Hacksaw: First in the Eva Baum Detective Series

Weird clients are nothing to new to Houston PI Eva Baum. "Hacksaw" is the tale of how she might be forced onto the trail of a brutal serial killer whose case has turned cold. Eva is close to taking it out of that file and not everyone is excited about her snooping about, not even the law itself - but Eva is determined to discover the truth anyway, not for money, but because she must know. A riveting read from first page to last, "Hacksaw" is highly recommended to community library collections dedicated to suspenseful fiction.

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (4/08) I always know that whenever I get my hands on a book published by iUniverse, I am going to love it. Once again, iUniverse did not let me down. "Hacksaw" is the first book in the Eva Baum Detective Series. It is written by the husband and wife writing team of Charlotte Phillips and Mark Phillips. "Hacksaw" immediately pulled me in. It is one of those books that has so many twists and turns that you won't want to put it down. The main character, Eva Baum, is a private investigator. She does her best to do what is right, but she also has to deal with temptations that sometimes involve having to step around the law. She learns from those lessons. When pushed into a corner, she does not back down. As a matter of fact, you really wouldn't want to find out what she can do when pushed. I loved this aspect of her character. As a woman, it made me feel empowered. Even if she is just a fictional character, I had thoughts like, "If she can do it, so can I." I also liked Eva's independence. She knows what she wants and goes for it. She is loyal to the people around her. In this story, Eva is trying to help Shade, who is a mentally ill man still emotionally recovering from having been accused of being Hacksaw. Hacksaw is a serial killer who likes to torture and dismember his victims. Shade was cleared of any wrongdoing; however, mentally he suffered dearly from the whole ordeal. When Shade is beaten up by someone seeking his ex-wife Julie, Eva steps in. She discovers that there are several people looking for Julie and none of them are reputable characters. It appears that Hacksaw himself is after her. Eva has to step down into the dark world of drugs, pornography and prostitution to get clues of Julie's whereabouts. She encounters some really unscrupulous people. Her own life becomes at stake. She also learns a hard lesson about betrayal. "Hacksaw" is a great female private-eye mystery. Both men and women will love this book. I am looking forward to future books in the Eva Baum series. I don't think that we have heard the last of the Phillips and Phillips writing team.

Beginning on page one, HACKSAW is one mystery/thriller that the reader won't want to put down - not for food, sleep or even sex. In fact any interruption that took me away from reading this book was a MAJOR irritation. Brilliantly plotted, skillfully written, and extremely well-presented, HACKSAW is a book to rave about. Congratulations to Charlotte Phillips and Mark Phillips for a job well-done. HACKSAW deserves 10 stars, too bad I can only give it five. Diana L. Driver www.dianaldriver.com

Hacksaw is a great story, and has all the elements to get you hooked and keep you hooked as you read it. It's a page turner from the first chapter onward. I can't wait to get the next book in the series. The authors brought all the characters to life with great skill, and before I realized it, I felt like I had known them all for years. The locations and scenery also seemed to come to life for me. Since I have traveled to a couple of the places where the story took place, I could really appreciate how well the authors developed the background for the story. As a lover of mysteries and detective stories, I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone. It really has an excellent plot and story line, well-developed characters and locations, and will ensure that you don't want to put it down for longer than it takes to pour yourself another cup of coffee. Believe me, you won't know what's really going on until the very end, and you'll be surprised at the twists and turns. Enjoy!

Excellent first novel in what promises to be an intriguing series. I've read almost all of the on-going detective series, especially those with female detectives, and this compares very well. Fans of Linda Barnes, Nevada Barr, Robert Crais (I'm thinking of Demolition Angel), and Robert Parker, will find this every bit as good. I can't wait for the next book in the series. The protagonist is a spunky young detective working in Houston named Eva Baum. I particularly liked the fact that, while Eva is smart, determined, and brave, she still makes the mistakes of the impulsive and inexperienced. It's interesting to see the heroine making the kinds of mistakes that so many novices make. And the authors have made the character so likeable and believable that she feels like a younger sister: you want to reach through the page and shake her when you see her making those mistakes. The authors have created a quirky cast of supporting characters that are every bit as rich as the main protagonist. I hope they appear in subsequent entries. The plot is complex enough to keep me constantly thinking and has some very surprising twists. There's one particular turning point in the novel that gave me one of those wonderful dizzying revelatory moments when everything I thought I knew recrystalized into a completely different picture, and I realized that it was inevitable, and I could have, perhaps should have, seen it all along. And the suspense it generated was almost overwhelming. There's a lot of excellent humor and some over-the-top action (this is no tea-cozy). This would definitely make an excellent film. The authors are very good at making complex action easy to visualize and often spectacular.