Iris Johansen, Body of Lies (Bantam, 2002)

I picked this up after having the first two chapters sent to me on the chapteraday mailing list and reluctantly allowing myself to get intrigued. The first chapter really does pack a wallop. I just with the rest of the book could have carried out the promise.

It doesn't, unfortunately. After the first chapter comes long, drawn-out setup that is in no way justified by the payoff. Robert Parker does the same thing, but he does it in about a third of the number of pages per novel used by Johansen. The woman could use a few lessons in tight prose and how it heightens tension in a novel. But this one's a lost cause; by the time her protagonist finally gets around to reconstructing the face on the skull, will the reader still care? Not this one. (zero)