|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Chris Turley, a reporter for a New Jersey newspaper, hears from an anonymous phone caller that he has a tremendous story. While waiting to meet the informer, Chris is astounded when a medical building blows up. Acting on instinct he races in, saves five people, and becomes an instant hero. The tipster calls again and gives him information about the mayor secretly meeting an expensive prostitute and doing cocaine. Chris tells the police, and he has another exclusive story. At a third meeting Chris finds, instead of his source, the dead body of a missing businessmen. It begins to occur to him that something is seriously wrong. Chris's father had been a famous reporter but one who was never especially admired. He had destroyed many people in the process of writing his stories, some of them undeserving of their fate. It is obvious early on that a relative of one of these people is the person who is setting Chris up, hoping to punish him for his father's sins. Chris already feels inadequate, unable to match his father's career. This makes everything worse. The characters are two-dimensional in this thriller as so often happens in action-driven novels. Chris is most completely developed but his responses to events seem a bit hysterical. The murderer is clearly insane, and he is gleeful in his gloating over what will happen to Chris. Dani is a young, beautiful reporter who becomes the love interest. Lawrence Terry, the managing editor, is a crusty old man who was a colleague of the elder Turley but who is gradually losing his relevance. The story is told from the omniscient third person point of view, and we move from person to person including the murderer to view the action. I find this less absorbing than a first person or limited third person story. For one thing it gives the reader too much information and makes the story a bit too obvious. True, there were surprises at the end but not very many. And the red herrings were quite heavy handed, again signalling that they were indeed red herrings. There was also occasional commentary from the author telling the reader how to feel. He often explains the obvious to the reader and several places comments "for some reason" such-and-such happened when surely the reader can figure it out for herself. And any newspaper reporter writing "between he and I" as Chris does will need more help than even a murderous tipster can provide if he hopes to win a Pulitzer. I read the book with some interest but I had trouble believing everything that happened. The villain is constantly two steps ahead of the FBI and the police, even when they make last minute decisions. It is hard to accept that he makes no mistakes at all until the very end. It is as though superman is taunting Chris Turley. In particular the FBI task force would surely have discovered some evidence at some point in the case. This thriller, the second standalone from the author of the Andy Carpenter series, just did not thrill me all that much.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, January 2010
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
