Still Life

by Bruce Elliot

As a vicious serial killer stalks the streets of Los Angeles, leaving behind mutilated corpses meticulously arranged into grotesque forms, Detective Amiel "Touch" Benson joins forces with radio psychologist Teri Fields, the one person the murderer contacts, to stop him. Original.

Genres: Suspense

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Mackenzie RM · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a series of homicides. Bodies that are mutilated and positioned into art forms. It's the first book I've read by Bruce Elliot and needless to say I wasn't disappointed with it.

The characters were well developped and they all had their flaws. They were fairly easy to connect to. Benson had some major baggage and he certainly had me worried at times.

This book was full of unexpected twists. Normally I have a sketchy, but fairly good idea of who the killer could be. This time around, I had no clue. Elliot never gave up any hints whatsoever (well that I caught on to anyways) to allude to the character who was behind it all.

The last 100 or so pages had my heart beating frantically. I was so nervous that Detectives Touch or Amanda were going to get hurt that I skimmed the pages in my haste to find out what was going to happen.

The very closing of the book, to me, was rather disappointing. Compared to the rest of the book, it was completely bogus. That's what kept me from giving this book 5 stars. The fact that the ending confused me and just didn't really fit as well wtih the rest of the novel.

All in all, it was a good read. If you like somewhat violent, gory books. Then this one is certainly for you. :) If not, steer clear.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started off extremely creepy, so be prepared for that. However, it was better than the average detective novel. The story and the characters were extremely well developed and very interesting....I got into their minds and psyches. I am slightly haunted by it, but in a good way, in a way I will always remember. If you can handle very rough "cop language" and creative crime, I definitely recommend this book. It was thrilling and moving, but definitely disturbing...as in I finished it two days ago and I keep thinking about it. For me, that means that for a detective crime novel, it was very well done. The only reason I am not giving it five stars is because of the several grammar/pronoun mistakes, especially at the beginning. It could have used more editing, but that didn't matter in the end. Read it if you are in the mood for a wild and rather scary ride.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely a good read. The story moved along at a decent pace and I felt like the writing was well done. My only complaint is that apparently "Touch" Benson is some sort of ongoing series and picking this book up made me feel like I was thrown into the middle of it with little to no understanding of characters that had been previously established. I still highly recommend this.

[Mandy Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty graphic, skipped some parts due to that, but as a writer has the ability to pull you in, too many recent tv shows/books that followed this plot (this book may have been out before them, it's been on my shelf awhile)would like to read a different book by this author

[Susan C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but a little slow at times. For some reason it put me in a depressing mood and I like suspenseful novels.