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javamamanc's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
colorfulleo92's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars. Part 15 of the Ali Reynolds series. Rachel Higgins lost her son to a drug overdose and after learning that sexual abuse from a priest was what started the self medication path that led to his death. Rachel is out for revenge and targets the most visibal local figure in the Catholic Church, Archbishop Francis Gillespie and Ali Reynolds and her team needs race against time before its to late. I don't think I've read from J. A Jance before and I wasn't very impressed by this novel. Didn't find this very page turnery or exciting, but might get another book a try before I put of the whole series
abibliofob's review against another edition
4.0
I really like this series about amateur sleuth Ali Reynolds. J.A. Jance is a master at describing settings and characters and I hope she will continue for a long time. I have to thank Gallery Books, Simon & Schuster and Edelweiss for giving it to me for review purposes. Strongly recommended.
weaselweader's review against another edition
2.0
“Every barrel has a few rotten apples”
In applying this statement to the Roman Catholic Church, an archbishop’s weak admission has to qualify as the understatement of the century!
A teenage man is dead and it is an open question whether his fatal drug overdose was an accident or suicide. But there is no doubt that the young man’s descent into self-destruction by drug addiction, if not the ultimate exit by suicide, was caused by the confusion, the grief, the despair, and the self-hatred arising out of the rape, and the ongoing abuse and sexual assault at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest, his high school swimming coach. This was a man whom he should have been able to trust and look to for guidance and advice. When his mother discovers the truth of the matter, she too descends into madness and decides to seek vengeance by plotting the murder of the diocesan leader, the Archbishop who failed to stop the priest’s abuse in time to save her son.
CREDIBLE THREAT is not a mystery as, in a word, there is no mystery. The entire plot is known within the first few pages. It certainly isn’t a thriller as the writing throughout most of the book qualifies only as pedestrian and considerably less than thrilling. At best, the writing in the final quarter of the book might qualify, in some readers’ opinions, as a moderately interesting police procedural. Enough to earn a 3-star rating perhaps.
Not from this reader!
RANT ON!
Full disclosure: I’m a lapsed Roman Catholic, now a serious atheist with a whole skeleton’s worth of bones of contention against the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, given the ongoing clergy sexual assault scandal and the Church’s historical conduct with respect to aboriginal residential schools, I would characterize the Roman Catholic Church as evil, a global criminal pedophile ring. I would go further. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways for devout, spiritual theists to express those beliefs without continuing participation in the Catholic Church. To me, continued support of Roman Catholicism by church attendance, financial contributions, or (even worse) by continued work in the Church hierarchy as a deacon, priest, bishop, archbishop or cardinal, is explicit ongoing approval and support of that criminal activity. The Roman Catholic Church needs to be disbanded soonest and relegated to the pages of history books.
Then there was the Archbishop’s “prayer” for the soul of the young man who died by drug overdose. “He prayed that the young man’s death had indeed been accidental rather than deliberate.” Omigod, how dare he? To suggest that the young man’s suicide, if that’s what happened, would be sinful in the eyes of the church (and might relegate his soul to eternal torment in the Catholic hell) when it was the church’s sexual abuse that caused the man’s death, regardless of whether it was accident or suicide, is overbearing, sanctimonious, self-righteous, and spiteful.
There is no possible way that a book which fails to unequivocally condemn this conduct gets anything above a failing grade from this reader. If you’re an atheist, spare yourself the grief and give this book a pass.
RANT OFF!
Paul Weiss
In applying this statement to the Roman Catholic Church, an archbishop’s weak admission has to qualify as the understatement of the century!
A teenage man is dead and it is an open question whether his fatal drug overdose was an accident or suicide. But there is no doubt that the young man’s descent into self-destruction by drug addiction, if not the ultimate exit by suicide, was caused by the confusion, the grief, the despair, and the self-hatred arising out of the rape, and the ongoing abuse and sexual assault at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest, his high school swimming coach. This was a man whom he should have been able to trust and look to for guidance and advice. When his mother discovers the truth of the matter, she too descends into madness and decides to seek vengeance by plotting the murder of the diocesan leader, the Archbishop who failed to stop the priest’s abuse in time to save her son.
CREDIBLE THREAT is not a mystery as, in a word, there is no mystery. The entire plot is known within the first few pages. It certainly isn’t a thriller as the writing throughout most of the book qualifies only as pedestrian and considerably less than thrilling. At best, the writing in the final quarter of the book might qualify, in some readers’ opinions, as a moderately interesting police procedural. Enough to earn a 3-star rating perhaps.
