Random Acts

by Taylor Smith

A random predator is terrorizing Southern California. After children start disappearing, it's up to the FBI's best to stop a killer. — Criminal profiler Laurel Madden is at the top of her field. But being the best comes at a price. Brilliant, beautiful and aloof, Agent Madden has a dark side and even darker secrets. Maybe that's why she understands the criminal mind so well.

Sent to cover the disappearance of the children, reporter Claire Fillespie arrives in California with another, more personal agenda: to rip away the veil of secrecy that surrounds and protects Madden. Claire has evidence that Madden committed murder...and got away with it. Until now. And Claire won't rest until there's justice for the victim - someone she cared about.

Between these two determined woman stands veteran FBI agent Dan Sprague - torn by duty, loyalty to one woman and an intense attraction to the other that's as unwelcome as it is irresistible.

As the balance shifts dangerously between thse three, one thing becomes clear: hunting killers is a dangerous game.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

441 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

After a career as an international diplomat and later an intelligence analyst, Taylor Smith turned her experience into bestselling fiction. Taylor currently lives in Southern California.

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Random Acts is an intense crime thriller, and once I picked it up I could barely put it back down. The setup and execution of the mystery was fantastic, and the characters were well-developed and behaved consistently throughout. The case kept me guessing and the ending was unexpected. The romances were shoehorned in, though, and I would describe them as the book's weakness. They were unnecessary and distracted from the central plot. There was plenty of content to go around, but luckily they were underplayed and didn't consume too many pages.

Reporter Claire Gillespie and FBI Agents Laurel Madden and Dan Sprague have their hooks into the same case - the Southland Snatcher is kidnapping and murdering babies. Time is ticking, as his strikes are coming closer together and children around the Orange County, California area are increasingly at risk. Despite the undercurrents between the three caused by their personal relationships, they all have the same focused mission - to bring this killer to justice.

[JKS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll have to admit that I started reading this book with some reservations. I had seen a couple of reviews negatively rating the romance and averagely rating the thriller. After finishing the book, I can confidently disagree. I loved the couples within this book; they kind of caught me off guard, yet made sense. I loved how Smith did not spend too much time on them, and kept them useful (and away from) interrupting the thriller. The plot was well thought out, and did not give too much away before its reveals. Granted, I was not surprised when the story was revealed, but think this simply shows that Smith wrote a book engaging enough to let the reader think along. Although it should also be mentioned that I have had some severe beef with Claire during the book. Even though her character seems well thought out, she felt sometimes a little bit too naive and stupid in interrogations/conversations to be the great crime reporter the book claims she is. Aside from these interactions with Gar and Daniel, it's a good book. Overall, I enjoyed this story, as well as its Dutch translation (which is normally a point of contention for me).

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did like it up until the epilogue, slow but interesting in the characterizations and conversations. I feel like it would have been a better ending without the epilogue, not knowing who was alive or not and without romantic elements in the end that had no sense being there after the lack (or half-assed) build-up.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am glad the first book I read of Taylor Smith's was The Innocents Club, which I gave five stars, before reading this one.

THIS one was a mess and very slow moving. I finally gave up at about page 150 and skipped to the last chapter, and I discovered I am glad I didn't waste any more of my time on this.

[Mad Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly good mystery with interesting characters and an ending that surprised me. My only problem was main characters that seem to fall in 'love' after only a few encounters. I suppose that is done to add to the feel good component, but it seems juvenile.

[Karen San Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book. Just fell short of any significant character development, and the characters I wanted to engage during the climax didn't. Overall though, satisfying read with a good twist.

[Lynn Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Taylor Smith and this one did not disappoint.

[Lynne Block · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fair

[Lyn Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ms. Smith tries to mash up three genres: the romance, the murder mystery, and the spy thriller, with mixed success.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had ‘Random Acts’ on my ‘to-be-read’ shelf since the year dot. I thought that I was going to have to wear archive gloves while I read it because it was so antique.

My initial reaction was that both the writing style and the main plot were going to be very strong in ‘Random Acts’, but that the characters and my feelings towards them were going to be the let-down. I still stand by this opinion, because actually the plot developed well, and was genuinely full of tension. It certainly wasn’t one that you could easily predict.
Claire was our primary narrator, with Dan Sprague later taking over some of the work. Where Claire was unstable and untrustworthy as a narrator, Dan seemed to bring the pragmatism and logic. Claire was too close to the whole case and reacted emotionally. Claire was also a poor judge of character and therefore unreliable when interacting with and describing other key players in the plot.
Claire was also a contradiction. Supposedly quick, clever and street-wise, Claire was used to dealing with criminals and devious minds, and yet she repeatedly makes poor choices that left me questioning those traits. Why would anyone willingly walk into the business of a mobster, who you suspected of killing a man, and outright accuse him of this murder? Let alone do this and then not have any sort of back-up plan in regard to taking someone else with you, or having someone on stand-by – “If I’m not back in 20 minutes call the police.”
Even more, after this whole situation Claire then just gets into the car with a complete stranger who is obviously surly and admits everything to him. Not exactly playing to the characteristics she is described as having.

There were two romances in this novel, Dan and Laurel and Claire and – yes, real name – Gar. I actually enjoyed Claire and Gar as a couple because there seemed to be an elemental attraction, despite the accusations and opinions between them.
Dan and Laurel felt completely forced, and I felt their relationship was so poorly translated to the reader that I constantly suspected Laurel of being up to no good. I genuinely felt that she was forcing herself on Dan so that he had her back, and right up to the last few pages, I expected her to be a bad guy. She wasn't very well written considering she was such a key character.

My last gripe character-wise was that they were all saddled with a bit too much baggage. Dan was a single-father whose wife had died of cancer. Claire had a murdered father; she had an adulterous ex-husband who had run away with her now pregnant sister. She had also met and fallen in love with an undercover FBI agent who was then murdered, and who it turned out was also married and had a child.
Laurel was like a one-woman soap opera. She had been attacked by a serial killer while pregnant. She had been cheated on repeatedly, and abused by, her husband. Her baby had died in supposed SIDS incident, though Laurel had been accused of murdering the baby. Her husband was then murdered and Laurel was accused of being involved, and her career was in tatters following rumours of an affair… Some of this back-story was okay, and developed the characters and the plot. But for the most part I just felt that it was in there for the sake of it. There was no impact, no benefit.

This review sounds quite negative, but I would say that once I really got into the plot, I genuinely couldn’t put the book down. If you can overlook some of the characterisation then it was a rather good crime novel.

[Peggy Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reasonably good mystery. The author kept me guessing, mainly because she was scattering red herrings all over the place. I did not see the end coming, and that's always fun in a mystery. A good vacation read.

[Patt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children are being kidnapped and killed. What does this have to do with FBI profiler Laura Madden? Reporter Claire Gillespie is sent to cover the story but she has a personal agenda . Fast moving with a twist at the end that I wasn't expecting.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It is a good quick read, only 3 hours. It was good murder mystery with a twist at the end.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty good....

[Karen Desmond · Rating 2 out of 5]

2

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

read December 2010

[Elke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh I love a good detective book! Great and happy to have read it. Was on the edge of my seat until the very end.

[Bev Walkling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent mystery - kept me guessing till very near the end.The romantic part of the book was not really well developed.

[Moses Ananevi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spin- chilling, great piece of work. i was always looking forward to the next event or activity and that made me spent a month on the book. good description of characters too. Big-ups

[Roxie Gallinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

was starting out good as a mystery but then all the romance kicked in and turned me right off