The Exile - Hardcover

Folsom, Allan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765309467 ISBN 13: 9780765309464

Publisher: Forge Books, 2004

Synopsis

Night in the California desert: John Barron---the youngest cop on the LAPD's feared 5-2 squad---will get a baptism of blood and fire on a night he will never forget.

Panic on the streets of LA: An international hit man no one can stop---not the governments he threatens, not the prisons that try to hold him, not LA's bloodiest rogue cops.

Rebecca Barron, John's ravishingly beautiful sister: A night of traumatic terror has left her tragically mute. Now, trapped in a web of global intrigue---and pursued by the same sinister hit man menacing institutions of power worldwide---she will find the shocking violence that robbed her of her speech was only the beginning of a far darker odyssey.

A world-famous baroness---as sensuous as she is singularly cruel---will stop at nothing to fulfill her own maniacal dream, one destined to topple governments and dethrone dynasties, catapulting her to the pinnacle of global power . . . while the world holds its breath and waits.

About this title

About the Author

ALLAN FOLSOM is the New York Times bestselling author of The Day After Tomorrow and The Day of Confession. He lives in California.

Reviews

Folsom, the author of the thrilling Day after Tomorrow (1994), which has no connection to the recent movie, and the decidedly less thrilling Day of Confession (1998), returns mostly to form in this fast-paced, exciting adventure. John Barron, a young LAPD detective, assists in the capture of a vicious killer, who dies during surgery following a gunfight. But some of his fellow cops are also killed in the process, and Barron is forced to leave the department, and the country, to avoid retribution from his former colleagues and friends. He assumes a new identity, moves to Europe, meets a nice lady--and then is confronted with the terrifying prospect that the villain who supposedly died in L.A. is not dead after all and is moving forward with his original plan. Written in short chapters, with a sturdy hero and a despicably clever villain, the novel grabs readers from the opening scenes and rarely lets them loose. Although it seems as though the author has written the book with an eye toward a future movie adaptation--short chapters, plenty of physical action, a constant reminder of the date and time, some scenes even written from an audience's point of view ("The viewer realized that somewhere out there was Raymond")--it isn't an outline posing as a novel. Sure, it's slick and a bit superficial, but it does what it sets out to do: deliver breathless excitement. David Pitt
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Exile

PART 1

LOS ANGELES

1

TWENTY YEARS LATER.

 

Amtrak Station, the desert community of Barstow, California. Tuesday, March 12, 4:20 A.M.

John Barron crossed toward the train alone in the cool of the desert night. He stopped at car number 39002 of the Amtrak Su-perliner Southwest Chief, waiting as a mustachioed conductor helped an elderly man with bottle-thick glasses up the steps. Then he boarded the train himself.

Inside, in the dim light, the conductor wished him good morning and punched his ticket, pointing him past sleeping passengers toward his seat two-thirds of the way down the car. Twenty seconds later he put his small carry-on bag into the overhead rack and sat down in the aisle seat beside an attractive young woman in sweatshirt and tight jeans curled up against the window, asleep.

Barron glanced at her, then settled back, his eyes more or less on the car door through which he had entered. A half minute later he saw Marty Valparaiso come on board, give the conductor his ticket, and take a seat just inside the front door. Several moments passed, and he heard a blast of train whistle. The conductor closed the door, and the Chief began to move. In no time the lights of the desert city gave way to the pitch-black of open land. Barron heard the whine of diesel engines as the train picked up speed. He tried to picture what it might look like from above, the kind of aerial shot you might see in a movie--of a giant, half-mile-long, twenty-seven-car snake, gliding west through the predawn desert darkness toward Los Angeles.

Copyright © 2004 by Allan Folsom

Edition details

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765309467
• ISBN 13: 9780765309464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 704