Demolition Angel

narrated by Paul Hecht

ISBN: 0-7887-4853-X Order from: Recorded Books

A decent plot and an interesting protagonist in this tense mystery battle with awkward style and shallow villains to produce a mildly interesting book.

Reviewed by David on November 15, 2003

Genre: Mystery (Police Procedural)

Synopsis: This is an unabridged recording of Demolition Angel. Carol Starkey has never lost her desire to be a bomb technician. However, a deadly explosion three years ago hurt her physically and psychologically, and barred her from returning to that job.

Ironically, her new duty in the Criminal Conspiracy section of LAPD bring her to investigate the explosive murder of one of her former colleages. Fighting her own depression, interference from the ATF, pressure from superiors and colleagues allike, Carol brings her own expertise with explosives to bear on this complex and increasingly dangerous assignment.

Full Review: The main character, Carol, is interesting and interestingly vulnerable. Her skills with bombs are well portrayed, as are her investigative steps.

Unfortunately, the language to portray character traits is frequently awkward and stilted. The resulting unevent character portrayal make certain passages a strain. Several other steps in the investigation seem implausible and sloppy; and at the end, the awkward style and coincidences balance the positive aspects of the book, compromising the reading pleasure.

Overall: 5; Plot: 4.5; Characters: 5.5; Style: 4; World-building: 5; Originality: 5.5;

ISBN: 0-7887-4853-X Order from: Recorded Books