Helpful Score: 8
Win Garano, still buying used brand name clothes to impress his boss, D. A. Lamont, gets a new assignment: He has to solve the murder of a young British blind girl in Watertown. The case was never solved and Janine Brolin was killed in 1962. District Attorney Monique Lamont smells a huge press spectacle behind this story and already sees herself again rising to be the star in the newspapers. She ties Win into working together with one of the lead investigators of Watertown, and a member of the so called "The FRONT", pretty much independent from the state police. The FRONT are around sixty departments joined in one coalition, sharing their resources and investigation techniques.
When Win's gym bag is stolen from his grandmothers house, he instinctively follows his boss into an empty house and finds evidence that his shoes and the forgotten bottle of wine where used there he doesn't know who to trust. His boss is out of question, his partner from the FRONT seems to follow another agenda: keeping Win away from the case.
He's lost in confusion but still tries to figure out which part belongs to what.
-
The second book in Cornwell's Win Garano series isn't
much better than the first one, "At Risk". The characters again or still are a mix of wish-wash, though the reader learns a few new things about one of the main characters D. A. Monique Lamont. Unfortunately she still won't get any sympathy, not from me and probably not from other readers. Her character is still a huge question mark and so much unlikeable. Poor Win doesn't get much character either. If it comes after me, his Nana and her neighbor Miss Murphy, which gets a part of half a page, are more memorable than the rest of the book.
However, I found the book slightly better than "At Risk" but still a huge failure and disappointment. Like in "At Risk" the plot just won't get paced and it seems that the reader has to drag oneself from page to page. Also the book description is highly misleading as the so called FRONT doesn't really play the role of a loose association.
The ending well, it's similar, almost the same, as in "At Risk". No surprises there or anywhere.
Overall, "At Risk" was meant to be published for a newspaper series but ended up as a highly priced Hardcover edition. It wasn't worth the money and so is "The Front": 180 pages of an empty blurb.
When Win's gym bag is stolen from his grandmothers house, he instinctively follows his boss into an empty house and finds evidence that his shoes and the forgotten bottle of wine where used there he doesn't know who to trust. His boss is out of question, his partner from the FRONT seems to follow another agenda: keeping Win away from the case.
He's lost in confusion but still tries to figure out which part belongs to what.
-
The second book in Cornwell's Win Garano series isn't
much better than the first one, "At Risk". The characters again or still are a mix of wish-wash, though the reader learns a few new things about one of the main characters D. A. Monique Lamont. Unfortunately she still won't get any sympathy, not from me and probably not from other readers. Her character is still a huge question mark and so much unlikeable. Poor Win doesn't get much character either. If it comes after me, his Nana and her neighbor Miss Murphy, which gets a part of half a page, are more memorable than the rest of the book.
However, I found the book slightly better than "At Risk" but still a huge failure and disappointment. Like in "At Risk" the plot just won't get paced and it seems that the reader has to drag oneself from page to page. Also the book description is highly misleading as the so called FRONT doesn't really play the role of a loose association.
The ending well, it's similar, almost the same, as in "At Risk". No surprises there or anywhere.
Overall, "At Risk" was meant to be published for a newspaper series but ended up as a highly priced Hardcover edition. It wasn't worth the money and so is "The Front": 180 pages of an empty blurb.
Helpful Score: 3
It was an okay story. The book is only 180 pages long, so if you are looking for something to "lose yourself" in, forget that. As in the last 2 Cornwell books, I was not thrilled. I really didn't care "who done it" or even care if the characters, who were not very likeable, lived or died.
Helpful Score: 3
Ms Cornwell seems to have had an idea for a story but it just never becomes cohesive. The characters seem to be disjointed and adding lots of space doesn't make a thicker book better. Very disappointing.
Helpful Score: 2
This book continues the story of characters from At Risk. They are still interesting characters, with a poorly developed story. D.A. Monique Lamont sends Win Garano to a declining neighborhood to bring attention to the DA's office by solving an old case. The case becomes more complicated because the neighborhood is also the home for the Front, a group of law enforcement agencies working together. Win becomes friend with one of these cops. He solves the old mystery, but by then you really don't care.
Helpful Score: 2
This is the first time ever I can say I did not enjoy a Cornwell book. She should have waited until the story could be a novel. I am sooooo glad I did not buy this at the book store. How does one disguise a short story as a novel? It was difficult to complete and not worth the wait. I want to LOVE the characters in a story, I did like At Risk and thought this would develop into a new series that I couldn't wait for the next one but so far no. It also reminds me very much of Alex Cross in James Patterson, with Win living with his Nana. So bottom line I would wait until the next one and read them together.
