Stalking Susan

A great summer read!

Julie Kramer's first novel is awesome! It is suspenseful and humorous and keeps you interested until the end. Her character, Riley Spartz, is funny and sophisticated, as she tries to unravel the mystery of the murders of the Susans. She also follows another news story that involves pet cremation. Julie mixes Minnesota landmarks in with the fiction, which makes it interesting and fun to read. Once you are finished, you will want to go out and purchase her next novel, Missing Mark, to read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

SADLY DISAPPOINTING

I kept reading and hearing about this book and wanted to snatch it up as quickly as possible. I ran right home and started reading it.

I was bored after the first couple of pages. Nothing grabbed my attention. But I decided to drudge through and it give it a chance. It was a quick read and before I knew it I was up to page 198. I put the book down and reflected on how I felt about the book at that point. It wasn't horrible. Worse. It was forgettable.

I still had no bonds to the characters even though some back story was given on them. I didn't really care who the killer was, or if the lead character was going to be killed or not. I was tired of being school on cop talk and news-caster talk.

About ten pages away from the ending, there was still no suspense. I wasn't enticed to keep turning the pages to see what would happen next. Everything seems really choppy and disjointed and contained absolutely no drama. This book is listed under: mystery and thriller. Neither of which actually appeared in the book. I just have two words for this book.

SADLY DISAPPOINTING

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Caught me right away

Great easy ride. Words flow smoothly! Set to Mnpls/St. Paul area, helpful to know some of the area.

Highly Recommended!!

Great story with lots of twists and turns. I enjoyed every minute of it!

Good read full of cliches

I enjoyed this book. It had some cliche dialouge but all in all it was a good read and I bought the other two books that follow.

Great Read

This is a light, easy to follow mystery. Great beach read or perfect when you're curled up next to the fire on a cold Minnesota winter night! (The book is set in Minneapolis)

What luck, A new detective has found us!

Julie Kramer has created a new heroine,Riley Spartz just right for the fans of Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller. This time she is a TV reporter, with a sad history and a way of getting into trouble. By getting away from the heroine as detective, being an investigative reporter gives some new twists to the cases that must be investigated. This series will just keep getting better, as can be seen in her next book MISSING MARK which was recently released. A great read, and a joy to look forward to new entries in this adorable series.

Best thriller I've read in a long time!

Great writing, great plot, great entertainment. I can't wait to read her next.

A Great Book

Julie Kramer's first novel is awesome...well-written, memorable characters,and humorous. This is a fast moving mystery with a good plot.I can hardly wait until her next book arrives this summer. Great gift for a friend....

Great read!

Being from the area, enjoyed the references to the Twin Cities. Interesting insight into investigations from a reporter's perspective. I don't like to analyze books, just read and "crawl" into the story, which was easy to do with this novel. Looking forward to another!!

WRITTEN IN FIRST PERSON

I wish bn.com would give us a heads up when a book is written in first person. Personally, I really hate first person and just dont read books written that way..

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great characters study in this debut novel!

Rarely does a debut author get my enthusiasm so completely, but Julie Kramer 'author of STALKING SUSAN' has made me a fan from page 1. Her unique voice hit me as decisively as Robert Crais did when I first discovered his Elvis Cole PI series. And that¿s saying something. By the title and book summary, you may think this is mainly a serial killer story. And the premise read like a cliché to me at first¿TV news reporter draws out a serial killer 'not even the police think exists' with the help of her cop friend. We¿ve all seen this type of story before. But what really stands out in this book is the humanity of the main character. Riley Spartz is a media savvy reporter who can take a mediocre story and turn it into media gold '40-share+ rating' simply by how she filters the facts through her own humanity. The character¿s cynical humor is a joy to discover, but there is another poignant thread through this book that really resonated and took me by surprise. Without giving too much away, I will say that the ¿dealing with grief¿ thread will remain with me long after I¿ve shelved this book with my favorites. Kramer begins and ends her story with it and I¿m sure it will haunt me for a long time to come. If you are reading this book to find a creepy scary story about a serial killer, you may not find what you¿re looking for. This is a character driven story about a courageous woman doing her job as a news reporter with an endearing circle of friends, co-workers, and quirky neighbors. Other news coverage is just as compelling to watch as the stories unfold and you can see how a TV reporter and a TV station thinks about news. An interesting perspective. And since Julie Kramer is a freelance TV news producer 'for NBC¿s Today show, Nightly News and Dateline', her experience really shows in the behind the scenes look at the ¿business¿ of news coverage. If you keep an open mind when you read STALKING SUSAN, this spunky TV reporter can make you laugh and cry. She felt so real to me that I wanted to know her as a person too. In short, I fell in love with this book and can¿t wait for the next one in the series. Kudos, Julie Kramer!

Good Read

Really liked this book it moved along and for a first Novel was very good. Hope there will be more. Liked all the Minnesota referances.

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