Blind Alley: An Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller

This time Ms. Johansen gives us a little mysticism along with Eve, Joe and Jane and her usually diabolical and 1/2 step ahead villain. Jane is now 17 and has just gotten her driver's license. Eve and Joe have always said Jane was "10 going on 30" from her life experiences and that factor is taken advantage of in this plot.

An international serial killer is murdering women and removing their faces. Eve is asked to reconstruct one that is found nearby and imagine her shock when the face looks like an older Jane!!

Jane, meanwhile, is having dreams/nightmares where she is running, in a tunnel, hot and can't breathe -- this is where the "fantasy" factor comes in -- and Jane wants to find out what happens.

Enter a con artist named Trevor, who is, of course, handsome and charismatic and intelligent, and soon the whole gang is trying to catch the serial killer who now targets Jane.

I felt we really got to know Jane in this story which was a little thin on the plot due mostly to the fantasy elements. I did enjoy the workings and machinations that went on to try and catch the killer.

This is an older style romance written back when it was acceptable for a virginal woman to hop into bed with a bossy unlikable alpha man she's just met because he looks sexy.

Don't ask me for names, you don't need them. I read this on audio and they have already escaped my mind. He's an arrogant movie producer. She's works as a stunt woman. From the moment he sees her he decides she's a starlet who will sell herself out to get a plum role. He gets what he wants and he wants her bad.

She's taken a pain killer and had some champagne so I guess her thinking was slightly impaired but before they barely have a conversation (he basically bosses her around & insults her) she is driving off with him to his "castle" where she gives him her virginity.

Sorry, but she wasn't impaired enough for me to buy into this and if she was it makes him an even bigger creeper.

I finished this book even though it did nothing but annoy me. The heroine keeps her "big secret" (which isn't really) from the "hero" in an attempt to keep her independence. I thought this was a silly plot ploy to keep them apart for a few more pages. It didn't help that we never even get to meet the heroine's brother who is a big part of her motivation for the things she does.

And did I mention all of the talking during the sex scenes? If the author isn't waxing poetic and moving mountains and describing rainbows, she has the hero spouting sickeningly sweet nothings to the heroine about her glorious bod. At one point she tells him to shut up and get to work and I had to laugh because I was thinking the same thing.

I could complain about this book for hours but I have to get some work done. If I had it to do over again, I'd read something else.

I found two paperbacks at work, which were both thriller series, both written by women, both having two word titles with the first word being "Blind." One of the two I found exciting and satisfying, and eagerly read it. That was not this book.

At first, I thought it was just me. Unlike others, I found it easy to get into the book. But I found it too new age for me. Between Eve talking to her dead daughter to the creepy Aldo to Jane's connection with the murdered Cira, I decided I didn't need to read the whole novel and checked to make sure Jane and Trevor survived.

Maybe this wasn't Iris Johansen's best book. But I'm not going to be trying any of her others, based on this one.

unlike the other reviewers, i thought this book was ok. so what a 30 something likes a 17 year old. it is not like they kissed or had sex or anything. all i was wanting is hey wait she has an 18th birthday coming up and then date the woman. geez!!!

now the plot is sort of dragged on a little too much. a serial killer is after jane the 17 year old because of a resemblance to someone who has been dead 2000 years. this was about the only plot twist in the book. i have never read any of the author's books and if the rest are like this, i guess i am not missing much but someone has to like them if she has all those books published.

the characters of eve and joe get to be a little boring. they seem to do the same thing over and over. it's like the author had no original ideals. and that is bad in a book that is almost 400 pages long.

Jane MacGuire, the streetwise kid, first mentioned in "The Killing Game" is now 17 years old but Jane has never had the privilege of leading the life of a "normal" child due to the fact that she, through no choice of her own, has had to endure the cruel realities of the world by living on the streets of Atlanta and experiencing more than a child her age should ever have to endure until Eve Duncan and Joe Quinn give her the love and home life she's never had.

Jane has been recently been having nightmares she doesn't understand about a woman who died. What Jane doesn't know is that there a madman, by the name of Aldo, who is out there killing and mutilating any woman with her particular facial features and now Jane is next on his list. But why? Jane discovers that the woman she's been dreaming about really existed 2,000 years ago and her name was is "Cira" and she happens to look exactly like Jane. Aldo feels he must kill Jane because of his hatred of "Cira" whom he believes destroyed his life by taking away his father's love.

Jane grows weary of being surrounded by security; not being able to live her life as she chooses and decides with the help of Eve and Joe, along with conman, Mark Trevor who is more than he seems to set up a trap to draw out this madman and get him before he kills again. Unbeknowth to all, Aldo has a plan of his own which now threatens the people Jane holds dearest. The clock is ticking as Jane has now run out of time and is now living her nightmare.

