Synopsis
Picture this. One day a relative of your wife's shows up at your door for a visit. But what if you come home one morning and discover that the visitor has usurped your role - and your life? What if the stranger declares that he, in fact, is the husband of your wife and the father of your child? What if the man provides documentation supporting his claim that persuades the police? And, most baffling and horrifying of all, what if your own wife stands by his side in denying who you are and everything you ever were - and barring the entrance to your home to you forever?
For Chris Neilson, loyal husband and gentle father, this nightmare becomes terrifyingly real the day he meets Frank Springer, a professional killer whose strength and cunning have made him one of the CIA's prime assets, and whose depravity has made him an object of fear among friends and enemies alike. Chris knows he must wrest back from Springer what is rightfully his, no matter the cost - even as he finds himself the pawn in a deadly gambit that is both sweepingly global and viciously personal in its dimensions.
Reviews
There's enough flash and a sufficient number of genuine jolts in this latest from Jones (In Deep) to make a fine action movie of the kind that appeals to teenage boys: it's full of explosions, grim deaths and prurient glimpses through bedroom windows. At the book's outset, a murderous Russian nuclear-materials peddler named Godunov has entered the country and set up shop in the Colorado wilderness, and the CIA's own psychotic superkiller, Frank Springer, has been released from jail to stalk him. Springer has his own agenda, however, and that's to get his ex-wife, Matty, and baby son, Nicky, back into his life so he can continue abusing Matty in particularly revolting ways. Matty has meanwhile married Chris Nielson, a former telephone lineman and good guy who becomes both the book's hero and dupe. He comes home one day to find his Colorado dreamhouse-a gift from Matty's "rich uncle"-taken over by Springer, who produces evidence that the house and Matty are his and claims Nicky as his son. The authorities believe Springer and, worse, Matty appears to be playing along. It's a strong opening, but Springer is a silly, implausible villain, given to plummy speeches about violence and Russian military history. In the novel's most unlikely turn, Nielson meets a beautiful agent who plunks him down and explains the CIA to him, solemnly intoning that she'd be shot for saying more, then enlists his help in stalking Godunov. Here, of course, Nielson makes a glaring error of trust readers will see coming for miles. The episodes of violence are at least inventive and frequent, and they do keep the story whirring until Springer's gruesome end and Nielson's predictable success. (Dec.) FYI: Jones won the "Upcoming Author of the Year" award from the Bertelsmann Book Club.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A none-too-bright protagonist rises (with a vengeance) to the rococo occasion in another overblown thriller from Jones (In Deep, 1991, etc.). Would-be playwright Chris Nielson and his baby-makes-three family have moved from southern California to the foothills of the Colorado Rockies; their lakeside A-frame, supposedly inherited by Chris's enigmatic wife Matty, is invaded of an autumn afternoon by a mysterious stranger named Frank Springer. Initially introduced as Matty's cousin, the glib intruder soon claims to be her husband and bars Chris from his own home. An outraged Chris gets no help in asserting his rights from either the local police or Matty (a lady with a past who fears for the safety of her infant son Nicky). At wit's end, he eventually falls in with CIA operative Sarah Rawlings. She offers to aid him in return for his help in killing a wily Russian arms-dealer whom Springer (a freelance hit man) let off the hook. Desperate, Chris accepts her bizarre deal and tracks his quarry to a mountain lair where he manages to best him in hand- to-hand combat during a blizzard. Unfortunately, the suggestible hero's troubles are far from over, since Sarah dies in the violent course of the successful assassination. With timely assistance from aging but adventurous attorney Abe Goldstein, however, Chris soldiers on while the homicidal Springer dispatches inconvenient witnesses and degrades Matty (to whom he was indeed married) with kinky sexual demands. At wearisome length, Chris and his estranged wife, sporadically in touch, hatch a complicated plot to slay their maniacal nemesis. Approved by Goldstein, the scheme involves luring Springer to Niagara Falls (where he honeymooned with Matty) for a cliff-hanging confrontation marked (among other things) by a last- minute rescue of little Nicky. An eventful thriller that's almost too silly for words. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Chris Nielson, wife Matty, and son Nicky move into a rural Colorado home, where writer Chris plans to hone his craft. Everything changes when Matty's "cousin," Frank Springer, arrives and with nightmarish ease displaces Chris as husband and father. Now a man without identity (his papers have been subtly altered), Chris mounts a plan to regain his family. What follows is a series of violent confrontations in which Chris tangles with Springer (who turns out to be a renegade CIA agent and Matty's ex-husband) and a Russian arms dealer. The first third of the novel, in which Springer takes over the Nielson home, brilliantly establishes a terrifying Hitchcockian scenario. The rest of the book, though, slips into the Die Hard genre: plucky civilian beats skilled international killer(s) at their own game. On balance, it's still a very entertaining book, but if Jones had expanded on the early paranoia and reduced the gunplay, he might have had a classic instead of just another gripping, violent thriller. Wes Lukowsky
A psychopath with a penchant for reciting the favorite tortures of Russian tsars while preparing for his own bouts of viciousness seeks out a former lover. Married and settled deep in the Rockies, she, her new husband, and their toddler are quickly sucked into a horrid vortex where every shred of their identity has been eliminated by the invader. The young husband, guided by a true and unrelenting love, fights back with wily allies that come to include the CIA. With a last whirl at thundering Niagara Falls, this is a berserk waltz at a mad tempo in the forest of doom. Readers can do scarier things than read this book, but it will not be in the comfort of their own easy chairs. Jones (Game Running, Dutton, 1995) writes with a clear eye for characters in all their likable and detestable parts. He has a gift for pacing the action so that time seems real and presses the reader to whip urgently through the pages. This is a sure bet for suspense collections.?Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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