The Gun Runner's Daughter - Softcover

Gordon, Neil

3.67

92 ratings by Goodreads

9780553582116: The Gun Runner's Daughter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553582119 ISBN 13: 9780553582116

Publisher: Bantam, 2000

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Law student Allison Rosenthal has lived a life of wealth and privilege: the finest schools, summers in Martha's Vineyard, a future both brilliant and certain. Until the call that shatters her life: Her father has been arrested for illegal arms dealing, a case that is being directed from the highest levels of government. And the prosecutor hand-chosen to lead the nation's unbeatable case is David Treat Dennis--her secret lover from a long-ago summer.

Even as the media's unblinking eye focuses on her family, Allison will face terrible choices and take stunning chances.

Drawn once more into an affair with the ambitious Dennis, she will be caught in a relationship charged with danger--and possibilities. How far is she willing to go to protect those she loves? Whose claim on her love and loyalty is greater? And how thin is the line between justice and revenge?

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Review:

Allison Rosenthal, the 27-year-old daughter of wealthy arms dealer Ronald Rosenthal, is one of the most fascinating characters in recent fiction. She is brave, conflicted, and--as we soon discover in Neil Gordon's tough and highly moral thriller--determined on a devious course that delights and surprises as it unfolds. It begins with ambitious young federal prosecutor David Treat Dennis (known as Dee) being offered "the sweetest arms export violation since Edwin Wilson did business with Qaddafi"--the prosecution of Ronald Rosenthal for selling arms to Bosnian Muslims, even though the deals were apparently made with the full knowledge of the Clinton administration. It's not until he's accepted the plum job that Dee realizes that the 16-year-old girl he coupled with on the beach at Martha's Vineyard 12 years before was Allison. Of course he should recuse himself immediately, even if quitting means damaging not only his career but his relationship with his father, White House counsel Edward Treat Dennis, who was largely responsible for bringing the case to prosecution and getting him the job. But first Dee decides to spend Labor Day weekend on the Vineyard, where he accidentally on purpose runs into Allison again. They begin an affair that seems genuine but also--without revealing any of Gordon's dazzling plot twists--serves their seperate needs. Allison (who was in fact born Esther, a biblical connection to the daughter of King David that Gordon uses to dramatic advantage on several occasions) has many reasons to doubt and distrust her father, including the death of her younger brother several years before, but she is also very much this stern, pragmatic man's dutiful child. Another important character is a high-minded muckraking journalist, Nicky Dymitryck, who has motives of his own for trying to make the Rosenthals squirm. Gordon's first thriller, Sacrifice of Isaac, earned him favorable comparisons to John Le Carr� and Graham Greene, all of which now seem fully justified. --Dick Adler

From the Publisher:

Random House editor Jon Karp: Two years ago, Neil Gordon's debut, SACRIFICE OF ISAAC, was one of the best reviewed suspense novels of the year. For the past three years, Neil has been working full-time on book number two, and has topped himself. THE GUN RUNNER'S DAUGHTER has a straightforward and enticing premise, which is this:

What if your father were a notorious arms dealer, arrested by the U.S. government for making illegal deals? And what if the lawyer prosecuting your father happened to be an old lover, someone you could influence? That's the dilemma faced by Allison Rosenthal, the gun runner's daughter. She is brilliant. She is beautiful. And she devises and implements one of the most ingenious plots I've ever read in a suspense novel. This is both a thriller and a love story, set mostly in Martha's Vineyard, involving the liberal elite, radical journalists, arms profiteers, high-powered lawyers, and other criminals.

For those of you who haven't read Neil Gordon, you are in for a treat. He is a storyteller with the gift of language, capable of both power and nuance. Neil describes family relationships with emotional complexity, while at the same time addressing larger moral and political questions. As a literary suspense writer, he understands and appreciates the hold of a good story. Here, Neil has written a brilliantly sophisticated legal thriller.

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