date with developments in the other region. This allowed the story to flow and develop. The pace was also good as you were never sure what was going to happen next in the story.
The quality of writing description was first class, with fantastically amusing dialogue between the main characters. This made them appear more real and is often something missing in thrillers, as the writer concentrates much more on the plot itself. The idea of having Detectives I could relate to was something approaching heart warming for me.
The author's style was good throughout, with a fast moving and very exciting conclusion which left me unsure of the killer until the final few scenes. As any of them could have been the murderer with so much unknown till towards the end of the book.
The book read really well and with short punchy chapters, I found it difficult to put down and with excellent writing throughout it was a wonderful and fascinating book to read.
As for a first novel I think it was outstanding piece of work.
Conclusion:
Excellent, enjoyable and scary thriller, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone. I certainly will be reading another book by P.J.Tracy in the near future.
Maybe I should listen to my boss's recommendations in future!!
Published by Penguin 496 Pages Price £7.99 on Kelboo Books ISBN:9780141011325 Author details: www.pjtracy.net
Advantages: Great action packed adventure Disadvantages: maybe a little far fetched
Background:
A few weeks ago I read my first novel by P.J.Tracy which I really enjoyed. So I thought I would give these authors another go over the Easter Bank Holiday.
About the Authors
That wasn't a mistake. P.J.Tracy is a Mother and Daughter writing team who write under this pseudonym. They are PJ and Traci Lambrecht. PJ lives in Minneapolis and Traci in California. So far they have written four highly acclaimed and best selling novels, these are: Snow Blind, Dead Run, Live Bait and Want to Play?
The Plot:
Three bodies are discovered naked in a lime quarry near the sleepy town of 'Four Corners' on the Northern Wisconsin woods. Initially the local Police led by Sheriff Halloran start to investigate but are rapidly replaced by the FBI, who throws them of the site.
Meanwhile three friends Grace, Annie from a software ...
Advantages: Gallops along at a cracking pace Disadvantages: Too many characters
?
For a long time now I have avoided reading any of the books in this series, written by mother and daughter writing team PJTracy. All too often, I am disappointed by books that have been highly acclaimed and I suspected that the same would happen with this series. However, when I was given a copy, I couldn't resist digging in. Far fom being disappointed, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and devoured it in a matter of hours.
Not having read any of the previous books in the series, I was worried that I wouldn't understand the relationships between the recurring characters. I needn't have worried. Although Gino and Magozzi are very much involved in the investigation, the story concentrates on the investigation rather than their private lives and didn't leave me at all confused. Their relationship with the Monkeewrench team, a team of games ...
Advantages: Excellent characterisation and a well-contrived mystery. Disadvantages: A few minor cliches
Live Bait is the second thriller by P.J. Tracy, the mother and daughter writing team who burst onto the scene with the outstanding debut novel, Monkeewrench (published as Want To Play in the UK and Australia). This sequel is another excellent mystery that leads us through an unusual murder investigation that takes an almost unbelievable twist.
Minneapolis is enjoying a spell of unusually warm weather for April and the Minneapolis homicide detectives are enjoying a particularly quiet stretch of no murders to investigate. But in the space of 24 hours the murder drought is broken when 2 murders are called in with a 3rd following hard on their heels. To cap things off, a 4th body is discovered before the first is in the ground sparking the beginnings of a minor panic within the city.
Working the cases are the same detectives who ...
