by Iris Johansen

This is my first hardbound experience of an Iris Johansen book. I haven't read any of her novels before, but this turned out pretty boring. I love forensics - I'm allured by it and its concepts but this was a letdown.

For one, the plot was simply weaved to tell a story. It did not really excite me except the fact that I have been quite a fan of Jane and Trevor's love story. I completely forgot that Jane was seventeen and Trevor was around more or less in his thirties, but he was always described as handsome (for a con man and a sleuth) so I bit the bait. At some point before halfway reading, I had an idea to dump it and read another book instead, but I wanted to finish the story as to satisfy my curiosity and leave no room for regret. Alas, I wasted my time because the ending had been so easy and fast-moving. It was hard at first to get myself to pace reading hardbounds (I think I have a weak link for them) but when I got near Blind Alley's half it seemed so easy and light.

There had been confusions in the story. Jane is too much to decide as an adult for a seventeen-year-old girl. I understand her relation to the nightmare and Cira story but it seems her parents are always at bay and she does things independently with Trevor most of the time, as if proving she can do on her own.

I did not like the over-all part: everything seemed to be too perfect and everyone seemed to be so skilled that it falls flat for a forensic mystery, but this had made me laugh, worry and feel smitten a bit. It really shouldn't be called an Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller but a Jane Duncan one. I think I wanted to read Countdown, but I'm hesitant about it. Blind Alley truly left me lost in blindness. The conclusion did not make up for what the narration lacked, in my opinion.

Rating: 2 stars

by Kelly Easton

Honestly, I bought the book because I was enticed with its cover - it seemed so mysterious and vague so I thought might like it. The story revolves around Adam who lost his parents in a tragic car accident on the way home to Rhode Island from a peace rally in Seattle. You would certainly feel Adam's sorrow as he recalls what has happened to them that resulted to his parent's death.

What I didn't understand is that how come he left his parents there lying on the pavement to cross the country by just walking away? I would certainly not do that to my parents, unless I would call for help (which Adam did not do apparently; I did not get whether he was just disoriented so he didn't do that but then again, if I was in his shoes whether disoriented or not I would STILL call for help).

On the other hand, this book teaches some values learned from Adam's experiences as he journeys along - the people he met, the places he's explored and the impressions they leave on him. However, there are good and bad points in Aftershock: it worked on the story by means of flashback although some of the way it was presented was drastic, the reader could not distinguish whether Adam was in reality or was he recalling a memory. But I guess it's just the nature of Adam's experience: shocking and mind-swifting. I think even though he has been weary, he enjoyed the journey as he struggles to get home because he has certainly learned a lot from it.

A very good example is this line that I loved from the book, "People separate themselves from each other by so many things: race, gender, religion, class. But on my travels, I learned to distinguish people by the only thing that really matters: kindness."

Rating: 3 stars