Reviews

Quicksand by Iris Johansen

catladylover94's review against another edition

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5.0

my second book of hers and it was really good

weaselweader's review against another edition

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4.0

A move from forensic thriller to paranormal adventure

Eve Duncan, one of the world's best known forensic sculptors, specializes in the recreation of facial features from skulls. Having lost her beloved daughter, Bonnie, to abduction and murder and having suffered the anguish of never having found the body, her passion is helping parents in a similar situation. She reconstructs heads and faces and confirms the identification of skeletal remains so that grieving parents can find closure and move on with their lives.

In the preceding novel, Stalemate, Duncan received a call from Luis Montalvo, a sleazy but powerful smuggler of illegal armaments and drugs in South America, asking for help with the identification of a skull.

Having fulfilled that task against all odds, Quicksand begins the story in which Montalvo completes his end of the bargain he struck with Eve Duncan by putting all of his wealth, all his manpower and all of his underworld contacts into an effort to find Duncan's daughter's body and to identify her killer. Eve's erstwhile lover, police lieutenant, Joe Quinn, Montalvo and a character returning from her initial appearance in Pandora's Daughter, Megan Blair, a physician with heart-stopping psychic abilities, team up to track serial killer and child predator, Henry Kistle, to his killing ground in the Okefenokee Swamp in the backwaters of Florida.

Less a forensic thriller and much more a paranormal adventure in the style of Kay Hooper's Evil series, Quicksand will still manage to thrill Iris Johansen's many fans with a compelling beach read that will have most readers flipping the pages just as quickly as they can manage. What is much more in question is whether Johansen will continue to be able to successfully string out the question of Eve Duncan's never-ending angst over her daughter's death coupled with the lack of a resolution of her on-again off-again relationship with Joe Quinn.

What we can hope for perhaps is that a clever ending twist will give Johansen new plot maneuvering room for future novels that will freshen up a background story that is getting tiresome. Iris Johansen dodged a bullet in Quicksand but that tired background could prove her undoing if she doesn't watch her step. She'll end up mired in her own quicksand as it were and not be able to pull herself out.

Recommended.

Paul Weiss

shortstack5's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

jmilberg's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

5.0

mom2twb's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75

magolden13's review against another edition

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mysterious

3.0

l1brarygirl's review against another edition

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5.0

#3 The Search - ★★★★★
#4 Body of Lies - ★★★★★
#5 Blind Alley - ★★★★★
#6 Countdown - ★★★★★
#7 Stalemate- ★★★★★

lazydream's review against another edition

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3.0

Is it me or do the writing seems hurry. I feel as if every one are talking in hurry way and doing things very fast. But it was good. Very good actually. all the characters are familiar nothing new there. I felt sorry for Joe and Megan there are the once who were forced to do things which they dint want to do and suffered because of her (Eve). I liked all the characters except Eve this time. Its good, its fast nothing new but nonetheless good reading.

banans5's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

brittanya's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0