The Lie, First Edition, New

Paul Walters, an intelligence agent assigned to protect the aging president, becomes a witness to the president's triumphant international human rights meeting, but this move upsets the vice-president and the deputy intelligence director, men with their own hidden agendas.

A labyrinthine and loopy sequel to the pseudonymous Weaver's Deceptions (1995): Here, a hunky young painter who freelances for the CIA in Europe falls deeply in love with the idealistic journalist responsible for the murder of his parents. Having completed an undercover mission in Serbia, Paulie Walters comes home to the family villa overlooking the Bay of Naples to find the bodies of his mother and father (a sometime hit man for the American Mafia and US government). The two were inadvertently shot to death by Kate Dinneson, who had crept into the couple's bedroom of a summer's eve to query them about the circumstances in which Walters pŠre had gunned down her ultradical parents some two decades earlier. Time heals all wounds, however, and Paulie has no real problem forgiving luscious Kate her trespasses. Concurrently, the wider world's great and good have booked a conference on human rights into Wannsee, the Berlin venue where Hitler's henchmen planned the Holocaust. For base political reasons, US President Jimmy Dunster resolves to make a surprise appearance at the high-profile meeting--as does aging, guilt-ridden radical Klaus Logefeld (a professor at the University of Rome), who makes America's chief executive his hostage. Meanwhile, another assassin, working at the behest of the evil Vice President, bombs the site; the President survives, and Logefeld (who falls into an old sub-basement, where he dies) appears to have escaped. This suspicion is confirmed when Nicholas Vorelli, an ingratiating opportunist, assumes the dead man's mantle and demands a $100 million ransom, threatening further explosions. Following a demonstration blast, the money is delivered via credulous Kate, who believes Vorelli shares her utopian values. When it becomes clear he does not, the lethal young woman--with the help of an unaccountably besotted Paulie--takes matters into her own hands. . . . Far-fetched twaddle, in deadly earnest but notably lacking sympathetic characters, sophisticated dialogue, and suspense. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Weaver left no question about his King Kong status among thriller writers with his first two novels (e.g., Deception, LJ 3/1/95). In this latest, an endangered U.S. president, taken hostage by crazies at an international conference on human rights, is aided by a journalist and an intelligence agent.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Weaver's thriller packs a wallop for all 400 of its action-packed pages. It tells the story of Kate Dinneson, the daughter of World War II Resistance fighters who were killed in an ambush. Years later, Kate tracks down the killers, planning revenge. Stuff happens: she falls in love with the son of her parents' murderers; a trusted colleague tries to blackmail her; her other lover--not the son of her parents' murderers--plans to extort a ransom from the heads of state attending an international conference on ethnic cleansing in Africa; and the guy who's blackmailing her also threatens to blow up the conference attendees--including the president of the U.S.--because he's sick of hatred and prejudice. Yes, yes, it sounds like a TV movie, and it's way past implausible. But Weaver comes close to making it work. The mix of romance, international intrigue, evil villains, and brave heroes will be just right for readers who love sizzle, sex, and style. Emily Melton