Gideon - Hardcover

Andrews, Russell; Handler, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345423461 ISBN 13: 9780345423467

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1999

Synopsis

"The first and only thing you need to know about Gideon is that you'll get no answers whatsoever about him. None. You will never meet him, you will never speak to him, you will never have any contact with him. . . . Gideon is in an extremely sensitive position."
Framed for two murders he didn't commit, Granville is a man on the run. He knows too much--but not enough to save himself. Pursued by the FBI, hunted by an assassin who kills with lethal precision, and desperate to escape the hell that is threatening to destroy him, Granville turns to the one person he can trust: his ex-girlfriend, journalist Amanda Mays. With her investigative skills and Granville's instincts for survival, they strive to uncoil the tightly wound truth. But they are embroiled in something far greater than either could ever have imagined--a dark conspiracy that will forever change the course of history.

Granville's only hope: penetrate the enigma of the name that began his nightmare--unearth the real identity of . . .

GIDEON

Relentlessly paced, Gideon is an exciting, chillingly original thriller packed with startling double crosses, tense pursuits, whiplash twists of plot, and shocking revelations about the nature of power and those who really possess it. It is a masterpiece of suspense.

Gideon. An identity shrouded in mystery--the anonymous source who holds the key to an explosive secret. In a clandestine meeting, writer Carl Granville is hired to take the pages of an old diary, articles, letters--documents in which all proper names and locations have been blacked out--and turn them into compelling fiction. He will be paid a quarter of a million dollars. But he can never tell a soul.

As he is fed information and his work progresses, Granville begins to realize that Gideon's book is more than just a potential bestseller. It is a revelation of chilling evil and a decades-long cover-up by someone with far-reaching power. He starts to have second thoughts. How will his book be used? Whose lives will be shattered? What is the truth behind the story--and who is the true storyteller?

Then someone close to Granville is bludgeoned to death. Another is savagely murdered. His apartment is ransacked, his computer destroyed, all his records stolen. Suspicion falls on Granville. He tries to explain the shadowy assignment. No one believes him. He has no proof, no alibis.

About this title

Review:

Gideon is a high-concept political thriller by Russell Andrews (the pen name of a partnership between book editor Peter Gethers and mystery novelist David Handler).

When a promising New York writer named Carl Granville is paid a quarter of a million dollars to produce a novel called Gideon, he thinks it's his lucky break. The book is to be based on the material of an old diary--which Carl is allowed to look at, although certain dates and names have been blacked out. The diary and novel involve a 10-year-old Southern boy who killed his brain-damaged baby brother. Carl, baffled but glad of the huge payoff, gets on with translating the diary into a bestseller. But when the editor who commissioned the book is murdered, and nobody at the publishing house knows anything about the Gideon project, the writer realizes that sinister forces are at large. Just to add to his troubles, Granville is accused of the editor's murder and is forced to go on the run to escape the FBI and an assassin. His only chance for clearing his name is to reveal who wrote the decades-old journal.

Gideon is an invigorating read with a remarkably fresh plot and a highly likable and believable protagonist.

From the Back Cover:

"THE EFFECT IS A BIT LIKE ROLLING DOWN A GRASSY HILL . . . YOU PICK UP SERIOUS SPEED. . . . Writer Carl Granville - down on his luck personally and professionally - is approached one day by a hotshot publisher who says she'll pay him a startling amount of money to turn a top secret diary into a novel. Gift from God or devilish trap? . . . The conspiracy he gets tangled in plays on some seriously topical fears."
-Entertainment Weekly

"THE BOOK'S GOT EVERYTHING A BIG ADVENTURE THRILLER SHOULD - a potentially world-shaking secret, nearly invincible villains, vulnerable protagonists on the run, romance, [and] betrayal. . . . What takes it a step beyond . . . are the seriousness of its message and the playfulness with which it bites the hand that publishes it."
-Los Angeles Times

"FRANTIC . . . NOTHING IS EVER AS IT SEEMS."
-The Boston Globe

"THIS ONE WILL KEEP YOU GUESSING UNTIL THE END."
-Houston Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0345423461
• ISBN 13: 9780345423467
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 435