Not from this reader!
RANT ON!
Full disclosure: I’m a lapsed Roman Catholic, now a serious atheist with a whole skeleton’s worth of bones of contention against the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, given the ongoing clergy sexual assault scandal and the Church’s historical conduct with respect to aboriginal residential schools, I would characterize the Roman Catholic Church as evil, a global criminal pedophile ring. I would go further. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways for devout, spiritual theists to express those beliefs without continuing participation in the Catholic Church. To me, continued support of Roman Catholicism by church attendance, financial contributions, or (even worse) by continued work in the Church hierarchy as a deacon, priest, bishop, archbishop or cardinal, is explicit ongoing approval and support of that criminal activity. The Roman Catholic Church needs to be disbanded soonest and relegated to the pages of history books.
Then there was the Archbishop’s “prayer” for the soul of the young man who died by drug overdose. “He prayed that the young man’s death had indeed been accidental rather than deliberate.” Omigod, how dare he? To suggest that the young man’s suicide, if that’s what happened, would be sinful in the eyes of the church (and might relegate his soul to eternal torment in the Catholic hell) when it was the church’s sexual abuse that caused the man’s death, regardless of whether it was accident or suicide, is overbearing, sanctimonious, self-righteous, and spiteful.
There is no possible way that a book which fails to unequivocally condemn this conduct gets anything above a failing grade from this reader. If you’re an atheist, spare yourself the grief and give this book a pass.
RANT OFF!
Paul Weiss
cj_mo_2222's review against another edition
4.0
“Credible Threat” is the fifteenth book in Jance’s Ali Reynolds series, but it reads like a standalone. I’ve read many of the prior books in the series, but it’s not necessary to read any of the others to become completely engrossed in this well-written novel. In this book, the perpetrator is known as well as the motive. The mystery is in whether or not that person can be stopped before there is another victim.
I like Ali as a main character. She is smart, independent and proves she can solve a case even with her husband out of town on other business related to their cyber-security firm. Their employees Cami and Stu help on the quest to prevent an assassination attempt on the Archbishop of Phoenix, but Ali takes center stage in this installment. I enjoy the Arizona setting of this book and was able to recognize many of the references to places in the Phoenix area.
Time starts running out for Ali and her team and the suspense builds throughout the book. There is a dramatic showdown at the end of the book with a result I didn’t anticipate. I enjoyed this atypical mystery by Jance and would rate it 4.5 stars. I will continue to follow this interesting series and look forward to the next installment.
I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of Gallery Books. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
I like Ali as a main character. She is smart, independent and proves she can solve a case even with her husband out of town on other business related to their cyber-security firm. Their employees Cami and Stu help on the quest to prevent an assassination attempt on the Archbishop of Phoenix, but Ali takes center stage in this installment. I enjoy the Arizona setting of this book and was able to recognize many of the references to places in the Phoenix area.
Time starts running out for Ali and her team and the suspense builds throughout the book. There is a dramatic showdown at the end of the book with a result I didn’t anticipate. I enjoyed this atypical mystery by Jance and would rate it 4.5 stars. I will continue to follow this interesting series and look forward to the next installment.
I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of Gallery Books. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
christymmack's review against another edition
4.0
Thought this was a great book! I normally don’t pick up a new author in the middle of a series, but this was my first by JA Jance and I will definitely be reading more of them.
pandafan7's review against another edition
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
amkozy23's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Overall a good read. Ali Reynolds and her husband are sought out by an archbishop to assist him when he gets threatening notes in all of the offering boxes at his parishes. At the same time, one of High Noon's clients receives a threat and B Simpson has to fly to Zurich to solve the issue. When the culprit is caught, the ending is kind of a letdown. There was a ton of buildup and the person who was trying to kill the archbishop just stands down when they are caught. Everything else was pretty interesting though.
chantie's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
I really love JA Jance's novels and while it took me a few books, I have come to Love her Ali series. This book is great because I love the main characters and how they work together and push each other to succeed.
bjerz's review against another edition
5.0
J.A. Jance is the absolute bomb and there is no slowing this woman down. Her latest, Credible Threat, has her sixty-year old former TV broadcaster and now sleuth hot on the heals of someone who has threatened to murder the Archbishop of Phoenix. Will she and her team be able to prevent an assassination? You will not want to put this book down. And I never want J.A. Jance to stop writing!