Riptide (An FBI Thriller) - Softcover

Catherine Coulter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0515130966 ISBN 13: 9780515130966

Publisher: Berkley, 2001

Synopsis

Agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock must protect the life of a young political speechwriter in this New York Times bestseller in Catherine Coulter’s FBI Thriller series.

A senior speechwriter for the governor of New York, Becca Matlock is at the top of her professional game when she receives a disturbing phone call that threatens everything: “Stop sleeping with the governor or I’ll kill him.” The thing is, she’s not sleeping with her boss, but that fact doesn’t stop the calls from the man who refers to himself as her “boyfriend.”

When her stalker murders an innocent in New York City and the governor is shot in the neck, Becca comes under suspicion and takes off for the sanctuary of Riptide, an isolated community on the coast of Maine. But she soon finds herself at even greater risk...

FBI special agents Savich and Sherlock are in Riptide to help out an old friend of Savich’s father, and soon become embroiled in Becca’s deadly situation. But as enemies new and old circle closer, time is running out for them all.

About this title

Review

Rebecca Matlock is in the thick of politics, enjoying her work as a speechwriter for the governor of New York, who's facing a reelection campaign. What she's not enjoying are the menacing phone calls from a stranger who refers to himself as "your boyfriend" and warns her that he will kill the governor if she doesn't stop sleeping with him. Although Becca has never had a sexual relationship with her boss, she is increasingly frightened by the phone calls. The police, who were initially sympathetic to her plight, make it clear that they regard her as a hysteric, even after the stalker murders an innocent bystander to convince her that he means business. Becca seeks refuge in Riptide, an isolated community on the Maine coast, but terror continues to dog her. The skeleton of a woman who may be the missing wife of a college friend is unearthed in the basement of her new house; the stalker tracks her to her chosen refuge; and she is sought by the police and the FBI following an assassination attempt on the governor.

With the appearance of Adam Carruthers, a stranger who says he's her guardian angel but doesn't tell her who sent him, the plot makes a dramatic right turn that requires a willing suspension of disbelief. It seems that Becca's father, a high-ranking intelligence officer, went underground when she was a baby in order to protect his family from reprisals by a Soviet agent whose wife he had accidentally killed. Now it's payback time, as Thomas Matlock calls in his own intelligence community to neutralize the threat on his daughter's life. All the attendant testosterone speeds up the action and propels it toward a shoot-'em-up conclusion, but it also sacrifices a clearer portrayal of Becca's feelings about her father's deception and abandonment. At the same time, the switch from a damsel-in-distress story to a high-velocity espionage thriller relegates the skeleton in Becca's basement to a secondary plot point that is resolved a bit too tidily. Catherine Coulter is short on character development and explication, but she weaves a suspenseful web of danger and intrigue, and for her many admirers, the fact that there seem to be two novels trying to coexist in one book may not be too much of a good thing. --Jane Adams

About the Author

Catherine Coulter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the FBI Thrillers featuring husband and wife team Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock. She is also the author—with J. T. Ellison—of the Brit in the FBI series. She lives in Sausalito, California.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0515130966
• ISBN 13: 9780515130966
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368