A reporter for the Bergen News, Chris Turley could never measure up to his father. Edward Turley, a combination of Bob Woodward and Ernie Pyle, was one of the last great investigative reporters and a difficult man to impress. While stuck covering press conferences and town hall meetings, Chris, his fatherโs legend in mind, has always dreamed of his own Pulitzer, however unlikely it seems.
Then one day while heโs waiting to meet a source, a giant explosion takes out half of an office building next door. Shocked into action, Chris saves five people from the burning building. His firsthand account in the next dayโs paper makes him a hero and a celebrity.
And thatโs not all. The sourceโs next tip delivers a second headline-grabber of a story for Chris, and suddenly his career is looking a lot more like his dadโs. But then it seems this anonymous source has had a plan for Chris all along, and his luck for being in the right place at the right time is not a coincidence at all. What seemed like a reporterโs dream quickly becomes an inescapable nightmare.
Down to the Wire , David Rosenfeltโs shocking new thriller about an ordinary man who gets exactly what heโs always wanted at a price he can never pay, is an intense thrill ride that will have readers racing through the pages right up to the end.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. At the height of the Reign of Terror in 1793, an unknown killer is emulating the work of the guillotine by leaving beheaded corpses all over Paris in Alleyn's superior fourth Aristide Ravel mystery (after 2009's The Cavalier of the Apocalypse). Given the tight control of the republican government, the police don't realize that the deaths are part of a series, but eventually former justice minister Georges Danton asks Ravel to solve the case. With delicate peace negotiations with the English under way, Danton fears that word of the atrocities will jeopardize them. The pressure to catch the killer only increases as the roster of victims expands to include a member of the government. Alleyn brilliantly captures the paranoid spirit of the times, and inserts enough twists to keep most readers guessing. This entry approaches the quality of the historical fiction of such authors as Steven Saylor and Laura Joh Rowland. (Dec.) (c)
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From Booklist
Bergen News reporter Chris Turley is tipped by phone about a potentially big story of political chicanery. But moments before he is to meet his anonymous informant, there is an explosion across the street, and Chris becomes an instant hero by rescuing five people from a shattered building. The explosion is assumed to be terrorism, and Chris appears on the Today Show 18 hours later. His story about the rescue is reprinted across the country. Soon other, random New Jerseyans die in blasts, and Chris realizes that his informant is also the brilliant and demented bomber. But who is he, and why is he doing these things? Rosenfeltโs Andy Carpenter novels are known for their breezy storytelling and humor. His first stand-alone, Donโt Tell a Soul (2008), offered fine suspense as well as some humor. This one eschews humor to focus on the actions of ordinary people faced with extraordinary trials. It also employs a whiplash plot turn that may strain credulity, but itโs still an engaging suspense tale. --Thomas Gaughan