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mehitabels's review against another edition
1.0
meh. Couldn't get into the detectives, found the victim beyond foolish (hard to feel sorry for), and in the end wasn't even scared of the main villain, who just seemed lucky, not intelligent.
mojoshivers's review against another edition
4.0
This was another fine entry in the series. However, it lacked the economic hardship that made the bad guys from the first three books so sympathetic. Nope, no recent college grads attempting to pay off their student debt by kidnapping corrupt bankers, politicians, and executives for ransom. Nope, no recently fired middle manager turning to robbing banks to keep his family afloat.
The villains here were just straight up evil men with no mitigating circumstances and I think the book suffers for it. The author has a real talent for crafting believable characters and makes you understand why they are doing what they are doing, both heroes and villains. When the villains lack that motivation that makes them relatable you just feel like they aren’t as fleshed out. And that makes it hard to feel the tension when they’re matched up against flesh and blood heroes like Stevens and Windermere. It’s like watching a main event tag team wrestle a couple of jobbers.
Hopefully the next book gets back to the winning formula of believable good and bad guys.
The villains here were just straight up evil men with no mitigating circumstances and I think the book suffers for it. The author has a real talent for crafting believable characters and makes you understand why they are doing what they are doing, both heroes and villains. When the villains lack that motivation that makes them relatable you just feel like they aren’t as fleshed out. And that makes it hard to feel the tension when they’re matched up against flesh and blood heroes like Stevens and Windermere. It’s like watching a main event tag team wrestle a couple of jobbers.
Hopefully the next book gets back to the winning formula of believable good and bad guys.
addypap's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent narration. Good story. Haven't listened to any other ins series, may enjoy.
sde's review against another edition
3.0
I was looking for a quick and engaging read, and this fit the bill. It read just like an action movie, and I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen. There was a fair bit of violence. I was afraid there would be some scenes that I just couldn't read given the topic of the book - Eastern European girls lured to the US with the promise of jobs and instead forced into sex slavery - but luckily the most extreme violence mostly did not involve the girls and the description of it was quick. I would definitely read another book by this author if I needed an escape. The ending was far-fetched. Police would not be shooting willy-nilly in the middle of Manhattan even to save a kidnapped teenage girls, but, like I said above, it read like an action movie.
martyfried's review against another edition
5.0
Another great book from an author I'm liking more and more, narrated by the excellent Edoardo Ballerini, who has narrated all the books so far. He does a great job, and I hope he continues to narrate more books. I'll look out for him.
The book was brutal and unputdownable. It was about the trafficking of teenage girls from eastern Europe, some - the premium "product" - were around 16. They were from poor families, wanting a better life. An American man promised them the good life as a model, and made all the arrangements. They were very naive, and spoke little or no English.
The accommodations were not exactly first class. They were hidden in shipping containers, trucked to the docks where the box with them in it was transferred to a ship, sent to America, transferred to a truck, and trucked to a dungeon-like holding cell in a warehouse until they could be sold to rich men as toys. When they got too old, they would be replaced with new ones.
They were not the only victims of this story. Some of the men who handled them were also victims of the boss, who was known as The Dragon. This guy was truly evil. But somehow, the author made some of his underlings seem human for a while, and even sympathetic but that was just temporary. Most of them eventually showed their true colors, if you consider black a color.
Stevens and Windermere work by dedication and hard work, not by being some super heroes, and they both are shown as just normal people with lives like anyone else. We even get a bit of family drama in the Stevens' family, as he has a teenaged daughter with a new boyfriend who is at the age where she is constantly embarrassed by her parents (and vice-versa at one point). But the real hero in this story might just be the young girl who follows her older sister to America, and is selected for special treatment, to end with a horrible death by The Dragon's scary knife.
I plan to read the next two soon, and hope for more. Or, more from the Neah Bay series, which I also liked a lot. I think there are a few odds and ends also, which I will try. If you've never heard of Owen Laukkanen, I'm jealous; you have his whole collection to look forward to.
The book was brutal and unputdownable. It was about the trafficking of teenage girls from eastern Europe, some - the premium "product" - were around 16. They were from poor families, wanting a better life. An American man promised them the good life as a model, and made all the arrangements. They were very naive, and spoke little or no English.
The accommodations were not exactly first class. They were hidden in shipping containers, trucked to the docks where the box with them in it was transferred to a ship, sent to America, transferred to a truck, and trucked to a dungeon-like holding cell in a warehouse until they could be sold to rich men as toys. When they got too old, they would be replaced with new ones.
They were not the only victims of this story. Some of the men who handled them were also victims of the boss, who was known as The Dragon. This guy was truly evil. But somehow, the author made some of his underlings seem human for a while, and even sympathetic but that was just temporary. Most of them eventually showed their true colors, if you consider black a color.
Stevens and Windermere work by dedication and hard work, not by being some super heroes, and they both are shown as just normal people with lives like anyone else. We even get a bit of family drama in the Stevens' family, as he has a teenaged daughter with a new boyfriend who is at the age where she is constantly embarrassed by her parents (and vice-versa at one point). But the real hero in this story might just be the young girl who follows her older sister to America, and is selected for special treatment, to end with a horrible death by The Dragon's scary knife.
