Julie's Review: Takeover

Summary: Forensic Scientist Theresa MacLean is investigating a grisly murder when she gets word that her fiance has been taken hostage with seven others in a bank robbery. Arriving at the scene, she discovers that the police have brought in Cleveland's best hostage negotiator. Handsome, high profile Chris Cavanaugh hasn't lost a victim yet, but Theresa wonders if he might be too arrogant to save the day this time around. Wary of Cavanaugh, she seizes the opportunity to trade herself for her injured fiance. Once on the inside, Theresa will use all her wiles, experience, and technical skills to try to get control of the crisis. Yet nothing can prepare her for what is about to unfold....In the tradition of Kathy Reichs and Jeffery Deaver, promising young novelist Lisa Black introduces a sharp and gutsy forensic investigator in a stunning thriller sure to take readers by storm. ~backcover

Review: Takeover is another book that I received from LibraryThing.com's Early Reviewers club. Based on the description and the comparison to Kathy Reichs I had pretty high hopes for it. I wouldn't say it totally fell flat but I was disappointed. I do think that for a first novel it's a solid effort but the publisher's should definitely not be comparing it to Kathy Reichs'. Theresa MacLean is a Forensic Scientist who works for the Cleveland M.E. office. The book opens with her and the police investigating a murder of Mark Ludlow who was found outside of his home and the real plot begins when hostages are taken at the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank because Detective Paul Cleary one of the investigators from the murder is in there and he's Theresa's fiance.

The hostage situation takes a bad turn and Theresa makes a heroic or stupid move to get inside the bank. Now, I get why she does it but on the other hand I kept thinking "What are you doing?" since I didn't think she was capable of handling the situation, seeing that she's a scientist and not a detective. Predictably, Theresa gets the bad guys to open up and the story becomes pretty formulaic after that. I didn't feel like that was tension between Theresa and Chris Cavanaugh, just a difference of opinion on how to resolve the situation.

I did enjoy getting to know a little about Theresa MacLean and I think that Lisa Black could make her a great main character in a series of books but she needs to make her next book not so predictable. I would read another book by Ms. Black with the hopes that she's learned from this one and makes the next one with a bit more twists and turns.

Final Take: 3.5/5