A Victim of the TimesWriting murder mysteries has given author Grace McCabe a successful career, but when her sister is brutally slayed while Grace is visiting her in D.C., murder hits far too close to her heart. Struggling to come to terms with the woman her sister really was and who she is in the wake of her loss, a deep-seeded desire for justice starts to burn in her, even as a different sort of desire is sparked for her sister's neighbor, D.C. homicide detective Ed Jackson.From the moment Ed saw Grace leaning out the window of his neighbor's house, he was captivated by her. Realizing she was an author whose books he favored only made him want to meet her more. The steady and thorough man with a gentle heart and warrior's eyes recognized her as his future almost immediately, but the discovery of her sister's body, and helping Grace through the loss even as he investigates the crime, has created a tension in him that he can't quell. He knows there is a killer stalking his victims, and he knows Grace would do anything - including put herself in a monster's sights - to stop him.I've been a huge fan of Nora Roberts for more years than I care to admit to and have spent so very many hours lost in the worlds she creates, adoring my stays there. Unfortunately, Brazen Virtue wasn't one I favored, but in this case, I may have no one to blame but myself. Perhaps if I'd read this sequel to Sacred Sins back when it was originally published in 1988, I would have felt vastly different about it, because the truth of the matter is, it's difficult for a book of this nature to feel fresh twenty-three years after it was released.A maestro of character study and well conceived plots, a virtuoso of lyrical prose and realistic dialogue, Nora Roberts is a goddess of romantic fiction, and those traits are in evidence in Brazen Virtue. I'm always fond of main characters who are authors like Grace is, because there always seems to be a bit more...something...part realism and part emotional honesty in those characters (be it real or imagined on my part) than in others, like the author his/herself is speaking a personal truth through their characters. It's something I've always found appealing and I did so in this case as well. Ed was no slouch either as the quintessential good guy that Roberts is so adept at writing. Both lead characters are three dimensional and realistic.In fact, as far as the technical aspects of the story go, it's Roberts. If she doesn't do it well, no one does.I can only imagine that when the book was originally released, it was probably a very taut, tense, and timely suspense novel, but now, over two decades of wars, politics, natural disasters, heinous crimes, and acts of terrorism, technological advances, and an entertainment industry overflowing with every single sharp-eyed observation of man's inhumanity to man has stripped this book of its sophistication and polish, leaving it feeling too tame and plodding to feel at all current...or substantial.I don't need to wonder what that says about today's culture...or my own jaded world view.Beyond that, though, I didn't like what I was reading. I wasn't sold on the timing or alleged romantic intensity between Ed and Grace - most of that was because I didn't find Ed's character to be to my taste. He was a bit too quietly solid and seemingly easy going for me. I preferred Ben in this book just as much as I did when he was featured in Sacred Sins. I also didn't like how Kathleen's character, Grace's sister, was slowly dragged down through the evolution of this book, to go from a struggling woman fighting her rich and influential ex-husband, scrambling to fund the investigation and battle for custody of her son, to a cold and self absorbed, bitter, drug addicted woman who made a horrible wife and mother and a judgmental, envious sister. It was unnecessary and seemed contrived to allow for Grace to heal from her loss quicker, as if to justify her quickly moving on from Kathleen's death.The police procedural part felt very awkward, and the connection to Fantasy, Inc. seemed so glaringly obvious yet overlooked as a serious possibility for far too long, but again, I think my dissatisfaction is another symptom of the perils of the modern world on a book published so long ago.I can't go back to 1988 (thank hell...because the hair and the clothes, people!) and view this book through the lens of a simpler, less dangerous, far less controversial time. I can only assume that if I could, this book would have seemed tense, atmospheric, and shocking. With today's headlines and over two decades of history between now and then, however, Brazen Virtue seemed too much a victim of the modern world...and maybe we're all a little worse off for it.~*~*~*~Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
Another good read by Ms. Roberts. A sister comes to visit her sister, then returns home and finds her murdered. Luckily, the neighbor just happens to be a cop and whom Grace, the visiting sister just happens to have taken a fancy to. The murdered sister, recently divorced, moved back to DC from California, and has started working a teacher at the school they used to attend when they lived there growing up. She also takes a side job to earn extra money for a lawyer and detective because she wants custody of her son, as a phone sex operator. Which she told is a safe job to have because calls can't be traced back to them, no real names are used so whoever they speak to will not know anything about them.During her sisters funeral, Grace learns things about her from the ex husband, things she sort of knew but put in the back of her head. She was ready to blame the ex for her sisters murder. During the investigation, another murder is committed and an attempted one is committed, both women working for the same agency as her sister. Grace decides to go undercover as an operator to lure the man responsible because they feel it is someone that has somehow accessed these women from the agency. Ed, the cop, neighbor and now romantic interest of Grace, doesn't want her to do this. He, against his will, has fallen in love with her. It wasn't in his plans yet to find someone, but that all changed the day he met her, which also happens to be one of his favorite authors. Grace too has started having feelings for him, but also wants to find her sisters killer. So, while she is working as the phone operator, the police have asked one of their guys to tap into the line from the agency once they realize maybe this guy is doing the same thing and listening to voices trying to find the one that sounds like Desiree, the name her sister used and the one he is still looking for even though he knows she is dead. They pick up on someone tapping into the line but unable to get a location. Meanwhile, the wife a Senator, who is running for President, goes to a therapist asking for help for her son. He had a fight at school, put a kid in the hospital and has no remorse for it. The therapist also happens to be the wife of Ed's partner. By then, they also suspect the kid because of drawing they had when they went to the school and questioned the Dean and other students. The boy that was put in the hospital had also seen the sketch on tv and called the police. This young man, went to the house where he thought he was going to find Desiree again. He wasn't counting on someone being there to protect her. He managed to get by the office by hitting him in the head with his gun. Went upstairs to where Grace was, but she had already heard noises and was getting her gun ready. He appeared in the doorway, thinking he was going to find Desiree again. In the end, Grace ended up shooting him because the officer that was there to protect her had appeared in the doorway and the young man was gonna shoot him. She felt some relief, knowing her sisters killer was dead, but also was mixed about it because he was so young. She told Ed she wanted to go home, him thinking NYC, she told him that when she first arrived at her sisters, she liked his house and said she could live in a house like that, so, she wanted to go home now.
