Book Review: Eureka: Brain Box Blues

I'm a pretty big fan of the Eureka TV show on Syfy so I thought I'd check out Cris Ramsay's tie-in novel Brain Box Blues. The premise was promising, very similar to what one might find in a two-part episode of the TV show.

The story revolves around a device called the Brain Box which can extract the final thoughts/feelings from a corpse. Naturally, the General is involved in the project and forces Global Dynamics to use the Brain Box on a man (presumed to be a spy).

I'll start with the good. Cris Ramsay does a very good job of capturing the voice of Sheriff Carter and all of the rest of the cast. If you read it and then close your eyes you can see everything happening as though it were on your TV. That's a major plus as far as tie-in novels go. The reader wants there to be little difference between the book and the show.

Now for the bad. I knew whodunit by the time the character was introduced. The mystery was very easy to solve and Ramsay repeats clues over and over and over. I felt like there was too much rehash (the kind that would only be helpful if you put the book down for a month and came back to it having forgotten most of what you've read).

All in all I would read this book if you are a big fan of the show and need more Eureka action, but not so much for those who either have not seen or are only a casual watcher of the show. As far as the actual story goes (as a standalone novel) it is okay at best.

Bookophile Rating: Average

UPDATE: I'm told Phaedra Weldon is the author of Brain Box Blues and that Cris Ramsay is a pseudonym.