CLEVER PLOT AND PROMISES OF MANY MORE EVE STORIESIMO:You have to presuppose that the reader has an abhorrence of `disturbing the dead', or had a clear understanding and sides with the concept of `returning home' the remains of a murdered loved one. Frankly, I have neither. I was raised next door to a cemetery, and spent countless hours reading and playing in the graveyard, hiding behind the trees and big tombstones, when a formal grave side service took place. I think cremation is the smart easy economical way to go, so Eve's compunction to her `ethics' towards the dead being removed from a grave were completely foreign to me.SYNOPSISForensic skull reconstruction scientist/artist Eve Duncan is the center of a maelstrom when a gun runner, a drug kingpin, and a rebel leader engage in a three way battle over the identity of a skull that only Eve's masterful skills can reveal to them. Eve was promised the body and name of the killer of her young child if she provided her services, and she was unable to say no, even if it put her relationship and very life on the line. Eve's long time b-friend comes charging to her rescue, then she ends up saving his life and saving the day.PROS:I heard the author at a reading festival in Ft. Myers and found her fascinating, so I found this book to cut my teeth on.It was an engrossing and enjoyable read. I know I'm kinda whiney about the subject matter, but the story and the presentation was superb. I didn't regret a moment I spent with this book.Action Action Action! What a ride! It was funny, scary, sad, and affirming. I liked the idea of the bad gun seller becoming a good guy, and spending his time pining for Eve from afar.CONS:This is my first Eve Duncan book. I understand there's a lot of history in her, butA) I don't get why she and hottie b-friend aren't married. Vows are what keep people together.B) Her background is sparsely laid out. I gleamed her professional proweress, but for a new reader, it could have used a little flesh of her life setting.C) Why oh why would she do something so amazingly stupid as to put her life on the line just to verify that some skull was removed from a certain location?Enjoyable read. Buy it. I'm going to look for some more Eve Duncan books and try to figure out this complex character.
Eve Duncan, a re-occurring character, is what is called a "forensic sculptor," which means she takes a skull and sculpts over it her interpretation of the face, based upon forensic measurements and - to a great extent - intuition. She has never yet been proved wrong. However, she generally works for families of missing children or law enforcement agencies - hoping with each skull she brings home, she might find her own 7yr old daughter, Bonnie, missing and presumed dead for many years.When she receives an offer from the infamous Luis Montalvo - who is a well-known and wealthy arms dealer in Columbia - twice she firmly declines. He has tried to get her to travel to Columbia to sculpt a skull and she refused - however, the third time he makes an offer she cannot refuse in all good conscience, and she goes - in order to save an innocent family, and also with the promise that Montalvo will help her finally find her daughter. She goes without telling her partner Joe an ex-FBI agent who follows her south. She finds Montalvo as a dangerous criminal but also someone with heart and passion. Eve ends up being key to a war between criminals.I have read two other book from Iris Johansen, Firestorm and Pandora’s Daughter. I had another sent to me but the “bad guys” in that one were with child molesters and I couldn’t read it. All three were good reads, I really liked Firestorm though
What do You think about Stalemate (2006)?
I don't know why I keep reading these. I'd also read Quicksand, the 8th book in the series, last summer, so I had already met Miguel and Montalvo (although I'd forgotten Montalvo, I definitely Miguel's spunky excitement!). This book's plot, if you can find one, is for Eve to put herself in danger by flying to a drug lord's house and helping him recover the skull of his wife to prove to his father-in-law that she's dead so they can work to overthrow Montalvo's rival. Naturally, Eve flies out because Montalvo tells her he can help her find Bonnie and so she sneaks out without telling Joe Quinn, who then decides to fly out with Galen to protect her because she's obviously putting herself in harm's way. And they fight about how she doesn't need protecting. It's like Johansen writes the same book each time.... but clearly people keep reading them (er, me). Toward the end, I skimmed the book - it's easy to do when the dialogue largely remains the same in each iteration ("Joe, I can protect myself." "Dammit, you can't. I love you." "I'm not happy until I find Bonnie, you don't understand.")
—Jenny
Because of her skill in proving the identities of murder victims, Eve Duncan comes to the attention of the wrong kind of client. Because her offers her a deal she can’t refuse—the identity of the murderer of her daughter Bonnie—she agrees to go to the Colombian jungle and work for Luis Montalvo, drug lord high on the CIA’s list. Montalvo has a victim of his own he wises proven…his wife, murdered by a rival drug lord. If Eve’s reconstruction of a skull in a churchyard cemetery proves it belongs to Nalfa, Montalvo can bring down his rival. With lover Joe following, giving opposition and determined to bring her home, and Eve pushes forward with the project, she discovers ad odd affinity for Miguel, Montalbo’s teenaged lieutenant, and a more than uncomfortable attraction to the drug lord himself…A good entry in the series, with an ending which doesn’t deliver the agree-upon identity of Bonnie’s killer (will Eve ever learn it?) but does suggest strongly of a rift in Eve and Joe’s relationship, no matter how hard she denies it, and perhaps the re-appearance of both Miguel and Montalvo in her life. This would definitely shake up the usual formula of the stories by adding romantic distraction.This novel is owned by the reviewer and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.
—Toni
My usual ranking disclaimer: I rank most books as 3 stars on a bell-shaped curve, because I cannot differentiate between 3.00 and 3.99 – and 4 & 5-star ratings are reserved for books that people ought to read and books that people must read, respectively, and most books are pretty good.My love affair with Iris Johansen’s Eve Duncan series continues. Jane and most of the other assorted characters are well off-stage in this novel, which concentrates on Eve and Joe Quinn, her longtime lover. In this story, Eve gets forced into accepting a forensic reconstruction assignment from a really bad guy in Columbia, who offers a compensation she cannot ignore. Since Joe is very much opposed to her taking the assignment, she has to sneak away--which means, of course, that Joe takes off after her, intending to drag her home, with the help of Galen, the “expeditor.” Just to complicate things, it turns out that the reconstruction project is very much opposed by an even badder Columbian, who is determined to prevent Eve from succeeding.
—JBradford