"Blind Alley" was a wonderful novel filled with suspense, drama and mystery with many twists and turns that made it a fantastic reading experience.

As indicated in the author's closing note, Jane's story will continue and we shall hopefully find out if she has psychic powers or is in fact the reincarnated "Cira" as well as what is in store for Jane and the mysterious Mark Trevor. Can' wait!!!

This is another author writing a book supposedly about one character when it is really about another. Patricia Cornwell did it when she lost interest in Kay Scarpetta and now this author is doing it with her Eve Duncan character. If you wish to write about a new character than PLEASE don't disguise it behind a character that readers have known. I will NOT buy another book about Jane. She is too young, too immature. I bought this book happy to be reading about Eve Duncan, NOT 17 year old Jane. And the new book promises to be all about Jane and Trevor. I don't care to hear about this couple. Shes too young for him, and it made me feel creepy to hear about the sexual tension between a 17 year old and 30+ year old. Don't waste your money on this if you are looking for Eve Duncan, She's not here!

It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great, either. Too much dialogue in which the characters talked about their own personality traits or those of another character. Also just too much dialogue in general.

Three times I picked up this book and started it. Three times I put it down and read something else instead. Since I let myself run out of reading material I picked this up again. It is truly one of the worst Iris Johansen books ever written. As the previous reviewer said "It's far fetched and a lot of drivel." After reading the first hundred pages or so I finally flipped to the last chapter and read through that, skipping entire paragraphs. This is really a no brainer, no suspense, most repetitive book I have ever tried to read. I give it a MINUS 5 star rating. I have purchased my last Iris Johansen novel. Save your money. Buy Stuart Woods, James Patterson or Lisa Gardener.

I have to agree with the other reviews here. Jane is the most annoying character I've ever come across. I thought that something was wrong with me, because it took two tries for me to even finish this book. That's unusual because I can pick up a Johansen and go until the end. But she just does not do it for me. I didn't like anything about her. I kept trying to find something, but it's just not there.

And Trevor was annoying and intrusive here. No endearing qualities at all, like John Logan, or any of her other leading males. I just couldn't really get into him or Jane.

The mystery itself was interesting. If this had happened to any other two people, I think I would've enjoyed it.

That being said, this does not in any way deter me from reading other Johansen books. She's fantastic! I'm still reading (with no interruptions) and buying.

Where to begin? The plot is preposterous. But other reviewers have covered the storyline vagaries, and repeating them is distasteful. The characters are phony. The dialogue is wooden. There is no atmosphere, no distinct sense of place. Cliches abound, and when you think the writer couldn't top the last one--she does. In short, this book is not even worth discussion. It should simply be dismissed. Why didn't the editors and publishers do exactly that?

This was my first book by Ms. Johansen. It will also be my last.

Well, if your bosom swells when someone touches it, it might be time to go to a doctor. I am sure there is a difficult and obscure medical term for that. The sex scenes go to hell from the bosom swelling. There is too much touchy feely talking when really there should be only heavy breathing and bursting hearts. That is, if they really are crazy for each other as the author will have us believe. Also, he didn't notice at the time that she was a virgin? Really? And they had sex a multiple times that first time? Really??

The whole story is thin and preposterous. Sexy scenes are boring and absolutely unlikely. It was awful.

I found the globe-trotting serial killer plot in this book as farfetched as it gets. I know this is fiction, but come on. How does stuff like this get published? Also, I'm glad I wasn't the only reader uncomfortable with the romantic involvement of a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. Eww. Finally, I agree with the reviewer who wrote that Johansen writes the same book over and over again, casting them with criminals so over the top that they become cartoonish, and police officers so bad at their jobs that they couldn't even catch a cold. This will be my last Johansen.

Great addition to the Eve Duncan life stories. I never get tired of reading about her life. Eve and Joe are of course my favorite characters that Iris has created. I love the awesome balance that Iris can always seem to create between action and love to keep her audience on the edge of their seat. This is a great story. This is a must buy and a must read.

This book was nothing but a let down with antiquated verbage and cliched characters. I am nineteen and mature for my age, and believe me, I didn't use words like "lordy" and "darn" when I was seventeen. The manner in which Jane speaks and acts is a far cry from reality, even for a supposedly mature and intelligent girl. She sounded more like my 72 year old grandmother than a 17 year old girl. Johansen's portrayal of Jane is quite sloppy and formulaic. The timeline doesn't even add up either. If she applied early decision, she would not receive her response back from Harvard in the early fall, she would get it over winter break. It doesn't add up. And I repeat: this is such a cliche... pick a more interesting and less typical college.

This book was horrible and sloppily written with simplistic and uninspiring prose.

Iris Johansen is on a level by herself. She really makes you want to read without putting her book down and it is difficult. Eve Duncan is a favorite character as well as Joe Quinn and Jane. A very good book!

