Reviews

In this latest thriller by Lustbader (www.ericvanlustbader.com), author of the best-selling Jason Bourne series, the daughter of the U.S. President-elect is kidnapped, and special agent Jack McClure, whose own daughter died in an accident, suspects the kidnapper is an especially vicious serial killer. While the quest for the missing girl is exciting, the author's focus on religious extremism and its opponents muddies the plot, and the dialog is rather wooden. Still, the narration by Richard Ferrone (The Good Guy), who's read for authors including Mickey Spillane and Stuart Woods, secures his reputation as one of the best interpreters of thrillers. Recommended for popular collections. [Audio clip available through us.macmillan.com; the Forge hc, published in August, was a New York Times best seller.-Ed.]-Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

In this uneven thriller from bestseller Lustbader (The Bourne Legacy), Alli Carson, the 19-year-old daughter of the U.S. president-elect, moderate Republican Edward Carson, is abducted a month before her father's inauguration to be programmed to do something truly terrible at the inauguration ceremony. ATF agent Jack McClure is chosen to lead the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group. Lustbader does a fine job depicting the search for Alli and reconstructing Jack's past, but the confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about. (Aug.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.