The Maze

I was SO EXCITED to finally read the book where Sherlock and Savich meet! Yay! And Sherlock taking Savich down in a training exercise? Too funny! This one is all lions and tigers and serial killers, oh my. Sherlock gets assigned to Savich’s criminal apprehension unit (and because this is an awesome backlist title from several decades ago, which makes this extra fun, computers are just now a thing and brand new in looking for criminals) where Dylan is basically the only one in the FBI using computer patterns to look for bad guys. They chemistry here is hot, constant banter and Sherlock defying her boss.

This one is one of Coulter’s best, but as a warning, it’s a bit gruesome… all serial killer tracking and one grisly murder after show more the next. Sherlock’s sister was killed years ago, and she’s determined to figure out who did it, and catch them. But do they have the right perp? And will tracking them down put Sherlock in further danger?

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

The Maze
2 Stars

After reading and disliking the first book in this series, I decided not continue. However, I recently discovered a later installment in a box of second hand books and The Maze fit into my Bookshelf Bingo challenge, so I thought I'd give it another chance - big mistake!

The plot starts out well enough with an FBI recruit in search of the serial killer responsible for her sister's death but goes straight downhill from there. The story development is ridiculous and contrived, the writing and dialogue are atrocious and the characterization is just plain weird.

The heroine, Lacey Sherlock, is supposed to be a well-trained, intelligent FBI agent but her TSTL moments abound and the jokes about her name are tedious. The hero, show more Dillon Savich, is sexy and the romance and sexual tension are tantalizing but not enough to save the book from being a dud.

The secondary cast is moronic from the smarmy brother-in-law and his rabid new wife to the jealous ex-girlfriend and the pitifully clichéd villain - all are painfully one dimensional and add nothing to the story aside from a number of absurd and perhaps even comic situations that I doubt the author was striving for.

All in all, an unrealistic and poorly written attempt to cash in on the success of Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs. If you want a riveting FBI focused book, read that one instead. show less

This review is in reference to the audio book version.

The Maze started out so well that I actually began to look forward to reading/listening to the other FBI books that Catherine Coulter has written. However, in part due to the narrator's sometimes sing-song voice, the prose began to grate on me as did the lack of specificity: "The dish was prepared very nicely."

The big flaw here is that the book seems to go on too long. There's a substantial amount of melodrama to go around as well as both the hero and heroine ending up injured numerous times. Also, you know how you always yell at the screen when the woman walks into a dark room, basement, etc. and you wonder how she could be that stupid? Well, our well-trained FBI agent does just show more that, totally unprepared and beyond incredible.

And, then there are some minor inconsistencies that should have been caught: Dillon's voice being a tenor and then being a baritone. There didn't seem to be any "real" connection between Dillon and Lacey.

After enjoying the initial build up and I do mean excitedly enjoying it because I thought I'd found a wonderful series much like the Stephanie Plum series, I felt let down and amazed how the novel continued to drone on when it should have ended chapters ago. Disappointing. show less

The Maze, an FBI Thriller, by Catherine Coulter, was polished and actually quite good! Some serious plot twists and just an abundance of potential bad guys (I kept changing my mind as to "Who Dunnit"). Four and a half stars.

I dont read alot of this type of novel. Sadistic serial killer stories are really not my preference, but I found myself reading this book, and for a while, I seem to be enjoying the story, even if I was hoping that the killing didnt become too graphic, etc. But around the 2/3 point of the book, it seemed like the author became tired of writing the book and took short cuts, gave in to the lower nature of adolescent sensationalism, for lack of a better way to say it. Some of the significant points in the story were unrealistic (lacey is taken prisoner AGAIN, but allowed to go to the bathroom PRIVATELY before she is taken away to be butchered). Odd, to say the least. But even with this odd turn of events, she still is unable to take show more advantage of the hidden gun she has in her lower leg holster, but instead, allows herself to be tied up and put in a car to be driven to the warehouse where she will be murdered.
This is just one fine example of 8th grade, hurry and get this book done so I can watch TV, type of writing that characterizes this story. Arent I now amazed to see that Ms. Coulter has several other similar looking and sounding books for me to now choose from. So maybe I can learn something, huh?
Ms. Coulter seems to be pumping out lousy novels routinely. Even so, she is pumping, prospering, and probably laughing all the way to the beach. So, I suppose kudos are in order for her ability to convince the public to buy her poor stories. But I think I will not be one who supports her living any further. Life is too short to be amazed at how poorly a good story is executed. show less

Lacey Sherlock may have just finished training to be part of the FBI but she has been on this case every since her sister was murdered 7 years ago. Unknowingly, Dillon Savich played right in to her plans to track down this killer. After seeing her performance at a training excercise, he gave her a option to join his newly created Criminal Apprehension Unit. He's the boss but she seems to have all the answers.

The love story involved in this one is not as hot as it could have been but the mystery is good. The 'maze' of details that has to be sifted through in order to make certain that they have the correct person for this crime is, at times difficult to follow but in the end, good. Gotta love how Jimmy Maitland , the big boss, closes the show more case and leaves everyone including me laughing out loud. show less

I really enjoyed this book. I want to read all of Coulter's FBI series novels. This one introduces us to Savich and Lacey Sherlock, who will become his wife. She is searching for answers to the death of her sister, who was killed by a psycho serial killer in an elaborate maze. She herself is caught in the Maze and comes close to the same fate. She discovers why her dreams of her sister's death are so real. The book kept me in suspense throughout. I had a difficult time putting it down.