Five Star First Edition Mystery - Ask A Dead Man - Hardcover

Robert S. Levinson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594142556 ISBN 13: 9781594142550

Publisher: Five Star, 2004

Synopsis

A #1 Los Angeles Times Bestselling Author

"Bury the past," he said, "or it will always be there to haunt you." That was KC McClory's husband, Frankie, speaking, before his cold-blooded murder draws her into a plan to avenge his death. The past quickly becomes the present and takes KC from the back alleys of Falls Road in Northern Ireland to the streets of Pasadena, California, where she grew up among the wealthy and where vengeance will be carried out in the shadow of the annual Rose Bowl. KC risks her life time and again to protect the people she cares for most in the world - her own safety be damned - before her past catches up with her present and forces her to make the decision she dreads the most.

Robert S. Levinson resides in Los Angeles. He is the author of the bestselling Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner novels.

About this title

Reviews

Starred Review. Best known as a series author (the well-received Neil Gulliver and Steve Marriner mysteries: Hot Paint, etc.), Levinson now spins a novel that not only stands alone but stands tall. Writing with considerable invention, grace and energy, the author, who's a national director at-large of Mystery Writers of America, tells an intricate and emotionally potent tale of murder and doublecross. His antiheroine here is one KC McClory, widow of Frankie McClory, a slain IRA honcho, who's asked by her dead husband's malevolent brother to smuggle guns into America to give to the Plowman, an IRA assassin who aims to kill a world leader in exchange for moneys flowing to the IRA; in the U.S., KC is to stay at the Pasadena home of Judge Osborne and his family, who raised her. Credible but terrible complications ensue almost at once. KC, we learn, is in fact an agent of TRIAD, a U.S. counterterrorism operation, but TRIAD no longer trusts her; some of the novel's tension arises from KC's juggling the wishes of the IRA and TRIAD. More arises when an assassin disguised as a priest picks her up on the train to Pasadena and tries to kill her—his fatal mistake; and when the investigating cop in the homicide turns out to be Peter Osborne, the Judge's son and KC's old flame, the complications grow byzantine, eventually putting KC and those she loves at great risk. This is a dense, dark, beautifully wrought tale of love and betrayal, sin and retribution, offering serious suspense, terrific twists and full-blooded characters. Levinson may not have an Irish name but he carries the soul of the Irish poets in his pen and in his heart—only a dead man wouldn't relish this read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Determined to avenge the death of her husband, Frankie, KC McClory finds herself in a plot to assassinate a world leader (this makes more sense than it appears to make).Meanwhile, an assassin called the Plowman--a member of a group of former-IRA mercenaries once led by the now-deceased Frankie--is out to get KC (this isn't quite as complicated as it sounds, either).Oh, and Frankie was a traitor, secretly working for the Americans, and maybe KC is, too. It all gets genuinely exciting as KC chases some people, is chased by some others, and perseveres out of undiluted love for her dead husband. The novel is rough going in places--the author is not a great stylist--but it sinks its narrative claws into our skin and drags us along on what proves to be an exhilarating ride. Fans of Levinson's Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner novels might be a little put off by the shift in tone here, but if they give the story a chance, they will be amply rewarded. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Five Star
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594142556
• ISBN 13: 9781594142550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 455