Sandman - Hardcover

Martins, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689120958 ISBN 13: 9780689120954

Publisher: Atheneum, 1990

Synopsis

A series of murders involving Iranian cab drivers in Chicago brings together three individuals intent on solving the case, Mary Agnes McCarthy, an FBI agent, Jack Corrigan, a veteran police officer, and Philip Hallet, a professor of Middle East studies, who, secretly, is running a network of Arab agents

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Philip Hallet is an expert on Middle East studies at a Chicago think tank--and a problem drinker. When several Iranian cab drivers are murdered in that city, FBI agent Mary Agnes McCaskey and Chicago cop Jack Corrigan try to recruit Hallet to help them solve what seems to be the deadly work of an anti-Arab serial killer. But Hallet, who moonlights as an intelligence agent overseeing a ring of Arab spies whose territory is the U.S., fears the killings may be related to his own efforts to expose the terrorist organization Al-Ahzab, and wants to solve the murders without revealing his second career to McCaskey and Corrigan. Martins ( The Cinch ), a former journalist who has studied Islamic culture, is most effective when using the subtle prejudice of many of his characters to show how "it's only the Westerner who believes all Arabs are brothers, and that's because he hasn't taken time to learn the vast difference among them." But his insights into Arab culture are shackled by stilted dialogue ("What I need to know is whether you have the courage left to help us stem Yeats's blood-dimmed tide") and a tangled plot that takes far too long to get started.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Murder, betrayal, and misguided motivations highlight this plodding Chicago-based thriller. Philip Hallet runs a network of agents in the Arab community from his cover as an Arabist at the Arbor Institute. His charge is monitoring potential terrorist groups. When his people begin dying, and three Iranian cabdrivers are murdered, Hallet, Jack Corrigan of the Chicago Police Department, and Mary Agnes McCaskey of the FBI reluctantly join forces to solve the mystery. Martins's character development is quirky. He spends much time detailing the make-up of the hired killer, for example, at the expense of the more central relationship of the alcoholic Hallet and the ambitious McCaskey. Also, he is hazy in critical scenes: in the warehouse shootout happenstance dictates over reasonableness who will die or live. Purchase on the basis of a surprise ending and insatiable reader demand for suspense.
- Joseph Levandoski, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0689120958
• ISBN 13: 9780689120954
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 293