Quick read, but nothing great

books:


	• Remote Control (Alan Gregory) Stephen White Signet, 1998 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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REMOTE CONTROL

Some people become famous as a result of a whole lot of hard work, talent etc. Other people, become famous for no good reason. Think...Star Jones, Paris Hilton, Regis Philbin, Rosanne Barr, Ryan Seacrest, Nicole Ritchie. As far as the media is concerned, celebrities (regardless of how they obtained their status) have no rights of privacy.

In Stephen Whites fifth novel in the Dr. Alan Gregory series Emma Spire has obtained unwanted celeberty status. It started because she was present at her fathers assisination; he was the Surgeon General of the United States. It continued because the cameras loved her grace, charm and beauty, and the public couldn't get enough of her.

When Lauren befriends Emma and tries to protect her from becoming abused by her fans in the worst way, Alan tries to help his wife help her friend. Lauren is arrested, and so the plot thickens...

The story's premise had promise. The climax was exciting and had me turning pages. However, the ending was disappointing and left me with the feeling that the whole story was - like Emma's celebrity status - for no good reason.

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Quick read, but nothing great

I picked this book up for $1 at my library's used book sale. This is the first Steven White book I have read. Based on the cover and the fact that I enjoy mysteries and thrillers I picked it up. Overall, I read it in three train trips (1 hr each) and it held my interest. The plot was a little strange and not very believable. I won't bore you with the details, others have written plenty.

Apparently this is one in a series of books about the doctor, Alan Gregory. Based on this book I suppose I will read another, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find them either.

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Lauren's Arrested!

This is the fifth installment of the Alan Gregory series. As usual with a series, reading them in order helps to understand and follow the recurring characters, inside jokes, etc. In this one, Lauren is arrested when she fires her gun and gives it to a police officer after a man is shot. We get a police procedural in arrest and see it from the prisoner's (Lauren's) point of view, limited as it is. Her MS is exacurbating and she has very limited vision. Without reading the previous books, I think one would be lacking in being able to understand Lauren's choices in this book and the way she reacts to different things that happen.

I've started reading this series from the beginning and to me they just get better and better. I don't understand the limited reading audience that Stephen White seems to have, or at least that is represented in the Amazon book reviews. This series give us mystery, suspense, psychological profiles, legal aspects and police procedurals.

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shallow is as shallow does

Dr. Alan Gregory is a durable hero. He's been shot, stabbed, pushed off of cliffs, almost pushed off of cliffs, stalked, variously assaulted, and attacked by at least one wild animal. And yet he remains a mensch - tiresomely physically fit and over-addicted to healthy living, perhaps, but still a mensch. He admires his wife, cherishes his friends, and generally respects his patients. He loves his dogs, present and past. The supporting cast is equally attractive/compelling: Lauren Crowder's independent intelligence and relentless bravery, Sam Purdy's common sense and generosity, Adrienne Arvin's dementedly charming chutzpah, Diane and Raoul's wit and whimsy, all serve to anchor the series. And the presence of Grace in the later novels promises to develop into a great child character, possibly rivaling Lucy Karp in the early Gruber-authored Tanenbaums. The incidental characters are vivid and generally believable, almost without exception. Some authors are better at male characters than female, or the reverse, but White is excellent at people, all people. Most of the books are first-person narration by Gregory, but White can shift to third-person with aplomb.

Aside from the great characters, the plots of this series are outstanding. We learn about a private end-of-life corporation, cold-case volunteer groups, the Mormons, DB Cooper, the cult of personality, Grand Canyon adventures, and the fallout from the JonBenet case, all without stretching the seams of the community based in Boulder, CO. When the plots call for suspense, the books are literally terrifying, real white-knuckle reads. White is witty and insightful and the very best craftsperson of the English language I've read in years. His casually correct use of the subjective fills me with delight, as do his always-agreeing pronouns, and his elegant but unpretentious syntax. His prose is a pleasure to read.

The settings are wondrously vivid - views, trees, coffee houses, the streets and walks of Boulder and environs. White brings food to the table and vistas to the eye. You can track his characters on GoogleEarth and see just what he describes. I fell into this series at a gruesome time for me, professionally, and reading them all in a period of a couple of weeks has been an exercise in staying sane. Some are, of course, better than others - Kill Me, The Program, Higher Authority, Manner of Death - and there are some weak links (Cold Case, Private Practices), but I can't imagine reading 15 books by any other contemporary author sans break and still wishing for more.

That said, this ties for my least-favorite of the series, along with Private Practices (second novels are often dire.) The focus of the plot is celebrity and the intrusive assumption that everyone has a right to a piece of a person who has caught our interest. White makes the point well - the point that it's an obscene paradigm - but this is one instance where his excellent character-building lets him down. Emma Spire is a shallow bitch. That wouldn't interfere with anything were not Lauren and Alan so consumed with admiring her. That's the piece that doesn't work here. For Lauren to risk so much for a person of such little value is inexplicable. Emma never thinks of anyone but herself. She usurps people's time and trouble as casually as she would "borrow" a Kleenex, appearing and disappearing with no regard for anyone's feelings. We are used to Alan being taken advantage of, but that Lauren never objects to this behavior is deeply troubling. Nothing about Emma - adjectives aside - comes close to justifying Lauren's uncritical devotion. (OK, that might be White's point, but I don't like Lauren looking stupid.)

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

In the midst of his most challenging and dangerous case, clinical psychologist Dr. Alan Gregory's wife-associate district attorney, Lauren Crowder-is arrested on suspicion of murder. Alan's desperate investigation will bring him face-to-face with true evil: a conspiracy fueled by human greed and bound by a deadly secret that someone will kill to keep.