|
|
Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 6, No. 20 |
|
reviews the new thriller by RIDLEY PEARSON "CUT and RUN" |
 |
Have oxygen handy when
reading this breath-taker
By RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
Ridley Pearson has this grand reputation for writing high-tech thrillers that you don't want to put down, not even if somebody's holding a gun to your head, saying, "Gimme dat book, Buster!"
Well, I'd say his reputation is entirely justified. I don't think I would have put down his new thriller, "Cut and Run" (Hyperion, $24) if I'd been reading it on the railroad tracks with the high speed limited bearing down on me.
His hero is Roland Larson. Forget that first name. This is no Lord Peter Wimsey dude with a monocle. Few people call him "Roland" and I don't think anybody ever calls him "Rollo." The woman in his life calls him "Lars," which works for me.
Larson is a U.S. marshal, assigned to a special unit whose job is tracking down federal fugitives. Seven years earlier, he worked in a unit guarding federal witnesses scheduled to testify--before they were officially "vanished" into the witness protection program. While doing that, he came into contact with Hope Stevens, a beautiful young computer specialist who knew enough about mob operations to put away some top underworld kingpins for a long, long time. Naturally, the mob wanted her to vanish before any of the trials started, preferably with heavy lead weights tied to her feet in a large body of water.
In the meantime, Larson fell in love with her. One thing led to another and--on at least one momentous occasion--he violated all the cardinal rules of witness protection by making love to her. They even talked of marrying and disappearing into witness protection nowhere together.
Then the mob made a move on her. People died and, in the confusion, Hope decided to bolt. She was fed up with living under the gun. She would slip away on her own and vanish permanently. Larson was left without a witness to protect, with major scars on his aching heart and considerable egg on his face.
Seven years later, Larson still pines for her, but loses himself in work. Then something happens--the equivalent of a nuclear attack in the world of witness protection: Mobsters have snatched the computer genius who designed the program that allows the feds to keep track of literally thousands of people in the witness protection program--and all their loved ones. Odds are he's being held by the Romero crime family, which will force him to peel away the encryption of those valuable records so the Romeros can auction them off for tens of millions to all the crime families eager to get their hands on those hidden witnesses.
But Larson's primary fear is that material in those records will lead the Romeros to Hope, wherever she may be hiding. So, he sets out to track her down first, delaying his search for the computer genius being held by the mob.
His instincts are correct. The Romeros do have several leads on Hope from those computer files--and they've dispatched their No. 1 assassin, Paolo "Razorface" Rodriguez, a hulking brute who loves to slice women up with his razor, to find her and silence her for good.
Larson is stunned to learn that Hope is now a mother and has a six-year-old daughter to worry about protecting from the beast sniffing along their trail.
With these elements, Pearson creates a greased tunnel of terror that he makes readers slide down to reach the exciting climax some 350 pages later. When Paolo comes after the spunky little girl, you will need to have an oxygen bottle standing nearby because I guarantee it'll take your breath away.
As usual, Pearson includes lots of technical detail that doesn't get in the way of the high-speed storyline, but enriches your journey. You will learn more things about cellphones that you wish you didn't know, like the "ping" that can alert the techies to exactly where you are when you turn your phone on.
Though there is some gore
in "Cut and Run," it's not gratuitous and blood will
not seem to drip from the pages. What Pearson deals in is raw,
unadulterated suspense. You will have enough of that to keep
your nerves snapping for weeks.
I believe it's essential for every reader to find at least one
thing in any new book that one can store away as valuable knowledge.
For "Cut and Run," I'd say it's the knowledge that
a spray can of oven cleaner can come in awfully handy if you
ever find yourself facing a hulking brute with a bloody razor.
On the other hand, once you use that spray can, you had also
better be able to run like hell or you'll never clean another
oven as long as you live.
©2005 by Ron Miller.
The book cover reproduction is courtesy of Hyperion Books. This
column first posted April 18, 2005.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine
and teaches classes in mystery for the Academy of Lifelong Learning
at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|