Just Finished Reading The Cove and The Maze by Catherine Coulter

Recently I thought it would be a good idea to explore the works of  a different popular fiction writer.  So many to choose from...almost at random, I picked Catherine Coulter, who turns out to be quite prolific.  One of her series, focusing on the FBI, intrigued me...so I read the first two relatively short books: The Cove and The Maze, published in the late 1990s. Although I felt that The Cove was the better book, both seemed very similar in that they involve spunky young women, with dysfunctional family backgrounds, finding themselves each immersed in a murder mystery involving a family member.  They each meet up with a burly, brave, and discerning young FBI agent.  The two, naturally, irresistibly fall head over heels in love with each other as they work together to unravel the mystery.  The Cove focuses on a mysterious West Coast town populated wholly by senior citizens who seem to be guarding a sinister secret while travelers passing through seem to be disappearing.  In The Maze, there is a serial killer who torments his victims by forcing them to play his "game", which involves them making their way through an intricate maze he has devised.

Although both The Cove and The Maze in a way seem like a repeating formula, it did occur to me that they might transfer well to the big screen.  Who knows, maybe there have already been film adaptations of one or both of these  stories...I'm probably not the best Internet researcher around, but you're welcome to check for yourself.  There are a few more of these "FBI" books that Catherine Coulter has written since, and they are easy reading, although once again I emphasize that the characters seem to follow a predictable formula. Still, the author did create some suspense in these whodunnit mysteries, and the protagonists do display a kind of charm...