From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Parker's stand-alone thriller opens with a promising setup, but falls short of the author's best work, like
Suspicion of Innocence, which was an Edgar finalist. Talented Miami artist Tom Fairchild, an ex-con, is struggling to stay on the good side of his rigorous probation officer, while helping out at his sister's antique shop. When his impressive imitation of a 16th-century map of Florida catches the eye of Stuart Barlowe, a wealthy local power player, at a map fair, Barlowe asks Fairchild to duplicate a rare Renaissance-period map that was ruined after it got stained with the blood of its murdered owner. Despite his distrust of this offer, the cash-short Fairchild is intrigued enough by the task's difficulty to accept it. A predictable romantic subplot adds little to the narrative as Fairchild dodges an array of unsavory characters in several European countries and the body count mounts. A surprise closing twist changes nothing.
(Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In a departure from her Gail Connor series, Parker writes an engrossing stand-alone thriller. Tom Fairchild is determined to get his life back in order after spending time in prison for theft. Now on parole, Tom, a would-be graphic artist, is working with his sister at her map shop in Miami. When real-estate developer Stuart Barlowe wants to hire Tom to make an exact copy of a Renaissance map, Tom sees a way of earning the money he needs to make restitution for his role in the theft. But does Barlowe really want a duplicate, or is he asking for a forgery? Either way, Tom agrees to being smuggled out of Florida to research the map in England and Italy. On the journey, romance is rekindled between Tom and his former girlfriend Allison, Barlowe's daughter. Naturally, there is much more to the map caper than meets the eye, and soon enough Tom and Allison are in the middle of it. Parker's villains are stereotypes, but Tom and Allison make a sympathetic couple on the run, and the cartography frame story is fresh and compelling.
Sue O'BrienCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
