- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (Oct 29 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743223896
- ISBN-13: 978-0743223898
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.2 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,411,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
A drug kingpin on the FBI's Most Wanted list is found hanging upside down over a bathtub, his corpse drained of blood. The killing looks like an organized-crime payback hit--until another Ten Most Wanted criminal is found similarly strung up, and then another. Soon Detective Alex Brandon of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is grappling not only with a testy partner and a complicated home life, but also with a band of brilliant vigilantes whom the public starts to regard as heroes.
Alex Brandon is almost too good to be true, with his penetrating blue eyes, his steely toughness, his politeness, and his tenacious smarts. But Jan Burke--best known for her well-regarded series featuring reporter Irene Kelly--is such a sane, intelligent writer that Brandon and the book's many other characters come vividly alive. She's also a fine craftsman of individual scenes, many of which are perfectly paced little dramas or comedies. Nine's gripping, multithreaded plot is sometimes too complex for its own good, and the climax tips into melodrama, but overall the reliable Burke, a past winner of the Edgar and other mystery awards, has produced another winning read. --Nicholas H. Allison
From Publishers Weekly
Award-winning mystery author Burke (Flight; Sweet Dreams, Irene) takes a break from her Irene Kelly series to test the waters of stand-alone mainstream thrillers, and proves she can swim with the sharks in this tale of vigilante justice. The members of Project Nine, an exclusive club of deranged boys, create havoc for homicide detective Alex Brandon, the L.A. Sheriff's Department and the FBI, since their gruesome project involves eliminating the outlaws on the FBI's Most Wanted List. Brandon has a dark family history, to say the least, and grimly tolerates his partner, Ciara Morton, a good detective with a bad attitude. The leader of Project Nine, Everett Corey, began assembling his task force including Cameron Burgess, Morgan Addison and the delightfully vain Frederick Whitfield IV at Sedgewick, a rich kids' reform school in Malibu. The team's hero, haunted genius Kit Logan, whose nightmarish past includes the killing of his stepfather, serial killer Jerome Naughton, attended the same school. Ninth on the Project's list of targets is yet another Malibu alum: Kit's friend Gabe Taggert, whose involvement in a botched robbery/ homicide has driven him into hiding. Gabe's sister Meghan has history with both Everett and Kit, further complicating the mix. Brandon was involved with the Naughton case 10 years earlier and has dealt with some of the Sedgewick boys; while this makes him uniquely suited to solving the case, it also puts him at risk. Burke does an excellent job with her diverse, bustling cast which includes Spooky, a 13-year-old firebrand in Kit's care, and Chase, Brandon's troubled nephew providing plenty of background without short-changing the absorbing and inventive plot.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
A black-winged bird swooped past Kit's left shoulder, and he shied away from it, crouching down low, half losing his balance. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
A black-winged bird swooped past Kit's left shoulder, and he shied away from it, crouching down low, half losing his balance. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
A letdown from an otherwise capable writer,
By F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Nine (Mass Market Paperback)
At times when a writer abandons -at least temporarily -a long standing series the result can be revitalising ,a kind of literary second wind can kick in and there is a discernable gain in quality and intensity with benefits all round , both for the reader and the author .This happened in a big way when Dennis Lehane turned away from the perfectly good series about blue collar Boston P I's Kenzie and Gennaro and wrote the magnificent Mystic River .Similar but less spectacular results were achieved with the creation of new characters and stand alone books by such authors as Harlen Cobden and Robert Crais .Sadly there has been no such transformation with this novel which sees an end at least temporarily to the Irene Kelly series and Nine counts as a major disappointment from the usually solid and reliable Ms Burke ,It is over-plotted ,low on plausibility and betrays a lack of narrative control with several plot strands being welded together without any real coherernce .There seems a striving after "significance " and "weight " which makes it a deadening experience to read . At its core is a plot by a group of disaffected wealthy men ,alumni of an up-market private reformatory to slaughter names on the FBI most wanted list .Initilly they favour exsanguination -draining blood from their bodies while suspended over a bathtub -but subsequent methods are more diverse .Their victims are killers ,child murderers ,fraudsters etc -and the public response is favourable to their endeavours .Their real target is a fellow former reformatory member who had challenged the ringleaders dominance and who is love with Meghan the sister of a man wrongly placved on the list The cop on the case is Alex Brandon and in keeping with the tone of the book he has "issues "-a recently deceased partner ,an estarnged former wife ,a fractured relationship with his nephew and a female partner whose sister has been disabled following rape . The action when it comes is swift and competently written but the book is simply too unwieldy and badly paced .Burke seems to be striving too hard to create rounded characters and she simply spends too much time on infill ,resulting in a book with the dread disease of literary elephanaises -its just way too long . Back to the drawing bosrd please Ms Burke
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great Book by a great author,
By
This review is from: Nine (Mass Market Paperback)
They say there are only about 4 or 5 plots for all the stories ever written. That may be true, but Ms Burke can do more with all of these plots than most authors with one in their best moments.This is a well thought out and technically correct thriller with a premise that could easily come to life in this world we live in today. Ms Burke has captured the essence of hero vs antihero(es) in this, one of her best works. I can only hope this is the start of a new series, although if she keeps making hits with stand alone works, hurray!! Buy this one, you won't go wrong.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jan Burke never ceases to amaze,
By
This review is from: Nine (Mass Market Paperback)
I am a big fan of the Irene Kelly series and at first was a little reticent of reading a novel by Jan Burke that did not have Irene as the main character. Luckily I discovered that my fears were completely unfounded and that the quality of this novel is as good as the rest of Burke's work, if not better. Four young men are the main participants in a group called Project Nine, whose mission is to take justice into their own hands by killing the criminals that are listed in the FBI's Most Wanted list. The members of the group are all former Sedgewick students, which is a school well known for harboring rich kids who have had problems in various areas (school, trouble with police, etc). The murderers use a very distinct method, and detective Alex Brandon finds clear similarities with a previous case in his career. The killer in that prior case ended up being murdered by his stepson, Kit, who was only eleven years at that time. The author not only presents a highly interesting and complex plot in terms of the reasons behind the actions of the characters, but also does an amazing job in depicting Alex and Kit, and also in intertwining elements of their personal life into the story. Each time I grab a book written by Jan Burke I find myself surprised not only by the highly entertaining stories she creates, but also by the outstanding quality of her writing. This is probably why she has won numerous prizes, including the prestigious Edgar Award. This work has convinced me: besides waiting for the next Irene Kelly novel, I will grab anything this author writes!
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