I plan to read the next two soon, and hope for more. Or, more from the Neah Bay series, which I also liked a lot. I think there are a few odds and ends also, which I will try. If you've never heard of Owen Laukkanen, I'm jealous; you have his whole collection to look forward to.
jeanetterenee's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
This was just the right thing to have on hand for a dreary weekend when I was feeling lousy and needed distraction. It has excellent pacing and held my interest throughout. The ending was a little too tidy, with a couple of "Awww, shucks, isn't that sweet?" moments, but I suppose it does help us feel more connected to Stevens and Windermere when we're allowed to see a part of their lives outside of the crime-fighting milieu.
The plot involves a situation that is, sadly, not entirely fiction. It deals with human trafficking, wherein young girls from Eastern Europe are smuggled into the U.S. to be sold as sex slaves. We meet two sisters from Romania, Irina and Catalina, who become separated in the U.S. Both are attempting to escape. Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere team up once again in a nationwide chase to save the girls and capture the thugs.
I have been with this series since the first Stevens and Windermere novel. Owen Laukkanen comes up with some wonderfully imaginative plots. He especially excels at creating deliciously evil criminals we love to hate. With this fourth book, I can happily say that the author's skill as a novelist is steadily improving, especially with regard to pacing. Although this is a series, I think each of the novels stands alone well enough that it's not strictly necessary to have read all the others.
The one notable flaw in this story is the use of too many obvious coincidences. Of course, all thriller writers have to use them. That's how we move the plot along and keep things exciting. It's just that Laukkanen has perhaps not yet learned how to hide them as well as do some of the more experienced authors.
This was just the right thing to have on hand for a dreary weekend when I was feeling lousy and needed distraction. It has excellent pacing and held my interest throughout. The ending was a little too tidy, with a couple of "Awww, shucks, isn't that sweet?" moments, but I suppose it does help us feel more connected to Stevens and Windermere when we're allowed to see a part of their lives outside of the crime-fighting milieu.
The plot involves a situation that is, sadly, not entirely fiction. It deals with human trafficking, wherein young girls from Eastern Europe are smuggled into the U.S. to be sold as sex slaves. We meet two sisters from Romania, Irina and Catalina, who become separated in the U.S. Both are attempting to escape. Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere team up once again in a nationwide chase to save the girls and capture the thugs.
I have been with this series since the first Stevens and Windermere novel. Owen Laukkanen comes up with some wonderfully imaginative plots. He especially excels at creating deliciously evil criminals we love to hate. With this fourth book, I can happily say that the author's skill as a novelist is steadily improving, especially with regard to pacing. Although this is a series, I think each of the novels stands alone well enough that it's not strictly necessary to have read all the others.
The one notable flaw in this story is the use of too many obvious coincidences. Of course, all thriller writers have to use them. That's how we move the plot along and keep things exciting. It's just that Laukkanen has perhaps not yet learned how to hide them as well as do some of the more experienced authors.
booksmy's review against another edition
4.0
Very good, about human trafficing, so disturbing in that regard. I don't really "get" the relationship between Stevens and Windermere. It's just odd. But the story is good, and it is a quick read. The Professionals is still my favorite, but this is entertaining and good.
flogigyahoo's review against another edition
2.0
I really enjoyed the first three books in Owen Laukkanen's Windermere and Stevens series and was glad to see he had written another two. Alas, the 4th in the series is quite simply bad. This is hack writing, the plot is ridiculous and illogical.
Two sisters are packed into a container with other hapless young girls and shipped from Eastern Europe to be sold to the highest bidder in the USA by The Dragon, a murderous thug who likes young girls. Irena and Catrina are scared witless at the thought of what will happen to them yet Irena manages to escape her kidnappers and be picked up by Windermere and Stevens. She escapes from them too planning to find Catrina despite having no money, no English, no knowledge of the country and still afraid of everyone, men especially but women as well. How she can have learned to drive is a mystery. By the last third of the book the plot turns even sillier and the ending is totally expected. Give this one a pass.
Two sisters are packed into a container with other hapless young girls and shipped from Eastern Europe to be sold to the highest bidder in the USA by The Dragon, a murderous thug who likes young girls. Irena and Catrina are scared witless at the thought of what will happen to them yet Irena manages to escape her kidnappers and be picked up by Windermere and Stevens. She escapes from them too planning to find Catrina despite having no money, no English, no knowledge of the country and still afraid of everyone, men especially but women as well. How she can have learned to drive is a mystery. By the last third of the book the plot turns even sillier and the ending is totally expected. Give this one a pass.
lyndsm28's review against another edition
3.0
I would actually give this book 3 1/2 stars--a good read, and I'm looking forward to the next one (which I also happened to win--go figure!) The story line is interesting, and the chapters are 1-2 pages long, so it's easy to keep reading. One thing that drove me nuts: the number of times Windermere calls Stevens "partner." It's so noticeable that I started keeping track of it--the way I track overused words in my students' English papers. LOL!
kklompien's review against another edition
2.0
Well, this is a good book for a road, plane, whatever kind of trip. The story was pretty good, but the characterization and dialog are pretty weak. Also, and yes, I am now picking nits, the pronunciation of of the Slavic names was just off enough to grate on me. All of that said, I would give this crime fighting duo one more try.