Compared to other authors, this novel is one of the good ones. However, compared to other Iris Johansen novels, this one could have been better. In Body of Lies, we meet Eve Duncan, Joe Quinn, Jane, and Seth Galen again but their characterizations are left almost completely to what the reader knows from other novels in the series. I actually thought that in this novel, the characters seemed a little out of their normal realm of behavior. Joe seemed a little too fierce, Galen seemed a little to slack, and worst of all, Eve seemed a little too dense.

I thought the plot was a bit formulaic for the series: Eve takes on a job to reconstruct a skull that she really doesn’t want to do but is coerced in some manner and ends up taking on the bad guys. A couple of the plot twists actually surprised me but worst of all, I was so distracted by the characters acting weird that I missed the final twist that revealed who the bad guy was! I normally know by the end who to pin it on, but this book took me totally off guard. I knew not to trust that guy and I was cursing Eve and Galen for trusting him… but I never saw it coming.

As far as novels go, I was entertained and found myself thinking about it even as I went to sleep the night I finished it. I even got emotionally involved in it – the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that Eve needed a swift kick for being so dumb as to miss that. Then, I remembered I needed a swift kick too… Other Iris Johansen novels have interested me more, but this one is definitely a keeper.

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Created Sep 28, 2006 at 5:32pm • Submit your own review...