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Fisherman's Bend (Jane Bunker) | 
| Author: Linda Greenlaw
Publisher: Hyperion
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 306738
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1401322352
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781401322359
ASIN: 1401322352
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
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Product Description
bWhen former Miami homicide detective Jane Bunker left her big city life for Green Haven, Maine, she thought she was also leaving behind the pollution, noise, and dead bodies. PWell--as any New Englander will tell you --two out of three ain't bad. /b PAfter solving a murder and surviving a couple of attempts on her life (recounted in the bestselling mystery iSlipknot/i), Jane Bunker believes she's finally earned a respite from murder and intrigue. But if she thinks it's time for her to soak up the peace and quiet she's been seeking, she should think again. POn her way back from a routine investigation into some smashed equipment, Jane takes a moment to appreciate the beauty of a Maine autumn--there's the sublime rainbow foliage of the highlands, the serene reflections of the setting sun on the bay's gentle waves, the elegant silhouette of a lobster boat on the bay. But her calm lasts only as long as it takes for Jane to make the chilling discovery that the vessel is in serious trouble with nobody aboard--and that its owner has vanished without a trace. PAnd that's the least of the mysteries. A young mariner dead of a heroin overdose; the real agenda of a charismatic Indian leader; a missing bait iron and a corpse painted red--nothing is what it seems. PiFisherman's Bend/i brings us Greenlaw's pitch-perfect ear for all things maritime. From the eccentric denizens of little Green Haven--Audrey, the punk rock waitress, the delightful Vickersons with their all-mussel cookbook--to the dark undercurrents that run beneath this seemingly idyllic coastal village, Greenlaw's flair for combining humor and Down East flavor with roller-coaster suspense makes this a mystery that will grab you hook, line, and sinker.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 A Non-Amazon-Vine Review 2* November 24, 2008
Fisherman's Bend by Linda Greenlawbr /br /Since all the previous reviews seem to from the Amazon Vine Program -- whoops, forgot the TM -- I thought I'd chime in as a reg'lar citizen. And basically I agree with many of the reviews. A mildly interesting, though thin and predictable, plot (I figured out a good part of the resolution barely a third of the way in, though not every fillip). Lots of local color and nautical lore, though perhaps hard to follow in places if you're not an old salt yourself. A shallow and not very likable main character, given to ... not exactly introspection, since that would imply change or examination ... but, well, talking about herself, her habits, her history, a lot. br /br /But the worst thing, and though I haven't read every Vine review I didn't see anyone else pick up on this, is the writing. All that local color and nautical lore, even her fawning over the handsome boat captain, could have been made much more interesting. But the first person narrative is stiff, almost leaden, and just doesn't sound like an actual person speaking, but like, say, a police report, the stilted style of someone perhaps smooth and glib vocally but uneasy setting words to paper. Jane Bunker is no Spenser. Plus Greenlaw indulges in a major sin for a fiction writer -- too often she doesn't show us, but tells us. We don't learn things from what Bunker sees or does, with maybe an explanatory aside, but through exposition. A Robert Heinlein can get away with this, even make it exciting, but few others. br /br /I was oscillating between giving this 2* and 3*. On the one hand, once I got into the swing of speed-reading to get past the writing style, it did catch my interest a bit and was at least worth finishing (had to see if I was right about my plot predictions! ). On the other, there was the offensive and gratuitous stereotype of the scientist/techie type "Quasar," bumbling, disheveled, inarticulate, thickly be-glassed no less. Sorry Linda, two *'s.