I can't believe some people thought this story rated a 4 or 5, romantic it wasn't, it was however boring to the core. I didn't think the romance was 70's. Books I've read written in the 70's with romance as part of the story were never as lame as Capture the Rainbow. I should have know just by the title but I thought after reading one book before this one by Iris Johansen she was a good writer but I won't read another book by her.

What a disappointment! The characters were so empty and shallow. Ms. Johansen did not take the time to develop them and give them substance. I continued to read, hoping it would get better. What I found was an anticlimactic ending which left me kicking myself for having wasted any time reading. Do yourself a favor, save your time and money and skip over this book.

I like the characters and the plot, even though it is far fetched. Readers of Eve Duncan series may be dissapointed as this book deals more with Jane (the daughter). I hope that Ms. Johansen ages Jane a little more in the next book. It is hard to imagine adults taking orders from a 17 yr.old no matter how rational they may be.

I had never read anything by Johansen, and I probably never will again.

The entire concept is implausible. A serial killer mad at some woman who's been dead for 1,926 years (don't round up to make it more dramatic, Iris) because his daddy "tweated him badwy" because he was obsessed with her? Where on God's green earth does someone even remotely THINK of that? I just stopped at the "sexual tension" scene between Jane and the totally superfluous Trevor (what's his motivation again?).

Johansen graps neither what a serial killer nor a 17 year old might think. And the whole dream thing - geez, if I had wanted a science fiction, I would have bought one.

It's in the trash - the second book I've ever thrown away.

This is the first Iris Johansen thriller I have read and unfortunately it will probably be my last. The characters are so predictable in their responses to each other that I knew what they would say before they said it. I listened to it as a book on tape which probably made that worse. But Jane, the focus of the book, is simply unbelievable. Aldo and his "obsession" strain credibility. The best part was the information about life in ancient Herculaneum and the volcanic eruption.

After reading a couple of Iris Johansen's books, I thought that this book would be entertaining and a fun read. My main complaint with this book was the lack of character development/relationship between Jane and Cira. Where was the connection? Just because someone has a close resemblance does not make them the same. I felt like Ms. Johansen began with a neat plot twist but let it get lost between the pages. I would suggest taking less time weaving a frayed "fantastic plot" and more time with actual character and story development.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I enjoyed this book. Primarily because why some disliked it - it was not all about Eve. I have gotten sick of Eve Duncan and almost wish that she would find her daugther's body and have it over and done with.

I have read all of Ms. Johansen's books and it was only because of her name that I picked this one up initially. As soon as I saw "Eve Duncan" on the front cover, my excitement level dropped off but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not all about Eve.

The only quibble I have with the story line is that I do not think that most readers are able to enjoy reading about a 17 year old and a "can't be over 30" year old. It would have been more palatable to make their ages closer and out of the statutory rape range. It was done in Reap the Wind, albeit not with the main characters.

I look forward to reading Coutdown since Jane will be 21 ;-)

In addition to everything J. Mullally said, I skipped a few of Johansen's books because I got so tired of the word "stiffened" every half dozen pages or so. How about trying some other tired word like "he (or she) bristled" once in awhile? I got more out of the the store synopsis and reviews than from the book. I liked the first couple in the series, but there wasn't much in the way of forensics here.

This story went nowhere fast. Very unbelievable on so many levels. Jane/Chrira really bothered me and the way she grew into this pig-headed brat made the book hard to finish. I'll give her another try... but I hope Iris doesn't let me down again.

Could any romance be more a cliché? This book has everything: rape of a virgin, unplanned pregnancy, rich suitor, plucky heroine, undying love. If you have never read a romantic novel, you might enjoy this one. But if you ever read another one, you have already seen all the plot points in this novel fluff. A disappointment considering the author.

Where did Iris Johansen put Eve Duncan after so many successful years?

I have read all but two of Johansen's books. I am an admirer of her character Eve Duncan. She developed Eve over the years to be a very strong character.

Blind Alley is a very disappointing piece of work. It's almost as if Johansen decided to make Eve weak in order to make Jane strong. And who is Mark Trevor and why do we need yet another 'rascal' male lead to make the female lead more 'credible'? Poor dialogue. Hardly credible plot line. Strange supporting cast. Bad choice.

Whoever advised Johansen to proceed with this work is looking for new money, not old fans.

Too bad.

Not a good read.

I have read every suspense novel that Iris Johansen has written. Unfortunately, if you have read one, you have read them all. The "tough as nails" heroine overcoming her obstacles to emerge victorious. Let us not forget the psycho killer that forms an obsession with our heroine. All in all a decent book. I think I can finally say I have spent the last of my hard-earned money on a Johansen hardcover.

The plot follows Iris Johansen's style but each book is unique enough to be worth reading. It is refreshing having this book written about the daughter of a character (Eve Duncan) who has already "starred" in other novels.