Night Vision: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Jane Lawless Mysteries) | 
| Author: Ellen Hart
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $3.82
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 381625
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0312374437
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312374433
Publication Date: November 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New - Never read - No reminder mark - May have slight shelf wear - Free USPS tracking
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Product Description
Joanna Kasimir, an old friend of Jane Lawless’s, left town years ago to make it big in Hollywood. She succeeded, but stardom had a price. Early on, Joanna met a man who quickly went from being a dalliance to a stalker. A decade has passed since she sent him to prison, but just as she has returned to Minneapolis to perform at Jane’s friend Cordelia Thorn’s theater, Joanna receives one of his ominous calling cards.
Joanna refuses to let fear control her life---she can’t. Not again. So she goes to Jane, restauranteur and amateur sleuth, for help. But can Jane protect her from a man who refuses to be anyone’s one-night stand?
A deadly game of cat and mouse, Night Vision proves to be one of Ellen Hart’s best mysteries yet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Night Vision - a good mystery for the subway May 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm a commuter and I spend almost two hours on the subway every day. A Jane Lawless Mystery like "Night Vision" is the perfect companion on my way to work and back home. It is exciting enough to make the journey enjoyable, but not so exciting that I forget to get off the train when I have to.
If you are looking for a real page-turner, you should read something else. The plot of "Night Vision" is fairly predictable. Joanna Kasimir, a Hollywood celebrity, is faced with a violent stalker whom she had sent to prison a decade ago. I like the way the author combines the past and the present, and I appreciate how well-structured and logical the book is, but there aren't that many surprises.
What I love about "Night Vision" are the characters. Cordelia Thorn, a friend of Joanna Kasimir, is funny, entertaining and warm-hearted. You can't help liking her. Her friend Jane, restaurateur and amateur sleuth, is sometimes a bit too "perfect", but she is a loyal friend with a lot of energy and courage. I like the way their friendship is described.
In my opinion, it is David Carlson, Joanna's brother and Jane's old friend, who makes "Night Vision" worth reading. Although you guess early what's "wrong" with him, it is interesting to see how he deals with his problem, and you hope with all your heart that he'll get the help he needs.
If you enjoy getting "close" to the characters of a book and like to identify with them, I can recommend "Night Vision". The mystery is also suitable for people who are not native speakers of English, since it is not too difficult to read. I would not recommend "Night Vision" if you are looking for a book that prevents you from sleeping at night.
"Night Vision" is a perfect book for trains, subways and bus stops. It helps to pass the time and is entertaining, but it is definitely not one of those books you can't forget and it is not a real page-turner either. It's a good book, but if you haven't read it, you haven't missed that much.
 Visiting Old Friends September 23, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let me preface this short review by saying that I own all of Ellen Hart's books. I have a great fondness for Jane Lawless and friends and Sophie Greenway and friends. When I read one of Ellen's books, it's like a return to my hometown where I get to catch up with some of my favorite people.
"Night Vision" demonstrates that Ellen's story-telling is only getting better with each book. There is an element of tension in this tale that makes it hard to put down. There are three or four story lines that are skillfully juggled and a surprise or two that ... well .. came as a surprise. Usually, I've got things figured out, but not this time.
I can't wait for December to get here, so I can purchase her newest work.
 Intensely dramatic! February 27, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Jane Lawless' life is going well. She has a girlfriend, her dog Mouse and a new club that is going great. Her best friend Cordelia Thorn has settled into being `Mom' for her niece Hattie and now a long-time friend of Cordelia's is coming to town...to star in a play at the theatre where Cordelia works.
Joanna Kasimir is famous, talented and troubled. Just as it seems she may be recovering from a traumatic experience in her past, Joanna learns that the person who caused this trouble is back. Back and hell bent on taking up where they left off. Why? Are they doing it for kicks? Or do they feel that Joanna `owes' them something and they want to collect?
Along with Joanna's arrival in town, Jane gets her own visitor, one she didn't know was coming...Joanna's brother David. David is a guy Jane knew in college and a person she holds dear to her heart. Trouble seems to run in David and Joanna's family however. David is running from something and comes to the one person he knows can help...Jane. Why didn't he run to his sister? Who is he running from?
Just as they think they have the answers, someone changes the questions when a man is found murdered. Who did it? The number one suspect is Joanna's brother David. Even though Jane knows he couldn't have done it, there are several things about David's behavior that even she can't explain.
