Maximum Velocity - Softcover

Jones, Bruce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451191080 ISBN 13: 9780451191083

Publisher: Signet, 1998

Synopsis

Chris Neilson's life is thrown into disarray when a renegade CIA agent named Springer, who has let a terrorist named Godunov escape, claims Chris' wife as his own wife, but another CIA agent offers Chris a deal--if he can find and kill Godunov, she will stop Springer

About this title

Review

When an extremely dangerous Russian dealer in nuclear weapons moves into the mountains of Colorado, who are you going to call to uproot him? If you're as devious as the CIA bigwigs in Jones's exciting new thriller, you'll yank one of your own rogue agents--a nasty piece of work named Frank Springer--out of jail and turn him loose on the Russian. But, of course, you won't tell Springer's ex-wife or her straight arrow new husband about it . . . What Jones does best is take these somewhat familiar elements and blow them up into a book that manages to be original and very gripping.

From Kirkus Reviews

A none-too-bright protagonist rises (with a vengeance) to the rococo occasion in another overblown thriller from Jones (In Deep, 1991, etc.). Would-be playwright Chris Nielson and his baby-makes-three family have moved from southern California to the foothills of the Colorado Rockies; their lakeside A-frame, supposedly inherited by Chris's enigmatic wife Matty, is invaded of an autumn afternoon by a mysterious stranger named Frank Springer. Initially introduced as Matty's cousin, the glib intruder soon claims to be her husband and bars Chris from his own home. An outraged Chris gets no help in asserting his rights from either the local police or Matty (a lady with a past who fears for the safety of her infant son Nicky). At wit's end, he eventually falls in with CIA operative Sarah Rawlings. She offers to aid him in return for his help in killing a wily Russian arms-dealer whom Springer (a freelance hit man) let off the hook. Desperate, Chris accepts her bizarre deal and tracks his quarry to a mountain lair where he manages to best him in hand- to-hand combat during a blizzard. Unfortunately, the suggestible hero's troubles are far from over, since Sarah dies in the violent course of the successful assassination. With timely assistance from aging but adventurous attorney Abe Goldstein, however, Chris soldiers on while the homicidal Springer dispatches inconvenient witnesses and degrades Matty (to whom he was indeed married) with kinky sexual demands. At wearisome length, Chris and his estranged wife, sporadically in touch, hatch a complicated plot to slay their maniacal nemesis. Approved by Goldstein, the scheme involves luring Springer to Niagara Falls (where he honeymooned with Matty) for a cliff-hanging confrontation marked (among other things) by a last- minute rescue of little Nicky. An eventful thriller that's almost too silly for words. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Signet
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451191080
• ISBN 13: 9780451191083
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464