Reed's Promise - Hardcover

Clarkson, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312878869 ISBN 13: 9780312878863

Publisher: Forge Books, 2001

Synopsis

Bill Reed receives a message from his cousin Johna page filled with tortured lines and colours, pasted-on letters and numbersa message that clearly conveys fear and confusion. Reed decides to pay John a visit, and thats when the trouble really begins.

About this title

About the Author:

John Clarkson is the author of four previous novels and several screenplays and television shows. An advertising consultant, he makes his home with his family in lower Manhattan

From Publishers Weekly:

Writing a thriller on a small scale is harder than crafting a country-spanning tale of international intrigue, primarily because there's an inverse ratio between location and verisimilitude: the more international the setting, the lower the bar for realism. If the story unfolds in the reader's backyard, then it has to be anchored in reality and there's reality in spades in this engrossing novel by Clarkson (New Lots). Bill Reed, a recently crippled ex-FBI agent with latent family guilt, intends to redeem himself through a renewed relationship with his retarded cousin, Johnny Boy Reed, who has been at the Ullmann Institute since he was a kid. Bill receives a distressed message from Johnny Boy, and after he is rebuffed by the sadistic director, Matthew Ullman, he drives to the institute in an upstate New York town where the sheriff is a paid lackey of the institute and thugs do his bidding. There's a money angle here somewhere, and Bill is just the right guy to find out what it is. He's a forensic accountant, someone who tracks illegal money back to its source, which is exactly what Ullmann and his wife, Madeleine, don't need, because there's money galore coming through the institute. As Bill engages in showdown after showdown with the institute staff, it becomes clear that the premise of this novel is in part an excuse for Clarkson to examine characters under stress and craft grueling scenes of physical effort. This engaging thriller is equipped with psychological depth and a solidly believable center.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312878869
• ISBN 13: 9780312878863
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368