What do You think about Brazen Virtue (1988)?
Es war, mit einem Wort, schön, diese Geschichte zu lesen. Die Autorin erzählt in einem lockeren, leichten Stil und getreu dem Motto "Fernseher an und zurücklehnen" konnte ich mich durch die Seiten tragen lassen. Literarische Kunstsprünge habe ich keine gefunden, aber Frau Roberts weckt Emotionen und mehr wollte ich hier gar nicht. Besonders die Szenen selbst beschreibt sie mit viel Liebe zum Detail, ohne dabei ausufernd zu werden. Sie zerpflückt ein Zimmer nicht in seine Ecken und Einzelteile, einfach um die Seiten zu füllen. Vielmehr lenkt Nora Roberts die Aufmerksamkeit des Lesers ganz gezielt auf Kleinigkeiten, die zur Situation oder den Charakteren passen und so hatte ich nie das Gefühl, zwei Figuren durch eine Bühnenlandschaft zu folgen. Ich konnte abtauchen in ihre Kleinstadtwelt und habe das sehr genossen.Die Hauptfiguren dieser Autorin finde ich meistens sehr sympathisch, aber Ed und Grace? Mit diesen beiden hat die Nora Roberts es geschafft, mich noch einmal positiv zu überraschen, indem sie eine Klischee-Kombination in Sachen Pärchenkonstellation in etwas wirklich Einzigartiges verwandelt. Weder die reiche Autorenlady aus der Großstadt, noch der naturliebende Dorfdetective erfinden das Rad neu. Aber das Zusammenspiel der beiden ist so toll gemacht! Wenn die von Tiefkühlpizza und Kaffee abhängige Grace plötzlich frisch gepresstes Was-auch-immer und Haferbrei, garniert mit umwerfend männlichem Charme zum Frühstück serviert bekommt, dann ist das einfach nur herrlich komisch. Ich hatte hier von Anfang an das Gefühl, dass die beiden nicht nur zueinanderpassen, sondern gehören. Sie sind so viel mehr als das oft platte "Was sich neckt, das liebt sich". Beide haben ihre Macken und gerade Öko-Ed sorgt immer wieder für Lacher, sodass es einfach Spaß gemacht hat, ihnen beim Ermitteln, Streiten und Verlieben zuzusehen. Dazu noch sympathische Nebencharaktere und schon war ich glücklich.Da hat es mich dann auch nicht mehr ganz so sehr gestört, dass die Handlung auch gerne etwas spannender hätte sein dürfen. Die Schriftstellerin Grace, die ihren Urlaub bei ihrer Schwester verbringt, hat von Anfang an ein Auge auf deren attraktiven Nachbarn geworfen. Doch statt Ed bei Diner und Cocktails besser kennen zu lernen, trifft sie ihn beruflich wieder: Er ist damit beauftragt, das Gewaltverbrechen an ihrer Schwester aufzuklären und dabei geht es ihm schon bald um mehr, als Nachbarschaftshilfe und Gerechtigkeit. So weit, so gut. Leider kennt man als Leser den Täter, der mit dem Mord an Kathleen auf den Geschmack gekommen ist, von Anfang an. Es war zwar interessant, aus seiner Sicht zu lesen und gegenüber Ed und Grace damit einen gewissen Vorsprung zu haben. Aber noch lieber hätte meine innere Detektivin selbst mit gerätselt. Davon abgesehen fand ich die Entwicklungen im Fall aber gut gemacht, noch besser dargestellt und insgesamt schlüssig. Überrascht wurde ich zwar selten und vor Spannung aufgestellte Nackenhaare gab es keine. Aber dafür verleiht Frau Roberts den Szenen auch über die Liebesgeschichte hinaus eine persönliche Note und ich konnte gut mit den Charakteren fühlen, fiebern und fürchten.Fazit:Eine wirklich unterhaltsame Feierabendlektüre mit großartigem Hauptdarsteller-Pärchen. Zur Bestwertung hat mir nur noch ein bisschen mehr Spannung gefehlt, Charaktere und die schöne Liebesgeschichte sind den Leseabend auf alle Fälle wert.
—Kermit
Tak tak je knjiga! Nit´ smrdi, nit´ miriši!
—Martina
This was my first Nora Roberts, above and beyond a string of J.D. Robb books I read a few years ago. Not what I was expecting. I thought the books Nora Roberts wrote under her own name were romances. How can you call a book a romance when the heroine's sister is killed, and the mystery is catching the serial killer?There was a romantic component, but it seemed secondary to the murder mystery. And, for me, the romance wasn't .... It just didn't work for me. I wasn't attracted to the hero, and I had no desire to be the heroine. Isn't that why most people read romances? To step into the couple's shoes? This was an older book, written in the 80's, and it showed. Attitudes towards smoking and drugs, especially. And, I don't know about you, but a big beefy cop with a beard who lectures people about eating healthy is not my knight in shining armor. Zero attraction factor.The mystery plot was fairly interesting. Think of this as a literary "Law and Order". You follow the case, are invested during the story, but in the end most of them are forgettable. Decent read, but not a keeper.
—mlady_rebecca
