The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Alibi Man
Book Review: Exciting and Not at All Predictable
Summary: 4 Stars
Tami Hoag has certainly mastered the art of writing a good thriller. She is one of those writers who can usually be relied upon to write consistently good books and there are not many of those about. Never one to hold back on her descriptions of brutal death, Tami Hoag manages to excel herself in this book.
This is a book that revolves around the Palm beach elite and the lengths that they are prepared to go to to protect their own. Some of the people they class as their own are a group of powerful and wealthy Palm Beach bad boys, who call themselves the Alibi Club. A name that is self explanatory.
In any other society they would have been locked up a long time ago and the key thrown away, but this group have a knack of escaping the law. Well escaping the law is one thing, but escaping justice is another . . .
Book Review: Great Crime Novel
Summary: 4 Stars
Estes and her love of horses return in this first-person novel as she tries to track down the killer of her fellow worker at the stables. Estes is a former cop who made a fatal mistake in the line of duty and struggles to cope with that and a past relationship with a person who tried to get her to be his alibi in covering up a crime.
Finding the body of her fellow stable hand draws her into a world of her past, where rich and influential people hide dark secrets, and in particular one group of people cover for each other - the Alibi Club. Estes has to confront her past and deal with anger and the thirst for revenge in order to solve the crime.
Having several elements such as the Russian mafia boss, the Alibi Club and Estes' former men in her life, Hoag manages to craft a suspenseful murder mystery that saves its best twists for near the end. While Estes remains thoroughly tormented and irreversibly cynical with life, she is an engaging character whose journey takes her to the heart of her issues.
I really enjoyed this novel and the characterisation, and the suspects and victims all have flaws that keep the book a gritty read to the end.
Book Review: Hoag fans will love it! - review by Patti Phillips
Summary: 4 Stars
Bestselling suspense author, Tami Hoag, began her professional writing career in the romance genre, but stretched that framework to include everything from comedy to suspense. Her strong female characters were savvy, contemporary types and readers connected.
As more of Hoag's work shifted into the thriller/suspense realm, it reflected the rising audience interest in forensics and began to include more of the graphic details of the crime scenes and the violence visited upon the victims. Today, her bad guys are darker, more depraved, and her heroines more likely to engage in the kind of retribution that would raise the eyebrows of the faint-hearted.
"Alibi Man" returns former undercover cop, Elena Estes, to the hard, fast world of Palm Beach society and the nasty secrets lying beneath the surface. When a fellow horse groom and marginal friend is found murdered, Elena is drawn back into the life she'd like to forget and must deal with buried emotions she thought she had hidden from the world. Elena is grippingly portrayed as a deeply tortured soul, and we feel her pain as her personal life is laid before us chapter, by aching chapter.
The action in "Alibi Man" is fast-paced, filling the pages with cold-blooded crime figures snipping off body parts, drug/sex parties, handsome polo stars and a cop boyfriend.
The plot weaving the colorful characters together is less successful, only because I don't quite buy that the rich and powerful would be dumb enough to get themselves into such stupid personal messes. One at a time, yes, but collectively? However, the name of the book may tell it all. Supreme arrogance probably dictates the need for an Alibi Man.
Rated R for graphic language and very adult situations
Book Review: I have a question
Summary: 2 Stars
Shouldn't the five star rating be given to writers who last though decades, through eras?
Sure, this book is fun. But five star?
Book Review: It Ran Away With Me
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's a taut, plausible thriller set in the winter season capital for equestrian sports, Wellington, Florida. Former socialite, former cop Elena Estes is down on her luck, riding dressage horses and living off the largess of a chum. She's out for a morning ride when she discovers the body of a co-worker dumped in a canal, half-eaten by alligators. Not only is her day ruined, she has to call her former boyfriend, Detective James Landry.
Worse still, her former fiance Bennett Walker turns out to be a prime suspect. Not only was he the last man to see the deceased alive, but Elena is determined to break his alibi.
Many of the same characters in this book also appear in an earlier book by Tami Hoag DARK HORSE. I have not read that one yet but I want to get my hands on it as soon as possible. ALIBI MAN is a perfect thriller; the prose is as sleek and well-groomed like a champion horse while the pace gallops and never lags. The characters are convincing; Elena is awesome in her alienation and rage. Hoag's twist at the end surprises while still being fair to the reader.
Like Dick Francis's horse racing mysteries, every detail of the setting is accurate because the author has experienced it from within. I hope she writes more books like this.