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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable romantic thriller, 12 Mar 2001
By A Customer
Spencerville is an enjoyable novel both as a romance and a thriller. The plot centres on the relationship between Landry, an ex-CIA man returning home to his home town in rural Ohio to live a quiet life, and Annie, his ex-girlfriend and love of his life. The problem comes in the shape of Annie's husband, the town's resident psycho/insanely jealous police chief.The three main characters are fairly well drawn, especially the "real" couple, though the villain is rather a caricature of evil personified, without any redeeming features. For all that I liked about it, I would also say that I thought the novel was a bit too long, and predictable. As a portrait of Smallville, USA, it is okay, and probably still accurate, though if it had been set say twenty or thirty years ago instead of being contemporary, I think it would have rung even more true. Definitely worth reading if you come across it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
SPENCERVILLE -- A NICE PLACE TO LIVE; A NICE BOOK TO VISIT, 20 Oct 2002
Having just finished reading Spencerville, I can now easily understand why most DeMille fans rate this as their least favorite of all his books. While I'm not saying it's a bad book, because it most certainly isn't, it just doesn't meet the exalted standards that followers of this author have come to expect. With a story involving a love triangle, there was just not enough "meat" there to warrant 481 pages.To net it out, Keith Landry has been an Army intelligence officer working for our government for the past twenty-five years. With the culmination of the Cold War, many employees in his position are forced into early retirement whether they like it or not. In his case, he didn't like it. With angry and hurt feelings, he heads home to his family's farm in Spencerville, Ohio, which also happens to be the home of his high school/college sweetheart, Annie Prentis. Problems start to arise when he and Annie meet up again, especially since she is now married to the Chief of Police, Cliff Baxter, who also happens to be a former classmate of Keith's. In addition to running the police department, Cliff also runs Annie's life and is depicted as a husband who is not only unfaithful and possessive but verbally, emotionally and sexually abusive as well. It's about time for DeMille's "knight in shining armor" to step in. While this is definitely not a five star book, I don't think I could ever give a DeMille book less than four stars as his writing and storytelling are so superior to other authors when weaving a tale of espionage, cat and mouse escapades, murder and mayhem or a love triangle such as in Spencerville. Don't get me wrong; this is not your usual love triangle. Since it's told by DeMille, the players are experienced both at subterfuge as well as mind games with the common thread being "the love of a good woman." It gets very scary for awhile since Cliff Baxter is the type of irrational man that just might do anything and Spencerville is just the type of small town where a man like Cliff just might get away with it. This is the sixth book I've read by this author and I'm glad there's still a few more out there for me to conquer.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping story let down by weak climax, 15 Jan 2002
Nelson DeMille seems to write 2 types of books: The fast paced action thriller (Plumb Island, Charm School, Lion's Game) or the slow burning suspense novel (Gold Coast). Spencerville definately falls under catagory 2. It paints an excellent picture of small town life, and slowly, very very slowly increases the tension between the main characters. However it is let down by a predictable and dissapointing climax. You'd expect more from an ex-CIA Filed Agent but he stumbles from one blunder into the next and his small town opponent nearly gets the better of him if it wasn't for a lucky escape. 3 Stars only for the atmosphere of the book.
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