Jan 30, 2008 Posted by Nancy Williams on Jan 30, 2008 in Books read, Crime Fiction | 0 comments

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Mortal Wounds by Max Allan Collins

Mortal Wounds is actually three books in one – Double Dealer, Sin City and Cold Burn. All based on the original CSI TV Series set in Las Vegas, it was a light and easy read.

The only issue I have with TV tie-ins is that the characters can be a little wooden. Maybe that’s because we are used to seeing all of their facial expressions on the screen or hearing the intonation in their speech. Unfortunately, I found that the author skimped on character development because essentially the characters had already been developed on TV. Although each book was a good 220 pages, it still felt a little bit like the one hour episode (minus the adverts, thank goodness). The murders and forensics were crammed in while the characters were almost incidental. There was a brief mention of things outside of the direct case – Catherine’s past as a dancer, a possible love interest between Sara and Grissom – but just like the series, such details were quickly passed over.

Each book follows two murders which are not always related. As with the TV series, the team splits to investigate the murders, both coming to conclusions at about the same time. It did feel like the stories had been shoehorned into the parameters of the franchise, despite the relative freedom that one can gain with the written medium, but perhaps that is what the author had been required to do in order to give it the CSI name?

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. I hadn’t come across any of the stories before which made it even better. It was nice to have a bit of unchallenging escapism to ease up the stress of life, business and the cold London winter.

Rating: 6/10
ISBN: 978-1-84739-187-2
Publisher: Pocket Books
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 22 January 2008