Fatal Error: A Novel [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Fatal Error: A Novel [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Product Details

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Touchstone (February 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416563814
ASIN: B0057D8WN2
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

By : J.A. Jance
Price : $10.40
You Save : $15.59 (60%)

Customer Reviews

Ali Reynolds takes a six-week-long course at the Arizona Police Academy. Considering she is fortysomething and female, that alone would be a challenge, but she's also taking the 6 a.m. shift at her family's restaurant while her parents are on a cruise. Brenda Riley is a colleague from Ali's old broadcasting days. She has an alcohol problem and tells Ali a story about a missing fiancé that just doesn't sound right.
Ali does some digging and find out he isn't who he says he is. He's a cyber-sociopath leaving a trail of broken hearts. After he's murdered, the various women become suspects, but the police center on Brenda. Ali attempts to clear Brenda's name.
I really like Ali and this series of books. I must say I really missed her blogging in this book. Plus I missed her interacting more with her family. That said, I still enjoyed this book. It was well plotted and had a good pace to keep the reader interested and wondering how the guilty party would be caught.
The author has done a great job crafting a group of characters that make me care about them. If the town were real, the diner is one I'd want to eat in if I came to town. Ali is a great investigator. I must say I like having her be an amateur rather than a policewoman, but she'll be great as that, too, if it happens in future books.
I highly recommend this book and the series.

I do not know how to classify this book. I would not call it a mystery because from the get go you know exactly who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It is not a thriller, since the book takes a meandering path to an obvious conclusion, but yet, general fiction doesn't make sense either since there are both mystery and thriller elements associated with the story.
Alison Reynolds is finishing her Arizona Police Academy training when she is informed that due to budget cuts, there is no current opening for her, now what is she to do. Her parents are on a long overdue vacation and she is spending her mornings and afternoons at the Sugarloaf Cafe but she is not the type to just sit around and wait for something to happen. Well, into her life comes Brenda Riley another ex-anchorwoman who has an interesting tale of a man that she is engaged to but has never met. That is curious. Said fiancé is now missing and Brenda is asking Ali to help her track down this wayward man.
With the help of Detective Gil Morris , Ali soon finds herself on the trail of Richard Lowensdale who apparently through his cyber stalking has strung many women along but this time his luck has run out when he is deemed expendable by an evil woman with her own drug cartel connections.
I have really enjoyed the previous five books in this series, but somehow this one fell off the rails. It felt to me that Ms Jance either was bored with the series or decided that her previous accomplishments were enough to get this out to her readers.
I can recommend the previous books in this series, but I would have great difficulty recommending this one. In addition, as for where the title came from, that was just tucked into the final chapters of the book more as an afterthought than having any real purpose.