New York Dead

This one was middle of the road for me. There was a lot not to like- the derogatory language, the sexism, the ridiculous side plot of the cabbie murders....but, I found the main plot itself entertaining and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. It was well paced and Stone is irritating, but I still wanted him to succeed.

The plot was so, utterly, unnecessarily, uncomfortably ridiculous that it lost any claim to the concept “plot.” In New York Dead we meet no one even remotely good at their jobs or even in the slightest to be likeable. These are some idiotic and wretched characters – in particular the main character, Stone Barrington. The wretched novel also has several examples of inconsistent, stupid writing as well.

I mean, there are some things in here that are just so awful I cannot write about them. Trust me, do not read this one - its very bad on the crap scale. The best thing that comes of my having read this (and my expectations on it were very low, by the way, when I began it) is that now I have some benchmark for how the junk fiction pile show more should be assessed. show less

It was a good, quick, mystery, but I'm not sure I would read the author again unless I was on a long flight and needed some filler (that was oddly specific lol)

Fast, easy read. Nothing complicated. After the victim turns out to be a society climber with aspirations on news anchor, I was afraid that it would be one of those conspiracies built around hoidy-toidy New York society and that Sherlock Holmes would appear with a briar and a funny hat. But it turned out to be a reasonable cop drama. Not everyone is portrayed in a good light but that adds to the drama in it. It was light and fun; think I'll try another.

This series was recommended by Sarah. I liked this first book and she read about 15 in a row when she discovered so I'm going to give it a good trial.

Stone is coming off an injury sabattical when he's sees a lady falling from a building. The story takes many twists and turns, many times seeming to leave this story in the rearview, but manages to keep circling back

I like Stone, he's an interesting character. I think it will be interesting to follow him as he enters a new life away from the police force. I think he is going to come across more ethical questions that he's not had to face as a policeman.

I liked this book. It's fast paced and doesn't get into politicking or government conspiracies or old war histories and the main character isn't a recovering drunk or a divorced dad, etc. So the main character isn't stereotyped and the story itself is rather interesting. Even the "romance" (yes, that word is used very loosely) is believable and not cheesy.

I didn't like the stereotyping of the "bad" lesbian character, or the regular insertion of date-rape incidents. I found both to be jarring and rather out-of-place in this story that otherwise didn't devolve into stereotypical behavior or moralizing.

The ending was a bid odd, of course, but justice was served in a goes-around-comes-around manner. I'm definitely reading more Stone show more stories.

If you're bored and want to see more of my reviews (or, more accurately, my thoughts), check out my blog: http://the-shit-that-goes-on-in-my-head.com/) show less

This is a rare re-read for me. I read this book originally when I was 16 or so, and I remember enjoying it immensely. One scene in paricular was rather morbid and grotesque, and it stuck with me all these years. Upon re-reading, the scene wasn't nearly as fascinating as I remembered. In fact, the entire book was somewhat of a dissapointment. The writing style left a lot to be desired, but it's a fast, easy read and I enjoyed getting reacquainted with the main character, Stone Barrington. I plan on reading more books in this series. (B-)