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qu33nofbookz's review against another edition
3.0
Barbara Holloway the main character doesn't come in till chapter 8 (in the 50 page range).....before that it's all backstory lead up to whatever case Barbara is going to take. The first part is from 2 POV and only one makes any sense, Lucas comes first and I almost put the book down after only reading 5 pages. Nell's I can understand up to a point but it seems as if a large chunk of this is missing and I am confused and annoyed which is not a good thing to be only 60 pages into the story such as the messy thing it is so far.
Miss Barbara is a brat! It's almost like she never quite grew up. She still hold all her childhood views and when faced with the fact that not everything is like that, that the real grown up world is not like the ideal world of her child hood she trows a fit and just refuses to see it that way and gets upset and pouts or runs away when things don't go as she wants or expects. She's a sullen little girl in a woman's body.
Goes from legal thriller to scifi mumbo jumbo towards the end that doesn't make a lot of sense. The ending itself was a bit of a let down and open ended with few answers.
Miss Barbara is a brat! It's almost like she never quite grew up. She still hold all her childhood views and when faced with the fact that not everything is like that, that the real grown up world is not like the ideal world of her child hood she trows a fit and just refuses to see it that way and gets upset and pouts or runs away when things don't go as she wants or expects. She's a sullen little girl in a woman's body.
Goes from legal thriller to scifi mumbo jumbo towards the end that doesn't make a lot of sense. The ending itself was a bit of a let down and open ended with few answers.
thukpa's review against another edition
4.0
11/07 I listened to this on my mp3, and it always takes months because I listen in 5-15 minute chunks, not even on a daily basis. But I love the Barbara Holloway books, even though I don't typically read mysteries. I like the local flavor (set in Eugene, Oregon,) and the characters are well fleshed out and very human.
afox98's review against another edition
2.0
2 1/2 stars. I had a hard time picking this one back up which is why it took me so long to finish. Slow start, it picked up, then it kind of went crazy, then I was bored, then it was too far out, then the ending was stupid.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
3.0
I like Kate Wilhelm's sf so thought I'd try this legal series about a crime solving lawyer. Seems promising, with the added bonus of being written in the early nineties. These days I find it very soothing to read about that time period when all I had to worry about was which scrunchie to wear to school.
anti_formalist12's review against another edition
4.0
What starts as a pretty boilerplate courtroom drama movies in some pretty fascinating directions. And Wilhelm was an ecstatic writer.
fishwitch's review against another edition
3.0
Not an earth shatteringly good mystery, but it passed the time.
ashleylm's review against another edition
2.0
I thought I'd enjoy this one more than I did, but it steered too close to sci-fi for me. I suppose every novel is in some sense a sci-fi or fantasy (there never was a Mr. Darcy, after all) but rather than positing "what if so-and-so killed so-and-so" (the typical mystery postulation) it ventured much, much further into sci-fi territory, creating an uncomfortable (for me) amalgam.
For some reason when thrillers do this (e.g. Crichton) it seems perfectly reasonable, if MacGuffin-ish, but when tossed into a legal mystery it seemed very out of place. (Eventually it steered into suspense thriller territory too, but too late to make everything seem all right again--if anything, it was just one more element too many, in an already long book).
I suspect the sci-fi elements are what interested the author, and the mystery is a vessel for containing them. She may be pleased, but it didn't work for me.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)
For some reason when thrillers do this (e.g. Crichton) it seems perfectly reasonable, if MacGuffin-ish, but when tossed into a legal mystery it seemed very out of place. (Eventually it steered into suspense thriller territory too, but too late to make everything seem all right again--if anything, it was just one more element too many, in an already long book).
I suspect the sci-fi elements are what interested the author, and the mystery is a vessel for containing them. She may be pleased, but it didn't work for me.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)
bookcraft's review against another edition
3.0
OverDrive note: The audiobook has a number of glitches where 5-10 seconds of audio repeats. I didn't adjust my rating for that.
redjoy's review against another edition
2.0
It was okay for the most part but I hated it toward the end. It seemed like the author decided that she had to quickly come up with an ending. So while the story was built up -- suddenly in the last chapter several things quickly happened to orchestrate an ending -- none of which made sense to the story. If I were to explain further, would become a 'spoiler'.
vailynst's review against another edition
3.0
Notes:
- I'm glad that I started this series with [b:The Best Defense|278313|The Best Defense (Barbara Holloway #2)|Kate Wilhelm|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330889376l/278313._SY75_.jpg|875771] #2. It was easy to follow without having read the first book and the characters felt more established than here.
- The flaw for this story was that the author tried to make it too interesting. There's a lot of moving elements and some of that came across as 'exotic', 'far-fetched' and stuffed to the gills with things the reader may want to know a whole lot more about.
- In comparison, I enjoyed the Best Defense more because it felt more rooted in everyday life and showed aspects of a court case that made the story/plot more interesting.
- While Death Qualified comes across as a story trying hard to catch attention and shine as the latest trend to be followed.
- Setting: Reading the descriptions of Oregon, Eugene, etc are great because it reminds me of when I visited the area.
- Added Anna Fields to my "listen list". She's a great narrator! I'm not sure if she's narrated a lot of books but I will keep my eye out for her name.
The title? I love the title. It fits the series well.
- I'm glad that I started this series with [b:The Best Defense|278313|The Best Defense (Barbara Holloway #2)|Kate Wilhelm|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330889376l/278313._SY75_.jpg|875771] #2. It was easy to follow without having read the first book and the characters felt more established than here.
- The flaw for this story was that the author tried to make it too interesting. There's a lot of moving elements and some of that came across as 'exotic', 'far-fetched' and stuffed to the gills with things the reader may want to know a whole lot more about.
- In comparison, I enjoyed the Best Defense more because it felt more rooted in everyday life and showed aspects of a court case that made the story/plot more interesting.
- While Death Qualified comes across as a story trying hard to catch attention and shine as the latest trend to be followed.
- Setting: Reading the descriptions of Oregon, Eugene, etc are great because it reminds me of when I visited the area.
- Added Anna Fields to my "listen list". She's a great narrator! I'm not sure if she's narrated a lot of books but I will keep my eye out for her name.
The title? I love the title. It fits the series well.