Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
A rollicking good read, 3 Jul 2004
By A Customer
I lent this book to my mum without reading it first. She spent her journey home from holiday immersed in it and handed it right back, enthusiastically singing its praises. I read this later that same week over the course of a return train journey to London and was gripped from the first page.The dialogue is crisp, sharp, witty and downright funny in many places. There isn't one character that can't bring banter into play, but none of it is at the expense of the story. The characters are so well drawn that you can visualise each individual with no problem. These are characters in whose lives you become rapidly enmeshed. The authors have created strong protagonists in Detective Magozzi and Sherriff Halloran that could carry a novel each, never mind eventually combining in one novel. The female characters are also well rounded, strong characters, not the token women you sometimes find hovering round the edges of some crime fiction. Even the large list of secondary characters each have their own distinctive voices and, given the sheer number of people in this book, that's a hard task in itself. This is a high standard debut novel, well worth the cover price. If you like detective stories set in the USA, this is the book for you. If you just like well-written, pacy novels, then this is for you too. A definite treat.
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
An up & coming author, 27 Jan 2004
From being one of Patricia Cornwall, Dennis Lehane, Harold Coburn & one of my favourite John Grisham authors avid readers I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book & the writing quality of P.J Tracy, especially for a first time novelist.Having found how hard it was to describe this book to my own satisfaction for this review I can not imagine how mush effort, time, anger & frustration she must have put into it to get it to this high quality & excellence. I would not be lying if I stated that I think it is one of the best-written books I have read. Below are some of my own views on it. If you have not read the book I would strongly suggest you do so & if you have read it I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. This is a book I have found myself recommending to family & friends & also telling them to watch out for it becoming a film as I can see the actors already playing the parts. From the get go you are so engrossed in the characters & the way they live there lives in the adversity that is facing them now & in the past which we find out throughout this book. I found myself having to read more & more of this book so that I would know who the murderer was & the motive behind it. Thankfully the surprise is well worth waiting for. It is like the first Patricia Cornwall books where you are unable to put it down as you start to wonder is it him or her. I found myself going through all the characters thinking that it was they & that was the reason. Thankfully I am able to say that the ending justifies the beginning & that I was only saddened that I finished the book that quickly, I think that this does a book justice when you are unable to go anywhere without it or when you are thinking about the book constantly, constantly guessing who it is. I can honestly say that I will be pre-ordering the next P.J Tracy book as soon as it becomes available & that I have saved someplace beside the other authors for this book & hopefully the many more books to come.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
Yes, I do, 27 Jun 2005
A debut novel that doesn't read like one. The Minnesota based mother-daughter writing team of P.J. Tracy (Patricia Lambrecht and daughter Traci) have hit the ground running with another offering from the ever-popular mystery/thriller realm, one which indicates that this won't be a one-off and we can expect more good (bad!) things from Pat and little Traci in the future. In fact I understand that Want to Play is supposed to be the first in a series of five novels, all featuring the same key characters.
I regularly buy books written by established authors such as Jeffrey Deaver, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin and Kathy Reichs to name just a few. The Tracy Team have (for me) joined two female debutants in recent times - the others being Jilliane Hoffman and Alice Sebold - who seem to have the formula wrapped up from the start and show a rightful entitlement to club membership.
The novel is divided into two storylines. The main plot based in Minneapolis covers the plight of enigmatic and beautiful computer game designer (didn't know there was such a thing!) Grace McBride and her nerdy friends on the lam from some awful past experience which the reader has to guess at for most of the book. Then you have the archetype die-hard detective called Magozzi, who's on the hunt for a killer copying Mcbride's Serial Killer game and McBride's OTT hatred towards the police. An explosive conflict is in store.
The subplot, based in Wisconsin, involves more cops, more murders borne of savage intensity and a link between the deaths that is so illusive it is headache inducing.
The serial killer is superb, chilling and damaged beyond repair. An inhuman creature that can mimic normality to such a degree you're unaware of who it is until the last few pages.....well, I was anyway.
"Want To Play" is a novel about trading identities, the power computer hackers have and the havoc they can wreak, of obsession, fear and trust and who to place that trust in, of sins that return to haunt, human deformity and the inescapable fact that no matter what you do, you leave behind a trail that can be followed.
It's a thought-provoking page turner, asking that ubiquitous question: Do violent games/videos inspire people to kill or is it something in their genetics that makes it impossible for them to discern fiction from reality? Or simply their nature?
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