| Product: |
The Halo Effect - M.J. Rose |
| Date: |
28/05/07 (234 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: A good idea
Disadvantages: Concentrates too much on sex and romance and not enough on the crime story
When my cousin gave me this book and said it was well worth a read I was surprised that I hadn’t spotted it before as the synopsis sounded exactly like something I would enjoy reading.
Morgan Snow is a sex therapist who works for the Butterfield Institute. Having recently gone through an amicable divorce she has started thinking about how her work affects her and how big a role it plays in her life. Even though she loves what she does, listening to other people’s sexual problems, often involving tales of incest and sexual abuse might have had a more profound effect on her than she has ever previously considered.
One of her clients, Cleo, who is a high rent prostitute, awakens a protective instinct in her and they form a bond during the sessions. This leads to Cleo handing over a manuscript to Dr Snow for her to be the first to read. The book is a memoir of Cleo’s life as a call girl to the rich and often famous men of the city and tells all about their often strange fantasies and desires. Cleo’s boyfriend, whom she calls Caesar, is obsessively worried that one of the very lightly disguised men in the book will find out about it and try to stop it, through any means. Even though Cleo tells Dr Snow about this she herself is not too worried and is adamant the book will be published.
When one day Cleo does not turn up to her therapy session Dr Snow starts to worry. When she then gets a visit from the police, the very attractive NYPD detective Noah Jordain, her fear increases. There seems to be a possibility that Cleo’s disappearance is somehow connected to the very gruesome and ritualistic murders of prostitutes that have taken place around the city in the last few weeks. The murderer dresses the women in nun’s habits and performs certain religious rituals on them before eventually leaving them dead covered in blood and with their pubic hair shaved into a cross.
The police, including Noah Jordain who Dr Snow is developing a romantic interest for, do not take her fears for Cleo seriously as she seems to have little in common with the other unfortunate women except for being a prostitute. This leads to Dr Snow deciding to go undercover in Cleo’s world and meet the men from her memoirs. She plays her role well and gets to meet several of the men in question but it’s a dangerous game to play and Dr Snow might not be as much in control as she believes she is.
At first I found this book absolutely unputdownable. The first lines draw you in and you can tell that this book will be special. Sadly this feeling doesn’t last as the crime story ends up taking second place to the developing and, to me, completely unbelievable romance between the doctor and the detective. Whereas the idea for a crime novel is excellent too much time is spent trying to titillate the reader with extracts from Cleo’s memoirs describing detailed sex scenes in what I can only describe as a Harlequin romance way, very clichéd. Love sword anyone?
I’m certainly no prude but I’m simply not interested in too detailed a view into sordid sex or even romance when it takes over from the actual story that I want to read! Morgan Snow’s thoughts around her own sexual and emotional problems are a vital part to this book and the look into sexual dysfunction is interesting. However, I would have loved for it to be toned down a little bit to leave more room for the rest of the story to develop as I feel this would have made this book much better. Many may not agree with me on this and might like this mixture of romance and brutal slayings. In fact, I have just had a little look at ratings for this book at Amazon at it seems that many do actually enjoy this as the book has been rated at 4.5 stars by readers.
This book was released in the UK in 2005 and is the first in a series about the Butterfield Institute. You can buy the paperback version from Amazon for a fairly reasonable £5.59.
Personally, I found this book to have a lot of promise which was never fulfilled. However, if you know that you enjoy a mixture of ‘erotic’ fiction and crime then this may indeed be something for you. I still enjoyed reading it and I would possibly try another book by MJ Rose although I would worry about being disappointed again.
Summary: A book with a great deal of unfulfilled promise
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