Mystery/Thriller Book Reviews
Page Two of SixFreedom to Kill by Paul Lindsay
Fawcett Gold Medal, July 1998.Paperback, 306 pages.
ISBN: 0449149943.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Freedom to Kill is a thrilling adventure
that begins with a terrorist threatening
to release Ebola in Disneyland.
The terrorist also imposes other threats
and violent acts on the nation in an
attempt to get the public
to lose trust in the nation's security
including car bombings, lacing children's
medicine bottles with poison and bomb
threats against commercial airplanes.
The terrorist is like no other FBI
agent Mike Devlin
has encountered in his years in the
Bureau. Devlin, considered a trouble-maker
by others on the force, winds up on the
case and enlists the help of a computer
expert. Together the two began to try
and find the elusive murderer and predict
his next move before the public loses
its faith in national security and the nation
surrenders to anarchy.
This is an entertaining thriller because of the realistic characters and the hurried FBI investigation to stay one step ahead of the masterful psychopath, who becomes known as a "cataclysmist" -- a new breed of psychopaths. Devlin, who has a lust for adventure and danger despite the consequences, is a likeable hero. A real page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Gatekeeper by Philip Shelby
Simon & Schuster, July 1998.Hardcover, 331 pages.
ISBN: 0684842602.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Hollis Fremont, a hard-working Foreign
Service officer working at the
U.S. Embassy in Paris, France, is in love
with Paul McGann, the deputy chief
of mission. Because of her love and
trust for McGann, Fremont thinks
nothing of it when he asks her to do a "simple
errand" for him at the last minute
which involves forging McGann's
name to a requisition form and
personally escorting a man to
the United States. McGann tells her the
man is a harmless white collar criminal,
but her escort turns out to be the "Handyman,"
an assassin who has been hiding out
due to a murder that went wrong several
years ago. Sam Crawford, a member of
the Omega Group, a secret U.S intelligence
agency that tracks killers like the Handyman,
knows something big must be going down for
the Handyman to have surfaced and begins
surveillance on him and Fremont, curious
as to how she is involved. On the trip
to the States the Handyman spots one
of Crawford's men
at the train station and kills him with
a stiletto. Hollis, who witnesses
the stabbing, is forced by the Handyman
to fly overseas with him all the while
wondering exactly who this
man is, why her beloved put her up
to this and what will happen when
they arrive at New York's Kennedy Airport..
Gatekeeper is a marvelous thriller, jam-packed with new technology and exciting escapes. Hollis Fremont is a believable and daring heroine that the reader will care for. A must-read for lovers of espionage novels.
Return to the July 1998 issue of The IWJ.
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