Helpful Score: 3
I was about halfway through this fast-reading novel when I thought about the plot's premise. How, I wondered, could such a simple line of action keep the reader so interested? The answer is DeMille and his way of writing--character development is important to him, so as we follow the three main protagonists through the story, we are caught up in the thoughts of each and racing toward the conclusion.
It's a simple story about a former intelligence guy who was let go after the Cold War ended. He returned to his very small hometown where the girl he'd always loved lived. She had married the [now] Chief of Police and is locked in a loveless, controlling relationship. Spencerville, Ohio, is a better place to be at the end of this book!
It's a simple story about a former intelligence guy who was let go after the Cold War ended. He returned to his very small hometown where the girl he'd always loved lived. She had married the [now] Chief of Police and is locked in a loveless, controlling relationship. Spencerville, Ohio, is a better place to be at the end of this book!
Helpful Score: 2
Once I got into the story I become personally involved with the characters and found myself feeling nervous when starting a new chapter, as I just knew major trouble was coming and I really wanted Keith and Annie to make their escape. When I was ready to stop reading for the evening, I had to be careful not to even glance at the next page otherwise I would keep ending up reading just 'one more chapter'. Once the real trouble started, I had no choice but to read straight on through to the end, even though it took me into the early hours of the next morning.
FROM THE DUST JACKET:
From the bestselling author of The General's Daughter and The Gold Coast comes what may be Nelson DeMille's best novel yet, a bittersweet story of recaptured youth and reclaimed love, with all the honed-steel suspense that signifies the trademark of this author.
Keith Landry has lived long enough to have seen the end of the cold war; a war fought without uniforms or rules, a war that has claimed his career and his soul. Now, he has come home to Spencerville, a town in the American heartland that is both familiar and strange, a town as tarnished as Landry himself.
But for Landry, Spencerville has one attraction that time has not corrupted. Her name is Annie Prentis, and she had been the one pure love of his youth. Then came Vietnam, and a world gone crazy separated them. Annie had long since married Cliff Baxter, the town's chief of police and its most powerful man, an unfaithful, yet brutally possessive husband, a force more dangerous than any Landry has met on the fields of battle.
Landry has vowed: No more violence. No more killing. But now he has to fight one final, unavoidable battle, a battle that will be both his deadliest and his most personal. Confronted with his last chance at redemption, he must violate his oath--calling on all of his skills learned from a lifetime in military and intelligence service to rescue Annie from her sadistic husband, a man equally skilled in the tactics and techniques of death.
Landry knows he's got to act rationally and with deadly cunning. Faced with a simple, stark choice--a new life, or no life at all--Landry takes the one critical step in the only direction he can: into the inevitable, explosive confrontation that will decide the fate of three people gripped in a fatal triangle.
FROM THE DUST JACKET:
From the bestselling author of The General's Daughter and The Gold Coast comes what may be Nelson DeMille's best novel yet, a bittersweet story of recaptured youth and reclaimed love, with all the honed-steel suspense that signifies the trademark of this author.
Keith Landry has lived long enough to have seen the end of the cold war; a war fought without uniforms or rules, a war that has claimed his career and his soul. Now, he has come home to Spencerville, a town in the American heartland that is both familiar and strange, a town as tarnished as Landry himself.
But for Landry, Spencerville has one attraction that time has not corrupted. Her name is Annie Prentis, and she had been the one pure love of his youth. Then came Vietnam, and a world gone crazy separated them. Annie had long since married Cliff Baxter, the town's chief of police and its most powerful man, an unfaithful, yet brutally possessive husband, a force more dangerous than any Landry has met on the fields of battle.
Landry has vowed: No more violence. No more killing. But now he has to fight one final, unavoidable battle, a battle that will be both his deadliest and his most personal. Confronted with his last chance at redemption, he must violate his oath--calling on all of his skills learned from a lifetime in military and intelligence service to rescue Annie from her sadistic husband, a man equally skilled in the tactics and techniques of death.
Landry knows he's got to act rationally and with deadly cunning. Faced with a simple, stark choice--a new life, or no life at all--Landry takes the one critical step in the only direction he can: into the inevitable, explosive confrontation that will decide the fate of three people gripped in a fatal triangle.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent Nelson Demille book. You will have a very hard time putting it down. It is a story about betrayal, love, war, honor and redemption. Takes place in a small town called Spencerville - a town in America's heartland.
Helpful Score: 1
Far from his best but still a good read
Helpful Score: 1
The first Demille book I've read. The cover looked great! (How's the saying go, you can't tell a book by its cover.)
Demille writes with details that pull you right into the story. Many times I expected it to move a certain way, and then, bam! what a surprise.
The only reason I didn't give it **** is becuase I thought it was a bit slow in parts.
The ending is quite climatic, and a real page turner. You won't be able to put the book down.
Demille writes with details that pull you right into the story. Many times I expected it to move a certain way, and then, bam! what a surprise.
The only reason I didn't give it **** is becuase I thought it was a bit slow in parts.
The ending is quite climatic, and a real page turner. You won't be able to put the book down.
