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TAKEOVER
by Lisa Black
William Morrow, August 2008
352 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0061544450


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Starting her day at the scene of a murder is not unusual for Theresa MacLean. Theresa is a forensic scientist with the medical examiner's office in Cleveland. The victim was Mark Ludlow who lived in a quiet suburb and who was employed at the Federal Reserve Bank. And his wife and child are missing.

After processing the scene with his Theresa, whom he plans to marry shortly, homicide detective Paul Cleary, the goes to the Federal Reserve Bank to talk to the victim's co-workers. Just as he arrives two criminals invade the bank and hold everyone hostage. No one can be certain why they are trying to rob a Federal Reserve Bank and Theresa comments the robbers would have been better off to try a bank further down the street. Thus they believe the robbers are not very smart. They are wrong.

Theresa is processing the robbers' car when she learns that Paul is also a hostage. The robbers in the meantime don't know that Paul is a cop and that he has a weapon. They have disarmed and tied up the bank guards but don't search the hostages. To add to the confusion, the victim's wife and child are in the bank. She says that she came to the office to see if her husband was at work.

The intense pace of the day's events build as a hostage negotiator is brought in to try to talk to the robbers. The police are attempting to learn anything they can about the criminals but they apparently have no records. The events of the book all take place in one day and this is a book to read in one sitting. The characters are all well drawn. The pressure in the bank builds up to an explosive level. The plotting is intelligent and truly suspenseful. The author is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists and her expertise is evident in the details in the story. This is not the CSI of television, but rather the CSI of the real world.

Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, September 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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