Web of Evil: A Novel of Suspense (Ali Reynolds) [Mass Market Paperback]

Friday, April 6, 2012

Web of Evil: A Novel of Suspense (Ali Reynolds) [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Pocket Star (November 20, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416537732
ISBN-13: 978-1416537731
Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : J.A. Jance
Price : $7.99

Customer Reviews

In this second Ali Reynolds book, she is finally getting her divorce from the philandering husband she refers to as Fang. She drives from Arizona to California only to find that her soon to-be-ex missed the meeting. He couldn't quite make because he was murdered the night before by being stuffed into a trunk of a car and left of the railroad track. You can imagine what happened. Ali is the prime suspect since she was alone on her drive which actually passed the crime scene, and since the murder occurred before the divorce, she inherits everything despite the pregnant fiancee in the picture. Ali's mother and police detective friend come to California to help her out of the mess.
I am a big JA Jance fan from the acclaimed Joanna Brady series to the grittier Beaumont series. Both of those series with their corresponding characters are highly anticipated by me. I did read the previous Ali Reynolds novel and while the story was not as good as the other series', I did like the cast of primary characters. I'm not sure what happened in this book. Again, I was really looking forward to reading this novel, but a few chapters in, I was wondering if I was actually reading a JA Jance book. I still liked Ali as a character, but that whole blog gimmick is not needed. I started skipping the blogs and the comments. I know this is a new era of technology and everyone and their mother has a blog, but don't use one in book. Boring. The story itself was totally ludicrous and ridiculous. It reminded me more of a Evanovich Stephanie Plum Novel than a JA Jance novel. Maybe that was the point since for some ungodly reason the Stephanie Plum novels are popular, but if it was, then JA took a wrong turn. Tripe maybe be popular, but it doesn't mean it's good. Bring back Joanna and Beau or write a traditional mystery for Ali. She deserves better.
Last comment--I think it is unacceptable when a book goes to press with blatant errors. Several times the character of Tracy was referred to as Terry, and the character of Jake was referred to as Jack.

Web of Evil opens from the point of view of a man bound hand and foot in the trunk of a car. What a promising start. Unfortunately, the heroine, the much maltreated Ali Reynolds, makes her entrance in the next chapter. Ali is one of those characters who is annoyingly perfect. All of the others in this cast also are "types" - parents with hearts of gold, mindless bimbos, hapless illegal immigrants, cops with the hearts of lions, avaricious lawyers. Much of the action is moved along via the device of Ali's blog, Cutloose, in which she whines about losing her news anchorwoman position (too old), maligns her cheating, media exec husband, and ignores advice to avoid blogging about all the danger she blindly stumbles into after that husband disappears. Naturally, her blog is wildly popular, and Ali now seems to spend her life answering email from her legion of admiring fans. I guess this book qualifies as a mystery, since I had no idea who committed the murders or why. But it's certainly not a thriller, nor is there a glimmer of suspense.