The Maze is the first book I've read by author Catherine Coulter.  Overall, it was "ok" - not the worst I've read but not the best, either.  Basically it's a rather average murder-thriller, with some decent characters, but a story that's a bit lackluster.

Lacey Sherlock is the FBI's newest agent.  She's hard-working, and dedicated to the job, but she has a secret.  She really joined the force so that she could work behind-the-scenes, trying to catch her sister Belinda's murderer, a serial killer whose identity has eluded the police for the past seven years.  Naturally, Lacey's superiors are not too happy when they discover Lacey's real reason for being there.  But as she seems to be more than competent at her job, they put up with her, and eventually give her free rein to go after The String Killer as he's come to be known.

As you would expect from a novel of this type, clues start revealing themselves, and eventually the killer's identity is made known.  But nothing is ever cut and dried, and it seems as if someone else might have also played a role in Belinda's murder.  Perhaps Lacey needs to look quite a bit closer to home to see who else might have wanted Belinda gone. 

And of course, Coulter gives us lots of suspects in this regard.  In fact, a definite strength of this book is that I definitely did not have any idea how it would end, or who the real guilty party might be.  I had plenty of theories along the way, but never was I certain.

While the story in this book was just "ok" I truly enjoyed the characters.  Lacey is quite likeable, and easy to root for.  One can't help but feel sad for her - between her sister's murder, and her "interesting" family, it's a wonder Lacey's as normal as she is.  Her boss, Savitch was also quite a character.  Not surprisingly, a romance develops, but for once I didn't hate the romance angle.  Other than moving along unrealistically quickly, not to mention inappropriately (he is, after all, her boss!!), I still liked the two of them together, and rooted for them.

It's just too bad that, overall, this story didn't "wow" me.  Partly it's because we don't "meet" the bad guy until very late in the book.  Throughout most of the story, he's simply an evil entity out there, somewhere.  We can't put a face to him or a voice to him, because we don't get the story from his point of view at all.  By the time we finally get to see who he really is, it's a bit late in the game.  By then, I was past the point of really caring. 

Finally, the ending was a bit week for my taste.  It seemed hasty, and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied.  Kind of like when you've had a nice dinner, but you're not offered any kind of dessert.  The experience is "ok", but something's missing.

I would like to give this author another try, especially since I understand that Lacey and Savitch have roles in some of her other novels.  But as for this book, it's just average.  Nothing terrible, but nothing great.


Also by Catherine Coulter:
Blind Side

Point Blank

Recommended: Yes