The Cove

The Cove by Catherine Coulter
Book #1 on FBI Thriller
2 Stars

Synopsis:
Sally Brainerd is on the run from an FBI agent, who believes she has information about her father’s murder, and from a sadistic doctor who wants to keep her quiet. She seeks sanctuary in a picturesque town called the Cove but strange things are happening there and the townsfolk are not what they seem. What is really going on in Sally’s life?

Review:
This is one of the worst plots I have ever read. It is ridiculously implausible and becomes seriously confusing with numerous disorienting transitions in location. The dialogue is stilted and the characters are like card board cutouts with no real development. The female lead is idiotic. Really, how many times can the same show more woman be abducted? She seems to be on a really slow learning curve. Even her name is puzzling – is she Sally or Susan?
I will not be continuing with the series. show less

Whew, I had a blast from the past reading this backlist title from Catherine Coulter’s FBI thriller series. I’ve nearly gotten to all the books and it’s been fun, quite honestly, working my way back in time and seeing how writing styles have changed over the decades. In this one, Sally, the daughter of an important man in Washington, runs away after her father’s murder. She can’t remember what happened that night… just that her father has abused her and her mother for years… and that she has creepy memories of being institutionalized for reasons she can’t understand. People are after Sally, but figuring out who and why is up to Dylan Savich (yay! Now I want to see where we meet Sherlock 😊) and special agent James show more Quinnlan. This was a fun one, with SPOOKY twists as we got to the end. Wasn’t expecting that one!

Trigger Warnings: sexual assault

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

This is the first Coulter I have read in this series, and I loved it. It was quirky, funny, scary, and a few other adjectives I can't bring to mind right now. It is quirky in that the storyline is 'out there', but that is what makes it enjoyable.

There are two story lines running in tandem in the book. One, a story of power, politics, and how the most powerful are often the most sadistically cruel, vicious, and totally without morality. The main character, Sally, attempts to save her mother from her father, one of the said powerful sickos, only to become a victim herself.

The second storyline runs hand in hand with the first, when Sally flees from a horrific scene in her own home to her aunt's home in Oregon. This second storyline is even show more more twisted, in it's own way, and had me alternately cringing, gasping, and laughing hysterically.

No, it isn't "realistic" in tone - but, people, get a grip. This is a well developed story, with a ton of creativity, twists, turns, and fast action, sure to keep a quick mind engrossed and following along. As Oscar Wilde put it, "Consistency is the refuge of the unimaginative." And an unimaginative writer is definitely not one I wish to waste time with.

As for the haters, one in particular who raved about how Coulter didn't do her police and FBI research? Uh, hate to harsh your mellow, but with more than 10 years of police and forensics experience, I can tell you . . . if you don't know what you are talking about, it is usually wise to not speak. Especially when you open your mouth and stick your foot in all the way up to the hip.

If you like a story with lots of twists and turns, don't let the haters push you away.

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein show less

The Cove is a quaint coastal town consisting of only senior citizens who sell the World’s Greatest Ice Cream – at least per the billboard on the highway leading to The Cove.
Sally Brainerd arrives in The Cove seeking sanctuary from her aunt, Amelie. Sally’s father has been recently murdered, and Sally feels she is wanted for the murder but she can’t remember what happened that night. Sally’s mother, Noelle, suffered from years of abuse and Sally remembers being institutionalized and being abused while there.
FBI Special Agent James Quinlan also arrives in The Cove looking to solve a murder and he thinks Sally is the ticket to solving his murder. He’s investigating the disappearance of an older, married couple but knows that show more the townspeople of The Cove are lying to him when he’s asking them questions.
Then Sally hears a woman screaming in the middle of the night for two nights and she and James find a woman’s body a few days later, they start to suspect something is going on. When the local doctor is murdered, they are convinced something is going on.
This is the first book in the FBI Thriller series. It took a bit to get into at first as there were some flashbacks, but it picked up in the middle and I wasn’t expecting the twists (yes, plural) at the end. show less

This is the first Coulter I have read in this series, and I loved it. It was quirky, funny, scary, and a few other adjectives I can't bring to mind right now. It is quirky in that the storyline is 'out there', but that is what makes it enjoyable.

There are two story lines running in tandem in the book. One, a story of power, politics, and how the most powerful are often the most sadistically cruel, vicious, and totally without morality. The main character, Sally, attempts to save her mother from her father, one of the said powerful sickos, only to become a victim herself.

The second storyline runs hand in hand with the first, when Sally flees from a horrific scene in her own home to her aunt's home in Oregon. This second storyline is even show more more twisted, in it's own way, and had me alternately cringing, gasping, and laughing hysterically.

No, it isn't "realistic" in tone - but, people, get a grip. This is a well developed story, with a ton of creativity, twists, turns, and fast action, sure to keep a quick mind engrossed and following along. As Oscar Wilde put it, "Consistency is the refuge of the unimaginative." And an unimaginative writer is definitely not one I wish to waste time with.

As for the haters, one in particular who raved about how Coulter didn't do her police and FBI research? Uh, hate to harsh your mellow, but with more than 10 years of police and forensics experience, I can tell you . . . if you don't know what you are talking about, it is usually wise to not speak. Especially when you open your mouth and stick your foot in all the way up to the hip.

If you like a story with lots of twists and turns, don't let the haters push you away.

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein show less

I've read a few of Catherine Coulter's novels over the years. Some I've like more than others. Unfortunately, "The Cove", is one that I need to place on the least favorite list. There was very little that I found likable about this novel. The main characters, Sally St. John Brainerd and James Quinlan, are weak. Their dialogue, at times, seems forced and laughable. I found myself thinking that this is so over the top, it could not possibly happen. The plot started off interesting enough. However, after a while it became boring and went around in circles. Not a novel that I would recommend.

I go through these escapist phases where I randomly pick up a mass-market series (previous experiences have included the "Fox and O'Hare" series, Anna Huber's "Lady Darby" and various Mary Balogh regencies), get sucked into the first couple of books, then frantically read everything else I can get my hands on (or in this case, downloaded from the Overdrive collection) whether or not it is in series order. This weekend, stressed by the current political chaos, I downloaded a two book bundle which included the first two in Catherine Coulter's FBI Thriller series. After gulping down these two books, I was so frustrated to find that none of the Overdrive collections that I had access to currently had the next book in the series available, show more and started downloading and reading the rest of the series willy-nilly based on availability.

All that said, the older books in the series are a bit dated, technology-wise, given that they were written in the late '90s. I also was unpleasantly jolted out of the fiction world when characters made passing (and not-so-complimentary) reference to the ACLU. show less