From Amazon.com
It's no coincidence that Philip Shelby's thrillers (
Days of Drums and
Last Rights) caught the attention of readers just as old masters like John Le Carré and Frederick Forsyth were winding down. There's nothing like an expertly crafted, essentially moral story of intrigue and espionage to quicken the blood and restore order to a chaotic world. What Shelby brings to the table once again in his latest book is a righteous heroine plunged almost accidentally into the center of a dangerous situation. Fans of Eric Ambler will recognize U.S. Foreign Service officer Hollis Fremont as a modern descendant of his trademark lead characters--people who are smart, resourceful, and not quite as innocent as they first appear. Conned by her lover into sneaking a hired assassin known as the Handyman back into America for a high-level hit, Hollis then joins forces with Sam Crawford (the titular Gatekeeper, who works for an agency known only as Omega) to keep the killer from his appointed rounds. Despite the self-parodying nicknames, Shelby's work is full of intelligent suspense and satisfying resolution.
--Dick Adler
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
From Publishers Weekly
Clever, atmospheric and adroitly paced, Shelby's new thriller (after Lost Rights) features yet another plucky heroine caught in the toils of intrigue. Hollis Fremont, a functionary at the American embassy in Paris, is duped by her superior and boyfriend, Paul McGann, into accompanying a man she believes to be a small-fry criminal back to the States for country-club prison incarceration. In fact, the rumpled expat turns out to be "the Handyman," a freelance assassin on a mission. At Kennedy Airport the Handyman bolts and disappears, and Hollis falls under the protective wing of Sam Crawford (the Gatekeeper of the title), who is an agent for the mysterious Omega group. While the Handyman stalks his quarry around the Statue of Liberty, Hollis and her "friends" (Crawford, gruff NYPD officer Harry Jacoby, longtime surrogate father Dawson Wylie and McGann) try to track him down. As the Handyman closes in on his victim, Hollis learns more truth than she's prepared for about the death of her father, and about her family's ties to Omega and the Handyman himself. Shelby's intelligence insiders are a throwback to the heyday of le Carr? and Forsyth (albeit a simpler, less polished crew). With its transatlantic, high-speed Day of the Jackal chronology and sympathetic heroine, an ordinary woman of extraordinary resilience playing her small part on the world stage, this thriller is just the ticket for readers with international-conspiracy paranoia.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
