Figure of Eight - Hardcover

Lynch, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525945105 ISBN 13: 9780525945109

Publisher: Dutton, 2000

Synopsis

With her marriage now on the rocks, former Olympic skating champion Ellen Cusack hopes to return to the ice, but a stranger who calls himself the "Ice Man" has begun to send her threatening mail and phone messages

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Lynch is the author of three previous novels: The Policy, Omega (both available from Signet), and Carriers (available from Berkley). He lives in London, England, and Bedoin, France.

Reviews

A relentless, clock-stopping psychothriller about a neurotic Ukrainian figure-skating champion trying to make it in Hollywood, her marginally psychotic bodyguard, and the insidious stalker who guards a secret that could shatter her career. Quirky, unpredictable Yelena Ellen Cusak gave up skating when her father died. Now, at 25, with a failed marriage behind her, shes developed the reputation of a sacred monster. Her sleazy handler, Lenny Mayot, has big-money dreams for his beautiful Olympic star, most of which fade because she refuses to kowtow to Hollywood gatekeepers. Ellen is almost broke, reduced to giving lessons to the skating daughters of well-heeled parents, when a womans corpsea victim of a slasher murderis discovered on her property. Add to this a stalker, the third to pester her so far. But, unlike his predecessors, the Ice Man can slip into and out of Ellens house, and knows intimate details about her life. As she totters on the edge of a breakdown, Lenny hires Pete Golding, a former cop turned gung-ho security consultant, whose zeal at protecting the rich and famous frequently explodes into tough-guy violence. Despite the inevitable spark of romantic heat that ensues, Golding gets no help from Ellen, who refuses to explain whatever it is the stalker appears to know about her. Golding identifies the stalker as Bob, an Internet oddball whose Ellen-worshiping drivel indicates a prior relationship with the skater, as well as a weirdly sincere desire to help her professionally. Then Golding tracks Boband the corpseto a fertility clinic Ellen visited long ago, when she and her husband wanted a child. Meantime, Bob wires Ellens house with explosives he hopes will persuade her to be his forever, dead or alive. A formula plot, been-there-done-that characters, and the tired, hothouse settings of L.A. noir should not add up to a breathless, gory, thoroughly enjoyable exercise in genre suspense. Yet Lynch (The Policy, 1998, etc.) delivers this, and more, with almost effortless ease. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Pete Golding, the private investigator protagonist of Lynch's (The Policy) latest thriller, has a reputation for being a little too intense. He recently gunned down a stalker who was bent on slicing up a starlet, and though he garnered major PR for his Hollywood firm, his boss hesitates, for a moment, to put lethal Pete on a new case. Ellen Cusak, a former World Champion ice-skater and media darling, is supposedly being stalked, but ever since she and her famous actor husband were divorced after trying unsuccessfully to have a child, her popularity has suffered, and she may just be trying to attract publicity for her soon-to-be published biography. It's Cusak's agent who insists that Pete is the man to protect his client. Pete, a Cusak fan for years, takes the case, falls for Ellen and soon narrows in on a suspect, but the stalker ups the ante by sending Ellen a video of a child who looks just like her. The video is leaked to the media, and speculation about whether Ellen might have had a daughter and abandoned her freezes endorsement and book deals and costs Ellen coaching clients. When a friend of Ellen's spills a secret of Pete's, Ellen dismisses the investigator, but Pete can't cut loose and stalks the stalker with renewed intensity, his heart on his sleeve and his gun in his shoulder holster. After a revelation involving fertility clinic shenanigans, the creepy finale is replete with explosions and gore. Lynch has a talent for suspense tinged with horror and this fast-paced ride appeals in spite of stock characters. Pete Golding's quirksAa macho lug with a yen for figure skating?Aand an inventive minor cast add zest to the tale. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525945105
• ISBN 13: 9780525945109
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320