- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Dutton (Jan 19 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0525940316
- ISBN-13: 978-0525940319
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.3 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,299,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
Broadcast journalist Jonelle Patterson is wooed by a huge salary to Network ONE, a start-up TV channel backed by the Christian Right. Here she is promised free reign to travel the world covering sensational stories. Her husband suspects that her timing, luck, and personal involvement in these stories is more than mere kismet, and Jonelle reluctantly agrees. Is she being used by the Christian Right? Is the news being "created" for her to report? Racina (Snow Angel, LJ 6/15/96), a former TV scriptwriter, offers a timely story filled with recognizable people from our own political arena, but the conspiracy is revealed too early, diluting the suspense. The negative treatment of the extreme Christian Right may thrill some patrons while offending others, and the characters, family situations, and plot line should make a predictable TV movie of the week. Large fiction collections may want to consider.?Terrill Persky, Woodridge P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Annoying, manipulative tale of annoying, manipulative media moguls who lie, cheat, steal, and murder to further the career of their trusting, naive star TV reporter. This third novel from Racina (Snow Angel, 1996, etc.) decries the trashy sensationalism and dumbing-down of TV news by offering generous helpings of what the author presumably despises, on pages spattered with names of the rich, famous, or merely good-looking. Beautiful, competent CNN twinkie Jonelle Patterson is selected from the ranks of budding TV talking heads by the oafish trio of sleazy suits that runs the fledgling all-news Network ONE cable channel. A mother of two, married to a dashing airline pilot (who's also a whiz at editing videotape) and a devoutly fundamentalist Christian (her father-in-law is a professor at Pat Robertson's Regent University), Jonelle is to be groomed as the ``domestic Christiane Amanpour'' by Barney Keller, her balding, vulgarian Yiddish-slinging boss. Keller, with his cronies on the Christian Right and his Republican friends, steer Jonelle toward one high- profile assignment after another, during which grotesquely violent accidents, inexplicable deaths, and outright murders occur just as she unpacks her microphone. Jonelle's witless eyewitness accounts of so many fortuitous disasters effortlessly boost the ratings of her one-woman newsmagazine, but it takes the artful videotape manipulation of perfect husband Steve to discover that, lurking in the background of every scene she covers, is a man with a gold ring on his hand. After about 150 pages of such nonsense, the Pattersons learn that these murders are part of a conspiracy, orchestrated by the GOP and the Christian Right, to transform Jonelle into a God-fearing presidential candidate for the 2008 election. Finally, after twice saving the life of Hillary Clinton, Steve and Jonelle have to race against probability and healthy skepticism to take their story to competing networks. Painfully bad. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
GUILTY PLEASURE,
By
This review is from: Hidden Agenda (Paperback)
If one reads the Kirkus Review of this book, they would be tempted to pass it by, as they call it "...painfully bad..". Well, that's why it's so much fun. "Hidden Agenda" reads like the script for a tv movie of the week with Jaclyn Smith and Gregory Harrison, with Leslie Nielsen and Dabney Coleman as the villains. But, I have to admit, I really enjoyed this book. It certainly sets no new standards for contemporary fiction, but as an old fashioned, good guys vs. bad guys, political vs. religious fanatics, it's a whopper! We NEED perfect husbands like Steven Patterson; we need gullible heroines like Jonelle Patterson, who works her way up from a child with an alcoholic mother, not to mention a problem of stuttering, to become the most famous newscaster in the world! Sure, the use of real people in fictional roles is quite a manipulative move, but it adds a little color and humor to the goings-on; and the love scenes between Rex and Clay, though brief in number, are outright ridiculous. But, what a fun read. There are several scenes of suspense and you have to wonder---will they make it in time??? The finale is so over the top it's wonderful! Catching the villain right on t.v.! And the epilogue is so woefully predictable, that you almost want to say, "What else?"Ah, but readers, if you are looking for a way to kill some time and have some fun along the way, grab this one and have fun! RECOMMENDED
5.0 out of 5 stars
Twisting. Compelling. Wonderful.,
By Chris Beakey "Chris" (Lewes, Delaware and Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hidden Agenda (Paperback)
This was a terrific book, full of twists that would be completely unbelievable . . . if they weren't so true-to-life! As usual, Thom Racina sets up a compelling conflict and uses his sharp, remarkable storytelling skills to spin it towards a rewarding resolution. For all of you thriller fans who are tired of getting disappointed by "big" books with "high concept" plots that end up being wordy and poorly written (ie: the bestsellers that publishers hit you with the instant you walk in the big-box stores) look to the tightly evocative writing of Thom Racina for the real thing.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Bit of a Disappointment,
By Jenn Novesky (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hidden Agenda (Paperback)
This was an okay book...something to keep you entertained on the long train ride to work. However, a 4 year old could have guessed the ending.
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