All the Dead Were Strangers - Hardcover

Black, Ethan

3.69 out of 5 stars

170 ratings by Goodreads

9780786237661: All the Dead Were Strangers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078623766X ISBN 13: 9780786237661

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2002

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With his gut-wrenching brand of suspense, Ethan Black has earned praise from readers and critics alike. Now New York City police detective Conrad Voort returns in his most compelling, complex, and seductive case yet.

After a ten-year separation, Conrad Voort meets his childhood pal Meechum Keefe for drinks in Greenwich Village, and finds him frightened and depressed. Within hours, Meechum disappears -- and the only clue Voort has is a napkin upon which Keefe has scrawled five names. Investigating further, he connects the "accidental" deaths of three people on the list -- and his instincts tell him that the two left alive are next. As he tries to locate them before it's too late, Voort uncovers a vast conspiracy of death that stretches across the country threatening the very fabric of American life. And the conspirators have discovered Voort.

Locked in a shadow war against enemies who follow their own lethal agenda, Voort is torn between upholding the law and sacrificing everything to stop the killing once and for all....

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Review

Penzler Pick, October 2001: Conrad Voort, the protagonist of Ethan Black's three novels set in New York, is of Dutch extraction. The men of the Voort family have been policemen since the Dutch held sway in New York City, and Conrad is, by modern standards, an extremely rich cop for someone who is not on the take. This is just a little background to the best entry yet in this excellent series.

Voort is asked by a friend to meet him at the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village. The friend, Meechum Keefe, has something on his mind, but he is reluctant to tell Voort what it is without making it clear that Voort must tread very carefully. Keefe has a list of names on a napkin and explains to Voort that the people on this list are dying, one by one, but there seems to be no connection among them. Keefe is obviously nervous about who is watching them, and Voort follows and confronts a man who seems to be observing them. When he returns to the tavern, Keefe is gone. And Voort never sees him again.

What Voort discovers is that all but one of the people on the list are dead, but that they died in accidents. No foul play is suspected at all. Nor does there seem to be any connection on any front. Politically, they run the gamut from right wing to liberal to no interest in politics. The only thing Voort can do to honor Keefe's plea for help is to make contact with the one person on the list still alive, Dr. Jill Towne, a specialist in rare diseases who practices out of her office on Fifth Avenue. She will have nothing to do with Voort, even after he explains that she might be in danger, until she almost has an accident.

From then on Voort finds himself pulled into one of the strangest cases of his career. He has nothing to go on, but tiny clue by tiny clue, a picture starts to emerge that looks like one of the largest and most far-reaching conspiracies possible. Voort's investigation takes him to West Point and to soldiers who served in Vietnam. The pacing here is terrific and it is impossible for readers to guess what is going on even though they meet the bad guys and become privy to their thoughts and actions. This is a very well constructed plot from the pseudonymous Black and one of the best page-turners of the year. --Otto Penzler

From the Inside Flap

With his first two novels, Ethan Black revealed an ability to create unique characters inside stories that terrify, a rare combination in the world of contemporary thrillers. Now, as New York police detective Conrad Voort returns in his most compelling, complex, and seductive case yet, Black proves that he is, with such bestselling authors as Michael Connelly, John Sanford, and Robert Parker, one of the best we have writing crime fiction today.

Meeting for drinks in Greenwich Village after a ten year separation, Voort finds his boyhood friend Meechum frightened and depressed. Twenty-four hours later, Meechum has disappeared. The only clue in Voort?s possession is a cocktail napkin on which Meechum has written five names. Working his way through the list, Voort begins to connect a series of eerily ?accidental? deaths around the country. All the dead were strangers. But two people on the list may still be alive?and in grave danger.

As Voort tries to locate them, he finds himself pitted against an enemy bigger than anything his sex crimes unit has ever encountered. Bigger than anything the New York police force has ever encountered. He has discovered a disturbing conspiracy of vast proportions. And now the conspirators have discovered Voort.

Suddenly Voort is locked in a shadow war against enemies who follow their own lethal agenda . . . an agenda so astonishing that it forces Voort, an honorable and moral man, to make a terrible choice: between going head-to-head with a champion of valor turned cold-blooded killer or an ordinary man about to commit an unspeakable crime.

Further complicating Voort?s life is the fact that he is falling in love with a beautiful doctor who just might be at the center of the conspiracy?and a key player in brutal acts of mass murder about to take place.

All the Dead Were Strangers is a powerful novel?intelligent, always surprising, and never less than thrilling.

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