 slow start to a decent mystery October 28, 2008
When I ordered this book, I did so because I'd not read a mystery that was so. . .well. . .fishing-related. That doesn't sound right, but you likely get what I mean. I haven't read much of lobster boats or Maine towns (unless you count the VERY good Charlie "Bird" Parker series by John Connolly, and those don't really delve much or at all into the life and times of coastal towns). I also wanted to see if a female protagonist in such an unusual (for me) local would make me want to read more of this type of book.br /br /So you can say that I started the reading of this book without the enthusiasm of, say, someone who loves this kind of novel/mystery.br /br /With that in mind, you might choose to temper my impressions of the first third or so of this novel as moving very slowly and spending way too much time on the not-as-interesting-as-I-expected lobster business.br /br /That, however, is precisely how this book felt to me at first: slow, way too informative (in a manner that didn't advance the plot or make me want to read more), and a bit dry.br /br /It picked up, though, once someone was murdered (ain't that always the way? things get juicy once someone gets offed), and the rest of the novel wasn't bad.br /br /I'd say the novel's "strengths" include the characters, most notably Jane and Cal, but also the regular cafe goers, who are pretty funny at times but of whom we don't see enough. The setting is nice, too, but I'd like it a lot if it didn't dominate. To me, a good story is much more important than a good setting.br /br /If I were to offer advice to teh write of this novel, I'd say "divide up the paragraphs more so that they're not so long, and strengthen your dialogue. Just because Mainers are a bit laconic, that doesn't mean solid paragraph after paragraph of description is the only way to go."br /br /Overall, I think I came away fairly pleased with the novel, and I may read the earlier novel in this series. But I likely won't kill myself to get my hands on it, and I won't be drooling for the next one in the series.
 Series Mystery Fans Should be Right at Home October 11, 2008
I've been reading more mysteries since I "grew up" from being a Children's Librarian to being a Big Boy Librarian. Usually I read thrillers (Preston/Child, Hiaasen, Thayer, Smith, Patterson) but I do enjoy an occasional series mystery (Orde, Oliphant)...and I have a fondness for any fiction set in Maine. (Comes from loving a Mainer, reading Stephen King, and watching too many hours of Murder She Wrote as a child).br /br /My partner read the first in this series and said, though enjoyable, it was a little too heavy on the nautical details. That's one of the things that can bore me dry-eyed...but I didn't have that problem with this, the second Jane Bunker mystery. There were seafaring details, but they were peppered through out the story. I also didn't feel behind the curve having not read the first in the series. Jane's narration catches the reader up in no time on her past life.br /br /Jane is a part-time sheriff's deputy and a marine insurance investigator in rural coastal Maine. She WAS a chief detective in Dade County Florida before she returned to the state of her birth. Here she heads out with her friend Cal to investigate (for the insurance company) some vandalism of a survey ship there to pave the way for oyster farming. "There" is in the heart of Lobster country. On the way back from that investigation, she has to put on her other hat when they come upon a lobster boat floating without captain or crew. Amidst feuding lobstering families, Native American activists, companies looking to start oyster farms and the people who oppose those companies, Jane has no shortage of leads to follow.br /br /Greenlaw does a great job juggling her mystery threads and tying them together. I look forward to future volumes in the series. Jane's thriftiness can grate a little...but it makes her more human. Any fan of Grafton, Paretsky, Jance, or Stabenow should be right at home.
Hard to get hooked into October 10, 2008
Whenever I get a new book, I give it 100 pages to hook me in and get me interested before I decide to commit to the time to finish it. This book failed to grab me and I feel bad about that because it seemed like it would be an interesting book when I first picked it up. I normally love mysteries with a female main character.br /br /I may pick up the earlier "Jane Bunker" mystery to see if that catches my interest and gets me more involved with the characters. Then I will revisit this book and see if my opinion changes.
 Mainers' delight October 8, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Jane Bunker's second outing outside of Miami - we are still left somewhat wondering as to why Jane has returned to her home state of Maine from Florida, where her mother had retrreated with her as a child to live. Luckily she is able to remain in her comfort zone on the water - the Atlantic Ocean - and around boats - even if she has left the police force. But you may be able to take the cop out of the force, but not the force out of the cop. br /br /Jane and her friend Cal, an old local salt, happen upon an abondoned lobster boat running in circles in the middle of a run. They'd just investigated a vandalism claim on a boat for an insurance company in Jane's new position as a marine consultant. Jane's old instincts can't help but kick in and she finds the disappearance suspicious and the reactions of the family unusual. Cal, typical of the locals, dismisses what isn't his business and moves on.br /br /When Jane is called in by both of her bosses - she's also a deputy for the local sheriff's department - she's more than happy to comply if only to satisfy her curiosity. Little does she know how deeply the feelings run in the small lobster community - even when she discovers that it may have nothing to do with the bottom feeders she already knows about...Fisherman's Bend (Jane Bunker)
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