Dangerous Waters - Hardcover

Eidson, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805017674 ISBN 13: 9780805017670

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1991

Synopsis

One moment changes Riley Burke's life forever when he tries to help a young boy attacked on a loading dock and is drawn into a world of fear, drugs, destruction, and betrayal

About this title

Reviews

The author of The Little Brother offers a stirring new thriller that begins with an act of adultery and becomes a bloody tale of deceit and greed. Riley Burke, partner in a successful Boston advertising agency, has been married 10 years to gorgeous fashion model Ellen when he initiates a flirtation with Rachel, an account executive at his firm. While launching his sloop the Spindrift with Rachel in Newport, R.I., a drunken Riley gets embroiled in a fight between a good-looking young drug dealer named Cory and an assailant with a Southern accent. A few days later, with Ellen on board, he discovers Cory's corpse, a bag of cocaine stuffed in its mouth, under the Spindrift. Riley becomes a murder suspect and loses his job, then Ellen is killed while hiding out under the supposed protection of her ex-lover, her husband's business partner Nick. Having lost everything he valued in life, Riley relentlessly pursues all leads toward Cory's murderer, in this briskly paced and surprising story.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Tough and twisty crime melodrama in which a man avenges his wife's murder--and in which Eidson proves he's a craftier writer than his crudely psychosexual first novel (The Little Brother, 1990) let on. Narrator/hero Riley Burke has clawed his way up from poverty to co-ownership (with Nick Daniels) of a top Boston ad agency, but his marriage to beautiful Ellen has eroded along the way--and now Riley's ready to cheat, with young employee Rachel Perry. As Riley and Rachel prepare to sail on Riley's yacht, a stranger--known only as ``Cracker''--attacks one Cory Dearborn on the dock. Acting the hero for Rachel, Riley jumps in and beats up Cracker, who vows revenge--which ironically begins as a shook-up Rachel refuses to sleep with Riley. The next day, real trouble starts when Riley finds Cory's body lashed to the propeller of his boat, a bag of cocaine stuffed in his mouth. The cops immediately suspect Riley of drug-dealing, an idea they can't shake even after Cracker kidnaps Ellen and holds a knife to her throat, demanding the return of some coke: he thinks Riley stole the drugs in league with Cory. Riley's dog fights off Cracker, but, days later, partner Nick proves less effective when Cracker and a goon track Ellen and Nick to a country hideout, wounding Nick but killing Ellen. Enraged, Riley bulls his way along a tangled path--including romancing two of Cory's old flames--that winds up in his murdering the goon in cold blood and Nick shooting Cracker dead. The end? Not quite: in the story's last and biggest surprise of many, Riley has one more enemy to kill.... The ensuing climax features too much explanatory talk, but Riley's final act is as clever and stunningly violent as most of the rest of this slick, fast-paced, cinematic tale. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Riley Burke is about to cheat on his wife for the first time. As he and his would-be lover await the launch to take them to his boat for the night, they witness a brutal assault. Like a good samaritan, Riley intervenes and, in a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is drawn into a chain of events punctuated with drugs, murder, and destruction. Tides of violence swirl about his once-placid life. Seemingly inexplicably, he is swept into a maelstrom of terror which touches all around him. As the pieces of the puzzle drop into place, he finds he has been the target of a brutal vendetta. Like a relentless incoming tide, the suspense mounts until the cleverly twisted ending. A tightly written, very compelling story which employs the Boston sailing milieu to its best advantage. Highly recommended.
- Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805017674
• ISBN 13: 9780805017670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270