Chasing the Night: Amazon.ca: Iris Johansen: Books

Product Description

Review

"A story that is literally explosive! ... Johansen’s books are so addictive because of her expertise in creating memorable characters faced with life-testing challenges. Pulse-pounding!"
--RT Book Reviews

Book Description

A CIA agent’s two-year-old child was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, this torment is something Catherine Ling awakens to every day. Her friends, family, and colleagues tell her to let go, move on, accept that her son is never coming back. But she can’t. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her— and that person is Eve Duncan. She knows that Eve shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie. Now, Eve must take her talents as a forensic sculptor to another level, using age progression as a way to unite Catherine with her child. As Eve gets drawn deeper into Catherine’s horror, she must face looming demons of her own.

Bonnie’s killer is still out there. And a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine’s son alive, or not? These two women endure the worst fear any mother can imagine in Iris Johansen’s latest thrill ride, a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul.

See all Product Description

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Chasing the Night is a 10 out of 10, Nov 11 2010

By

S. Morehouse (Langley, BC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Chasing the Night (Hardcover)

Chasing the Night is Iris Johansen's latest Eve Duncan book. Eve Duncan is a forensic sculptor who can take pieces of a skull and flesh it out so that a recognizable face appears. Her particular expertise is children's faces. She is called on when bones are found to help identify them and her work has led to many criminals being put behind bars. But the work is personal for Eve. She lost her own daughter to murder and the body has never been found. That sorrow and desire for justice for her daughter gives her a special connection with the children whose faces she is trying to recreate.

I've enjoyed many of Iris Johansen's books over the years but I think this is her best one yet. A child has been taken from his mother when he was a baby and brought up by a murderous criminal. This criminal has been taunting the mother, an FBI agent for years and the mother has finally decided to launch an all-out effort to find her son. To do this she needs Eve Duncan's help.

The themes in this novel are about family ties and love and how true evil distorts everything. Iris Johansen knows how to tell a good story. This book was hard to put down and the ending is truly satisfying. If you have never read a book by Johansen this is a good one to start with. If you have read her books then this one will be an entertaining addition to your collection.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars chasing the night, Mar 28 2011

By

papyfou - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing the Night (Hardcover)

Just love Iris Johanson's new book.
A real can't put down book.
Being a fervent reader of Iris, I am waiting for her next book involving "Eve Duncan" and friends.
Jean-Guy Perron

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See both customer reviews...

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 3.8 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)

67 of 72 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Good, The Bad, & The Very Ugly, Oct 22 2010

By D. Bell "Imzadi" - Published on Amazon.com

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Chasing the Night (Hardcover)

I look forward to the Eve Duncan books, and this had all the good points of the earlier ones. It was very readable and difficult to put down. The new co-protagonist is Catherine Ling, a very brave and highly skilled CIA operative with a checkered past of childhood poverty & abuse and a life on her own at a very young age. Nine years ago, her 2-year-old son Luke had been stolen from her. Unlike Eve, who knows in her heart that her daughter Bonnie is dead, Catherine believes Luke to be alive. She has come to Eve to ask her to age-progress her son so that when she rescues him (as she firmly believes she will), she will know him. Although Eve is at first reluctant, Catherine's passion wins her over. Aided by Kelly, a 14-year-old genius whom Catherine had rescued and who can see patterns where others cannot, by Joe, and by Venable, her CIA superior, they discover where Luke is being kept. And then they set out to rescue him.

The book is exciting and action-filled. Catherine is one of the cleverest and most capable women I have come across in a long time. Kelly is very likeable and is sure to grow into an amazing woman as well. Johansen does well with strong females.
One does wonder why Eve & Joe never married and why she hasn't had a child with him; does he resent that her obsession with Bonnie has prevented him from true fatherhood?

I was disappointed that we never found out who the little girl was whose skull Eve was working on in the beginning of the book, why she was so brutally murdered, and if the killer was caught & brought to justice. I do think this should at least have been mentioned. I missed Jane, but there was no real part for her in the story, so it's not major.

My main objection, and the reason I gave this 4 stars rather than 5, is that all of the villains lately seem to be horrible, sadistic, truly evil psychopaths (or sociopaths?). The one who was holding Kelly & her father captive was just the first. Not only the main villain but his henchmen were all cut from the same cloth.
I'm getting sick of it. Why can't Eve come up against a villain who is charming, intelligent, not sadistic, and only kills when absolutely necessary--a Thomas Crown type perhaps? I would enjoy a true battle of wits and less blood.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Chasing The Night, Nov 4 2010

By Denise Markiewicz - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Chasing the Night (Hardcover)

I've read all the Eve Duncan books. Enjoyed them. However, I was not thrilled with this one. To me, it didn't get a little exciting until the last quarter of the book. The first half of the book took place in Eve's house. Just converstations with Eve, sometimes Joe, Catherine, beating a subject to death. It was dry. One can only say a person is brilliant, brave, independent so many times. It got better toward the end of which I was grateful.And why are the females characters rude? Does rudeness equate with heroine? I think not. I've read almost all of Iris Johansen's previous books. Loved the "Wind Dancer" trilogy. But lately, the last 3 or 4 seem to be less intersting, more dry.Is it just me?

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Talk, talk, talk, Mar 20 2011

By maria dante - Published on Amazon.com

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

I haven't read anything by this author before, so I have no other works to compare this one to. I bought this because I love suspense/police fiction, and have finished all the Lisa Gardner, Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly books. I know Johansen has written a lot of books, but frankly I was astonished at the amateur quality of this one. First, the writing. She misuses words--"persevere" isn't a synonym for "prevail"--and she's an adverb addict. "She said, dryly...tersely...shyly, regretfully." But mostly, it's very very poorly plotted. She gets all the main characters into one house--in a pretty unbelievable way, and they TALK. And talk and talk. Occasionally the talking is interrupted by a call from the villain, who threatens dire, comic-book villainous things. I mean, this guy is like something from a Batman movie. "Your son is dead. No, he's not. Yes, he is. Come here and let me kill you..." And the tough, Angelina-lookalike CIA operative invariably melts, in exactly the same way, every time she takes one of these calls. Talk about phoning it in! This book is a perfect example of how not to write. About a third through the book I'm skimming, trying to get through the morass of boring dialogue and repetitive threats. I was like, yeah, let him kill you! Right now! Put this dull story out of its misery. I frankly can't believe this author has published so many books, and that she has any kind of following. I have to hope some of the early ones were better, but I won't be wasting my money to find out.

Wondering about the two stars? I thought the premise of the book was interesting--digital aging, facial reconstruction. Intriguing idea. Too bad Johansen can't write worth a damn. Show, Iris, don't tell. Stop using the same tired sentimental tropes, like the dead girl who comforts her mom every time she goes for a walk and needs a pep talk. I have no objection to wise ghosts, or anything, but this one didn't move the plot, or even affect character development, at all.

What's sad, it seems to me, is that I'm sure there are a ton of good writers out there who can't even get a publisher to look at their stuff. And people like me, who love to read, are left desperately searching for good, engrossing fiction. Take it from me, gentle reader, this isn't it. Save your money, and your time.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 54 reviews 3.8 out of 5 stars