Then, to complicate things even further, Cordelia's sister, Octavia, Hattie's mother, reenters the picture stirring other things up. After so long, why is she in town now? Cordelia's very much interested in that answer herself. It's now a three-way race for Jane and Cordelia - can they solve the mystery about David, discover why Octavia is really back and keep themselves from being the killer's next victims?
Ellen Hart is one of the truly great fiction writers. From her first book in the Jane Lawless series, Hallowed Murder, all the way through to the current one, readers are locked into a dynamic, suspense-filled journey as our heroines' work to discover clues to mysteries, escape from killers and find love.
Hart Keeps Getting Better February 3, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
It took me a while to discover Ellen Hart's award winning Jane Lawless mystery series. The Iron Girl had just released and I grabbed it up because of the great reviews it had garnered. While it was the 13th in the series, it was the first that I read, and I was hooked. I devoured every one in the series after that over a four month period. Then I anxiously anticipated Night Vision, the next in the series, and the wait was well worth it. This tightly written page turner was so enjoyable that it can be reread many times over.
Hart sets up the intrigue from the first pages. Actress Joanna Kasimir's stalker is back after a 10 year absence and jail term. He has raised the stakes this time and is more terrifying. At the same time Joanna's brother, David, an old high school chum of restaurateur Jane Lawless', goes missing for a month. We are led to believe that his disappearance may be related to his sister's stalker, but while Joanna is in Minneapolis starring in a theater production, David shows up unexpectedly. Both are seeking refuge but for different reasons. Hart though does not give away any details too early, and we must read on to uncover the mysteries. Private Investigator AJ Nolan is hired by Joanna. He makes Jane an offer she can't refuse, and she is on the case, trying to get to the bottom of the puzzling clues.
Night Vision floats effortlessly back and forth between the present day action and the stalking history between Joanna and Gordon Luberman, an ex-boyfriend. What Luberman is capable of has a chilling effect on the overall story. Hart's description of their disturbing history generates an element of dread and moves the plot along at a fast clip.
All is not foreboding though in a Jane Lawless mystery. Hart balances the story by peppering it with subtle Midwest humor. The continuity of characters in the series gives the reader a sense that we are visiting old friends. Her storytelling is clever, but not simple. She does not confuse the reader and leads us straight down the path to the logical conclusion, if we pay attention.
Night Vision was a fun Sunday afternoon read, but don't wait until Sunday for this entertaining story. I highly recommend any Jane Lawless mystery especially the latest, Night Vision.
Night Vision: a penetrating look January 30, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This continuing line of interesting and thoughtful mystery novels is extended yet again by this author. Author Hart has been writing a long time and she knows the game well. Unlike many genre authors, she shows no evidence here of tiring of either the mystery culture or her principal characters, Jane Lawless and Cordelia Thorn.
The relationship between these two women, long time friends, is unusual in that they are quite different. Lawless is bright, quiet, introspective, protective of her personal space and many of her beliefs. One could be in a room for a good while with several people and not even be aware that she was present. Her good friend, Cordelia Thorn is another matter. Thorn is mostly over the top and that's where she lives. Loud, flamboyant, caustic and sometimes thoughtless, she dresses with flair and you'd know when she entered a room, even with fifty people already present. Thorn plays an important part in the novels as a sounding board for Lawless as she puzzles out the mystery, but sometimes you want to throttle her.
As is the case with all Hart's books, characters and their relationships, kind, warm, angry, distorted and dangerous, are at the heart of this novel. They drive the characters to and fro with passion, with cold calculation, sometimes to disastrous ends. This novel is darker, more convoluted and more complicated than Hart's earlier books. The back story alone could be an entire novel, yet such is Hart's skill as a writer, the back story of celebrity stalking is the trunk that supports the rest of the novel.
The novel is not without its problems. I wanted more examination of parasomnia and its effects on one of the characters, and I was troubled by a few of Cordelia's more caustic quips. Still, as with all her later novels, readers will be drawn to the characters and will live out this story with them. The swirling tensions and suspicious motivations of these well-drawn characters are compelling. This is a strong, novel, with a logical and complete resolution that will keep readers going and waiting eagerly for Jane's next adventure.
I remind readers of this review that the author is a friend of mine and we frequently tour together. Nonetheless, when you read Night Vision, I'm confident that you'll agree with my assessment.
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