From Amazon.com
If Roy Johansen's first thriller has a definite cinematic flair, it's no big surprise: he's a successful screenwriter. But there's a lot more than visual movement to recommend this exciting and original novel--beginning with a hero with an entirely new occupation. Atlanta-based Ken Parker runs a polygraph service, administering lie-detector tests to felons. And it's no lie that his own life is a mess of bad debts and failed responsibilities. So when a gorgeous lawyer named Myth Daniels and her client Burton Sabini offer Parker a much-needed $50,000 to help Burton pass an upcoming polygraph test, Parker hesitates for only a heartbeat before accepting. But his luck continues to run cold: a man whose life was ruined by a faulty polygraph reading attacks him. This man then winds up dead, closely followed by Burton Sabini. Not surprisingly, Parker fits the frame for both murders. The only person who believes he didn't do it is a marvelous creation called Hound Dog, a 21-year-old woman who photographs crime scenes. She and Parker have the kind of offbeat energy and instant credibility that get you over a couple of rough spots in Johansen's quirky and compulsively readable fiction debut.
--Dick Adler
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
From Publishers Weekly
Down and out in Atlanta, Ken Parker is a polygraph examiner whose life just can't get any worseAor so he thinks. His wife has just left him, his car has been repossessed and his disabled Gulf War veteran brother is being swindled by an insurance company. Desperate for cash, Ken accepts an illegal $50,000 job from beautiful defense attorney Myth Daniels to teach her client, embezzler Burton Sabini, how to beat a polygraph. Then matters spin downward from bad to horrific. A polygraph test subject whose life was ruined by Ken's faulty reading attacks Ken and then turns up dead in a Dumpster. Sabini passes his polygraph test but later is also found dead in an alley, with Ken's phone number on him. Under suspicion for both killings, Ken is now suspicious of Myth. Enter Hound Dog, a 21-year-old woman whose obsession is getting information from a police scanner to find crime scenes to photograph; she delivers some bad news to Ken about Myth's past. Trying to clear his name, Ken stumbles across another murder, an attack on Hound Dog's boyfriend and a suspect who turns out to be Ken's still-beloved ex-wife. The offbeat narrative of Johansen's debut races cleanly through a maze of techno clues and multiple suspects, pulling readers along for a quirky ride with likable companions. Most notable of these is Ken, a classic amateur thriller hero who suffers endless humiliations while solving just enough of the puzzle to put everyone in grave danger when he guesses wrong. He deserves a sequel, and this novel's bittersweet finale gives strong hope of that.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
