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skybalon's review against another edition
3.0
First one of the series that I read. Not my fault the edition is deliberately printed to obscure the fact that it is part of a series. Publishers want to sell books but to sell them under sort of false pretenses makes me a little angry. I got this from a library, but it still bugs me.
In any case the story is fairly stand-alone and not bad. It is an intermesh of two stories one told through a diary. The "modern" story is just ok, it has some tension that feels artificial. The other story is fine although the whole diary thing breaks down. (For example intricate fight sequences probably wouldn't be described in the kind of detail that the reader ends up with here.) But it was still a fun read. Be good on an airplane ride.
In any case the story is fairly stand-alone and not bad. It is an intermesh of two stories one told through a diary. The "modern" story is just ok, it has some tension that feels artificial. The other story is fine although the whole diary thing breaks down. (For example intricate fight sequences probably wouldn't be described in the kind of detail that the reader ends up with here.) But it was still a fun read. Be good on an airplane ride.
katsmiao's review against another edition
5.0
Like the first two in the series, this is action packed, has a great plot, great twists and great writing.
The story of the Black Stiletto continues. Judy's health, in the present, continues to decline, to the point where she barely speaks. I thought this heightened the suspense, because Maritin has all these questions, which his mom can't answer, so he has to make his own journey through her story.
Gina, Martin's daughter, starts to play a bigger role, and I can see some foreshadowing.
A truely great book
The story of the Black Stiletto continues. Judy's health, in the present, continues to decline, to the point where she barely speaks. I thought this heightened the suspense, because Maritin has all these questions, which his mom can't answer, so he has to make his own journey through her story.
Gina, Martin's daughter, starts to play a bigger role, and I can see some foreshadowing.
A truely great book
jeremy_bearimy's review against another edition
2.0
A quick read. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two books and don't think it is satisfying as a stand-alone book. Central characters and events from past books are mentioned in passing, but without enough detail to explain Judy's motivation for becoming the Black Stiletto. Her son's girlfriend hires a PI to explore Judy's past, which provided an opportunity to fill in some of these gaps. Instead, the PI has only scratched the surface when the book ends, so it felt like an unsatisfying teaser for the rest of the series. There was an interesting subplot involving the Judy's granddaughter, but that also felt cut short and teed up for the next book.
The Stiletto had two major plot lines that didn't really have anything to do with each other until an ending that felt contrived. She also made more reckless decisions than I remember in the first few books, and it wasn't clear why she quickly rejected the idea of sharing anonymous tips about her findings with the Secret Service. In the present, I also didn't understand why her son felt such tremendous anxiety about telling his girlfriend (who was also his mom's doctor) that she was the Stiletto. Considering how much tension the Stiletto's story contains, the small amount of drama created by his repetitive inner dialogue was unnecessary and tiresome.
The Stiletto had two major plot lines that didn't really have anything to do with each other until an ending that felt contrived. She also made more reckless decisions than I remember in the first few books, and it wasn't clear why she quickly rejected the idea of sharing anonymous tips about her findings with the Secret Service. In the present, I also didn't understand why her son felt such tremendous anxiety about telling his girlfriend (who was also his mom's doctor) that she was the Stiletto. Considering how much tension the Stiletto's story contains, the small amount of drama created by his repetitive inner dialogue was unnecessary and tiresome.
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