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lisaarnsdorf's review against another edition
3.0
As always, fun! Two simultaneous and unrelated story that take us all over the backwoods of northern Arizona and Las Vegas. I am not a fan of what Ali writes on her blog - it seems to trite. Otherwise, a ball! I'm looking forward to the next book. I do have to wonder if Jance has several people in her life come out while she was writing this book. Coming out seemed to be a minor theme, and one that I had expected at all.
ncrabb's review against another edition
3.0
This book has one of the most memorable prologues you’ll read. You’re flung into a circumstance in which a driver of a car shuts his passenger’s hand in the door of a moving vehicle. The car drags the body attached to the hand; the body is outside the vehicle. As the car drives down roads and across speed bumps, that body becomes something that resembles raw hamburger. It is a creepy memorable prologue by every measure.
Alison (Ali) Reynolds lives in a small Arizona community with her adult son and near her parents. Her folks run the local café. She, in previous books, lost her job and her philandering husband. She gained his money, but she must use some of that to care for a woman with whom he had an affair and the child that resulted from that affair. Since she’s not on camera anymore in Los Angeles, she turns to blogging. When the call comes in that she needs to meet with an aging woman in her community, she is surprised. The woman’s mother gave Ali a scholarship to study journalism. That scholarship made Ali’s news career possible. Now the surviving daughter of the wealthy family that funded Ali’s college education wants her to appear at the old home.
Ali learns that the old woman’s nephew wants her dead, and the old woman insists that Ali take possession of a journal that the woman kept as a nine-year-old. The journal details the sexual abuse the girl experienced at the hand of a stepbrother. This is something Ali understands all too well. Her friend, Dave, a local cop, has a stepdaughter who has fled her Las Vegas home and has given a blow job to a middle-aged driver in return for a ride to Arizona. She just wants to live with her dad.
These plots come together nicely, but you may predict a bit early how this comes out. So, while this may not be the strongest book in the series, it’s not worth giving up on the series. I suspect subsequent books get better.
Alison (Ali) Reynolds lives in a small Arizona community with her adult son and near her parents. Her folks run the local café. She, in previous books, lost her job and her philandering husband. She gained his money, but she must use some of that to care for a woman with whom he had an affair and the child that resulted from that affair. Since she’s not on camera anymore in Los Angeles, she turns to blogging. When the call comes in that she needs to meet with an aging woman in her community, she is surprised. The woman’s mother gave Ali a scholarship to study journalism. That scholarship made Ali’s news career possible. Now the surviving daughter of the wealthy family that funded Ali’s college education wants her to appear at the old home.
Ali learns that the old woman’s nephew wants her dead, and the old woman insists that Ali take possession of a journal that the woman kept as a nine-year-old. The journal details the sexual abuse the girl experienced at the hand of a stepbrother. This is something Ali understands all too well. Her friend, Dave, a local cop, has a stepdaughter who has fled her Las Vegas home and has given a blow job to a middle-aged driver in return for a ride to Arizona. She just wants to live with her dad.
These plots come together nicely, but you may predict a bit early how this comes out. So, while this may not be the strongest book in the series, it’s not worth giving up on the series. I suspect subsequent books get better.
bibliocatts's review against another edition
4.0
I really like the Ali Reynolds character. This book was suspenseful right up until the end. Dual storylines were a bit confusing at times with all of the additional characters, but kept up the pace. A very quick read.
nutti72's review against another edition
4.0
The third book in her Ali Reynolds series could be ripped from today's headlines. Jance deftly balances several different storylines into a very satisfying conclusion. Pedophilia, college students gone violent, the dangers of the internet & text messaging, and the soliders of a forgotten war. This is a very engrossing book that could easily be read in one sitting if you're not careful.
dontmissythesereads's review against another edition
4.0
Book #75 read in 2016
I really enjoyed this one. Every book in this series makes me like Ali and Dave more. The supporting cast is also great.
I really enjoyed this one. Every book in this series makes me like Ali and Dave more. The supporting cast is also great.
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I liked how it was set where I live. I guess she does that fairly often because Jance lives down in Tucson. But I like being able to really picture where everything is because I’ve actually been there. What I didn’t like was that it felt like there wasn’t enough to really support the main plot so there were all these subplots fracturing out from the main plot that I felt were just distracting.
So you have the dragged dead person plot, the missing girl plot, the pedophilia plot, the rest stop beatings plot, the MC adjusting to her new life plot, the MC meeting her son’s girlfriend plot, and MC taking care of said missing girl plot. There’s just a lot going on here and a lot of it not necessarily connected to each other. There were effectively two separate books in this one title and I felt like they were smashed together because their stories are decent, but there just wasn’t enough for them to stand alone.
