REVIEW OF AUDIO & EBOOK; FEBRUARY 6, 2015Narrator: Sharon WilliamsThe Narrator: Williams wasn't as good as Ericksen, who narrated the previous book, The Maze. Her voice for the little girl, Emma, was not very good. Emma sounded like a teen rather than a 6 year-old girl.The Story: I always try to separate the story and characters from the author so just because I hate a certain character or book, doesn't necessarily mean there's something 'wrong' with the author. For example, many years ago I came across a romance by the now-defunct Liquid Silver Publishing, where the heroine had her tongue pinned to the tabletop while she was being fucked. My friend was horrified and I agree there ought to have been some kind of warning. I thought that was the publisher's fault rather than the author, though I can say I never went near that author again. Other readers, I've noted before, post nasty personal comments about the author, something I've never done and would not think to do.But in the case of this book...I admit I come close to thinking Coulter must have been a moron and the publisher/editor taken to task for allowing this to be offered to the public. Why? Judge Ramsey Hunt is hiding out in his mountain cabin to chill, as the blurb says, when he stumbles across a little girl, 5 or 6 years old, he’s estimated.Ramsey is as horrified as the traumatized kid and carries her back to his cabin. From the blood and what he can see of the injuries, he’s guessed the kid has been tortured and raped. And this is where I just had to wonder where the heck was Ms Coulter’s brains when she wrote this scene: “She was covered with bruises and welts, some of them crusted with dried blood. Blood was smeared between her legs. Oh, God. He closed his eyes a moment. He bathed her thoroughly, examining her as well as he could.” Instead of driving the kid to the nearest hospital and calling the cops, Judge Ramsey bathes her? Thoroughly? Never mind about washing away evidence, didn’t he even stop to think about the damage an adult erect penis does to as 5-6 year old girl, violent rape or not? She’d be torn up inside and …omigod…it was just unbelievable that someone I considered an experienced writer could make her hero such a dummy.Judge Ramsey doesn’t take the kid to the hospital, or call the cops, because hey, he brought his favorite rifle but so he could leave his cell phone at home, right? Or so it seems. We learn why that rifle is special to him but not why a judge (as opposed to a cretin) would think there’s no need to bring his cell phone, or know where the nearest hospital is, or whether the town has a sheriff. You’d think this is basic info you’d have – and the cell phone – before you take off to a remote cabin in the mountains, one you’ve never been to before.Next day, he tells this traumatized, injured kid to take a shower so whatever evidence that he didn’t wash away yesterday is now gone. She was too injured to even walk yesterday, hasn't talked, but he has her going to the bathroom on her own and taking a shower? Even more unbelievable, after keeping her for four days, he takes her into town and they go shopping!Then someone starts shooting at them but does Judge Ramsey call the sheriff? No, because every time he mentions the sheriff to the little girl, she makes frightened noises. Now, really…if you came across a 6 year old girl all bloody and evidently raped, would you be discussing options with her instead of just calling the cops or driving her straight to the town’s doctor? Would you take her shopping instead?So now we have an injured kid and an injured judge holed up in his cabin. To add insult to injury, you find out next that Judge Ramsey is a friend of Dillon Savich, who, in Ramsey’s own words, ‘might even know about her if she’d been abducted. Ever since the Lindbergh baby’s kidnapping back in the early ’30s, and the resulting tragedy, kidnapping had been the purview of the FBI.’]I really went WTF! Ramsey and Savich are friends yet instead of calling him immediately, Ramsey takes Emma shopping instead? When he finally calls Savich (in Chapter 8!), he doesn’t even tell him what happened. Okay, I love that he has friends in the FBI who don’t ask questions when told to run a number plate but it is ludicrous for Judge Ramsey to not tell Savich what was going on (he only does that about halfway through the book).Of course there’s more idiocy – but I think this is enough to show how absurd this book is. I get that an author wants to build suspense and create the idea that there’s more to it than meets the eye, but the way Ms Coulter did it here was just not plausible. I just cannot buy into the idea that a judge, who has a good friend, the Dillon Savich, chief of the Criminal Apprehension Unit at the FBI, would not call him immediately, and when he does, does not tell him what happened.I checked the other reviews and saw my own complaints echoed so it’s not me nitpicking. What surprises me, too, apart from Coulter getting away with publishing this (1998 isn’t exactly the Dark Ages) is that some of my GR friends gave this 5 stars. Unfortunately, they did not include reviews or I would have gone in more prepared.Oh, I forgot - the romance. Absolutely NO sexual chemistry between the MCs, IMO. Next to no romance either. Even Molly knew Ramsey wanted to marry her because it's her daughter, Emma, that Ramsey loves. Their so-called romance is best described by Molly herself in the closing chapters of the book - “Ramsey loves her so much. Maybe someday he’ll even love me.” That.Is.SO.Sad.This book has made me think twice about reading/listening to the other installments. I'm pissed because I like the type of storylines found in this series and so far I haven't found any other romantic suspense author who writes them, except Sandra Brown. But not one to give up so easily, I'll comb through the review of the later books to see if I can find one that won't disgust me as The Target did.
