Trust & Tyranny

(1) Trust (Sentinel)

By Anne Murdoch
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 29th July 2001 (8)

I read this story because "Tyranny" was set after it, and "Tyranny" had been recommended to me, and I like to read things in order. So here we have an Evil Serial Killer, and Guess Who Is The Target! Action, injuries, people screwing up and apologising, more owies, more action... The motivation of the serial killer was interesting, though I would have found much more of a gut-satisfaction if he'd been bested with brains; poetic justice, that would have been. And there was a bit of overkill with both the injuries and the guilt.

(2) Tyranny (Sentinel)

By Anne Murdoch
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 29th July 2001 (9)

This was recommended by a few people, so I thought I'd take a look at it (and others by this author). This was, indeed, good. We have consequences of previous actions, specifically, of Blind Man's Bluff, both for Blair and in the attitudes of some people around him. There's other nice continuity, like references to white noise generators. There's some cool senses stuff (Blair has another interesting idea that works...) The actual perilous tension-filled part of this was very good, with Blair using his brains, mouth and empathy, and a bad-guy who wasn't really bad, just desperate.

I'm not so sure they really needed Audrey The Computer Expert in the mix (what's so hard about using a search engine?) but I won't worry too much about it.

Good quotes and nice banter:
    The door to Captain Banks' office opened, and the tall man emerged, chomping at an unlit cigar and looking more peeved than usual. Blair sometimes imagined that Simon only had one cigar, like a security blanket. He didn't think he'd ever seen the captain actually smoking one.
    "If I ever get my priorities screwed up like that, just shoot me, man."
    Sandburg, I don't think it's humanly possible for you to become a yuppie."
    Blair waved his hands at him. "Shhhh... I'm thinking."
    "Try not to wear out the hamsters."
    Anklam took a long look at the unconscious cop on the floor. "You two are good friends, huh?"
    "Yeah."
    "Doesn't seem a likely match."
    Blair looked fondly and not with a little concern at Jim. "That's the beauty of it."

Yep. That's the beauty of it.