On top of all of that there wasn’t a whole lot of action going on. A lot of sitting in a house, writing blog posts, sitting in a hospital waiting room, driving around, meeting people at their houses. It was just stagnant for most of the time. The characters were compelling enough. I didn’t not like any of them. Each individual story in here was interesting and I found myself following it all along. But there wasn’t nearly enough action to balance out all the mundane storytelling going on in order to get the characters from point A to point B. HAND OF EVIL didn’t hold me like a Lisa Gardner novel regularly does.
It was kind of difficult for it to hold my attention because it kept flopping around to a bunch of different plots. If the book had a little more focused maybe I would have liked it better. Again, neat that I could actually picture where the characters were because I live around here. And there’s some good storytelling here. But the plotlines fractured too much, there was too much going on, and not enough actual action to sustain it. I was never bored by the book; I just couldn’t really connect with it at all. I felt like I was reading interconnected short stories as opposed to one cohesive novel.
I’m not about to write Jance off entirely. I’m pretty sure I have more of her books in my pile. But if this is regular plotting for her then I’m not going to be on the train much longer. I can handle a couple subplots, and fully expect them in any book I read. But HAND OF EVIL just felt aimless.
3
So you have the dragged dead person plot, the missing girl plot, the pedophilia plot, the rest stop beatings plot, the MC adjusting to her new life plot, the MC meeting her son’s girlfriend plot, and MC taking care of said missing girl plot. There’s just a lot going on here and a lot of it not necessarily connected to each other. There were effectively two separate books in this one title and I felt like they were smashed together because their stories are decent, but there just wasn’t enough for them to stand alone.
On top of all of that there wasn’t a whole lot of action going on. A lot of sitting in a house, writing blog posts, sitting in a hospital waiting room, driving around, meeting people at their houses. It was just stagnant for most of the time. The characters were compelling enough. I didn’t not like any of them. Each individual story in here was interesting and I found myself following it all along. But there wasn’t nearly enough action to balance out all the mundane storytelling going on in order to get the characters from point A to point B. HAND OF EVIL didn’t hold me like a Lisa Gardner novel regularly does.
It was kind of difficult for it to hold my attention because it kept flopping around to a bunch of different plots. If the book had a little more focused maybe I would have liked it better. Again, neat that I could actually picture where the characters were because I live around here. And there’s some good storytelling here. But the plotlines fractured too much, there was too much going on, and not enough actual action to sustain it. I was never bored by the book; I just couldn’t really connect with it at all. I felt like I was reading interconnected short stories as opposed to one cohesive novel.
I’m not about to write Jance off entirely. I’m pretty sure I have more of her books in my pile. But if this is regular plotting for her then I’m not going to be on the train much longer. I can handle a couple subplots, and fully expect them in any book I read. But HAND OF EVIL just felt aimless.
3
booksuperpower's review against another edition
4.0
This is the third in the Ali Reynolds series. Hand of Evil picks up pretty much where the second book left off. Ali's ex - husband's estate is being settled and Ali is still coming to terms with everything that happened. Out of the blue, Ali is contacted by an old friend that set up a scholarship fund for Ali years ago. Ali agrees to meet with her not knowing why she's been summoned.
Ali has been asked to read a diary that proves her old friend was an incest victim. But before she can pursue those issues, two things happen that keeps Ali on the move.
First, Kip, a man Ali's father is helping to put his life back together, disappears. Second, Ali's good friend, Dave, gets a phone call from his ex - wife telling him their daughter has run away from home. When Crystal calls Dave, he is hours away from his daughter's location, so he ask Ali to pick her up. Ali quickly learns that Crystal is a very troubled teenager. Crystal is in deep trouble and Ali tries to unravel the mystery.
Ali still blogs, but not as much as she did in the second book. I'm glad the author toned that down a little this time around. I was a little slow warming up to this series, but after reading this one, I find myself looking forward to future installments. Overall a B+
Ali has been asked to read a diary that proves her old friend was an incest victim. But before she can pursue those issues, two things happen that keeps Ali on the move.
First, Kip, a man Ali's father is helping to put his life back together, disappears. Second, Ali's good friend, Dave, gets a phone call from his ex - wife telling him their daughter has run away from home. When Crystal calls Dave, he is hours away from his daughter's location, so he ask Ali to pick her up. Ali quickly learns that Crystal is a very troubled teenager. Crystal is in deep trouble and Ali tries to unravel the mystery.
Ali still blogs, but not as much as she did in the second book. I'm glad the author toned that down a little this time around. I was a little slow warming up to this series, but after reading this one, I find myself looking forward to future installments. Overall a B+
davidpaige's review against another edition
3.0
I try not to read books out of order. It has the potential to spoil things. I read the next book before this one, and I was able to guess at least three things which would happen in the book, just not how we happened to get there.
Still, the book is a good read.
Still, the book is a good read.
essentiallymeagan's review against another edition
2.0
We have a lot of these books at the cottage- they are all the same a little suspense and ridiculous plot points that put non-police people in dangerous situations. This one was alright. It wasn't as suspenseful as I thought it could be.