A Judge who is schooled in martial arts has AK-47 armed invaders attack his court to free defendants but, he leaps into action and kills or subdues the attackers saving numerous innocent parties an foiling the great escape attempt. He becomes an instant celebrity but, life that is constantly interrupted by photographers and others seeking to cash in on his moment of fame. He finds himself constantly angered and in danger of exploding and using some of his martial skills against jerks rather than actual bad guys. He takes a leave of absence and retires to a friends small cabin deep in the Rocky Mountains woods. He is far from population, with no phones, press or other interruptions from civilization. He is slowly living the quiet life and winding down from the tense burning that had become his recent life. Just when he believes things are becoming normal, he hears a small whimper from the forest while out chopping wood. He looks about and finds a young girl barefoot and clothed in a dirty shirt with welts and scratches covering her body. When he tries to pick her up, she shrinks away and whimpers more. By moving slowly, he is able to take her back to the cabin. He slowly tries to draw out a story but the young girl doesn't respond and appears mute. He takes it upon himself to do what he can to settle her, giving her warm food and being gentle with her. He treats her wounds with antiseptic cream and cleans her up as she allows. His gentle manner soothes her until she is able to sleep without nightmares and doesn't shrink into a corner unless he moves suddenly and frightens her. As her self confidence develops he takes her out to fly a kite in a near meadow. She knows how to fly kites and is able to cause it to do tricks but, as it is flying, someone shoots it out of the sky. The judge and girl move back to the cabin where he takes up his pistol and confronts the men. A firefight ensues and the judge wounds one of the men and they run off but, remain a unknown threat. The judge is also wounded in the leg but can still walk with pain. He does what he can to reassure the young girl and does what he can to dress his wound. He secures the cabin as best he can but, doesn't lock the front door. An attractive young woman bursts into the cabin with a very large gun and mistakenly threatens to shoot the judge thinking him a pervert who kidnapped her daughter from a Denver park. The young girl speaks out and tells her mother not to shoot the judge as he had been the one who had befriended her and kept her from further harm. Together they set off for civilization only to be hunted and haunted by a number of bad guys. Together, they fight their way back to their homes but, it seems that someone is taking everything apart just in front of them. Several more attempts are made to abduct the young girl but they are thwarted by either the judge or the girls mother. The story takes many strange twists but leads to a happy solution after severely testing the participants. The suspense, action and obvious affection between characters makes this a great read!
What do You think about The Target (1999)?
I don't understand why this book got so many positive reviews. The plot was offputting, beginning with the discovery of a little girl who has been kidnapped and raped. I guess the author thought the latter element would raise the stakes and involve the reader more emotionally, but the story would actually have worked better if Coulter had just left it at kidnapping. The "hero," who we are supposed to admire, behaves in a creepy way and shows absolutely no common sense, and the girl's mother, when she shows up, refuses to let the police help look for the girl or even cooperate in their investigation. Let's say the little girl was not well taken care of by the adults in her life. After putting up with their nonsensical and illogical actions as long as I could, I could not force myself to finish the book.
—Catherine
I actually picked this up without knowing it was part of a series, so maybe I would have enjoyed some of the characters who popped in from previous books a little more if I'd read the first two prior to this one. I thought it was a reasonable suspense novel, with some good twists, actions, and developments, but it got a little slow at points. It was hard to read at times because the premise began with a girl who is kidnapped and sexually assaulted, and one of the villains of the story is a child molester. Not really something I wanted to ponder in my leisure reading time, but once I started I was hooked and wanted to at least get far enough in to witness the girl's progress towards recovery (if such a thing is possible.) Not bad, not great. I think I'd prefer a Harlan Coben.
—Kelly
Judge Ramsey Hunt has hidden himself away in the mountains of Colorado. He is recovering from an incident involving an attempted breakout of drug dealers in his courtroom. He needed to get away from all the publicity. Weeks into his stay he finds a child in the forest behind his cabin. She appears to be around 5 years old. Shes been beaten and abused. When she finally regains conscientious she is unable to speak. He cares for her and she slowly begins to trust him. Her mother, Molly shows up thinking Ramsey is the one who has kidnapped her daughter. When Molly threatens to shoot him the child, Emma, jumps in front of him and pleads with her mother not to shoot him. Molly tells the story of Emma being taken from a park. The local police and FBI are no help, they think she is somehow involved. As Ramsey learns more about Molly and Emma, he realizes danger is coming at them from all sides. Molly's father is a mob boss in Chicago. Emma's father is a struggling rock star who owes a ton of money to a mobster in Las Vegas. The Vegas mobster has a history with Molly's father. They don't know who they can trust, so far the local cops have been no help. Ramsey turns to his old friend Dillon Savich and his partner/wife Sherlock. As it turns out the threat is a lot closer than any ever imagined.Great story, I love this series.
—Dotti Elrick
