Worst Fears Realized
From Kirkus Reviews
Erratic Woods, whose 18 previous thrillers make up perhaps the spottiest backlist in the business, nose-dives in this plush, absurd slice of Serial Killer Lite. The morning after cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington (Swimming to Catalina, 1998, etc.) returns from getting takeout Chinese for Susan Bean, the comely ADA who picked him up at a party, to find her throat cut, he learns that his secretary, Alma Hodges, has been killed on the street outside his place. Next, Stone's neighbor, bank VP Miranda Hirsch, is slain while he and his ex-partner, Lt. Dino Bacchetti, alertly watch her vacuum her apartment in the nude, and Dino's wife Mary Ann barely escapes with her life from another lethal attack. Clearly, the boys decide, somebody they put away once is out to kill everybody close to them. How does Stone feel about all this mayhem? ``I'm extremely well,'' he tells painter Sarah Buckminster the next morning on her return from Europe, and why not? After all, his immediate future holds impulse cash purchases of an armored Mercedes and a terrific little cottage in Connecticut, not to mention some fabulous sex with Sarah, who's inspired this shopping spree. And when Sarah, worn down by the rigors of the stalked life in New York, returns to her native England, leaving Stone to help Dino deal with the stalker, Dino's sister-in-law, Mafia princess Dolce Bianchi, is waiting in the wings to take up the slack in Stone's love life. Meanwhile, the presumed perp, wife-killing accountant Herbert Mitteldorfer, has been released from prison just in time to slow his murderous campaign to an adagio while Stone catches up on the finer things in life and, aided by Dolce's flashing eyes, fends off his ex-girlfriend Arrington Carter's tearful confession that she wants to leave her movie-star husband and baby son and come back to him. Male fantasy at its most narcissistic, with just enough mystery to substitute for foreplay. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
The pain lay buried somewhere in the depths of Stone Barrington's upper body; a cross between a slipped disc and a coronary, it seemed. It had begun after a phone conversation early in the previous winter. The call, from Arrington Carter, had ended everything. Now she was the wife of another man, living in his house, rearing his son. He would never see her again, except in her husband's company, and he would never think of her again without feeling the pain.
He had never believed it would persist into the following spring, but it had. If anything, it was worse. He saw Dino a couple of times a week, always at Elaine's. Dino was his closest friend--sometimes, he felt, his only friend. Not true, of course. Elaine was his friend, and the evenings in her restaurant, with Elaine and Dino, were the only bright spots in his week. His law practice had lately been boring, a personal injury suit that dragged on and on, a bone thrown to him by Woodman & Weld, because there wasn't enough meat on it to nourish a firm with thirty partners and a hundred associates. They were ready to go to trial, and the expected settlement offer had not materialized. It was depressing. Everything was depressing. And the pain continued, assuaged only by bourbon, and he had done too much assuaging lately. He sat at table number five, at Elaine's, with Dino, and ordered another assuagement.
"Let's go to a party," Dino said. "Have your next one there."
"I don't feel like going to a party with a lot of cops," Stone said.
"It's not a cop party."
"You don't know anybody but cops," Stone said.
Dino caught the waiter's eye and signaled for a check. "I know lots of people," he said.
"Name three who aren't cops or Mafiosi."
"It's not a Mafia party, either," Dino said, dodging the question.
"Whose party is it?"
"It's at a deputy DA's."
"Oh. Then we get to bring our own booze."
"His name is Martin B-r-o-u-g-h-a-m," he spelled, "pronounced 'Broom,' and he's got some money, I think."
"Isn't he handling the Dante trial?" Dante was a crime boss, and his trial was the most important since Gotti's.
"He got a conviction this afternoon."
"I hadn't heard."
"Don't you watch the news anymore?"
"Not much."
"The party is to celebrate the conviction."
"How come I don't know Brougham?"
"Because he runs with a classier crowd than you're accustomed to. The only seedy lawyers he meets are in court."
"Who are you calling a seedy lawyer?"
"How many lawyers are at this table?"
"I am not a seedy lawyer; I just take seedy cases. There's a difference."
"Whatever you say," Dino said, standing up and reaching for his raincoat. "Let's get out of here."
"I don't want to," Stone grumbled.
"You don't want to do anything, you desolate fuck, and I can't stand it anymore. Now put your coat on and come with me, or I'll just shoot you here and now. Nobody would ever prosecute me; it would be justifiable homicide."
"Oh, all right," Stone said, struggling to his feet and grabbing his coat. "One drink, if the guy serves decent booze. Then I'm out of there."
The apartment was a duplex in the East Sixties, definitely not the preserve of an assistant DA.
"You're right," Stone said, as they handed their coats to a maid. "He's got money. There's at least a million dollars of art hanging in this room."
"What are you, his insurance agent?" Dino whispered. "Try and have a good time, okay?"
"Tell me more about this guy," Stone said.
"Word is, he's up for chief deputy DA, and he's going to run for DA, if the old man ever retires."
"He'll grow old waiting," Stone said.
A handsome man of about forty spotted Dino and came across the room, towing a tall blond woman in a Chanel suit.
"Dino," he said, shaking hands. "I'm glad you could make it. You remember Dana."
The woman shook Dino's hand. "Who's this?" she asked, turning her gaze on Stone.
"This is Stone Barrington, Dana. Stone, this is Martin and Dana Brougham."
"How do you do?" Stone said mechanically, shaking their hands.
"I've heard of you," Brougham said, steering Stone and Dino toward the bar. "You were Dino's partner at the Nineteenth Precinct a while back, weren't you?"
"A while back," Stone echoed. "After I left the force they had to kick him upstairs; nobody else would ride in the same car with him."
"You're over at Woodman and Weld, aren't you?"
"I'm of counsel, to them," Stone replied, "but Woodman and Weld would probably rather you didn't know it." It was a remark he wouldn't have made if he had been entirely sober.
Brougham laughed. "What are you drinking?"
"Wild Turkey on the rocks, if you have it."
Brougham grabbed a bottle that looked like a crystal decanter and poured Stone a double. "This is Wild Turkey, but it's got a leg up on the standard stuff."
Stone tasted the whiskey. The man was right. This stuff cost thirty bucks a bottle; he was beginning to like Brougham.
A couple arrived at the front door, and Brougham went off to greet them. "Wander around," he said. "Meet some people."
Stone looked around. The room was jammed with people, and somebody was playing the piano rather well. "I see at least four cops," he said to Dino.
Young Repairman Jack #03 - Secret Vengeance
Review
“Wilson deftly keeps interest high with well-drawn characterizations, modulating the thrills with details of day-to-day life in the early 1980s. Cracking good fun for teens.”—Kirkus Reviews on Jack: Secret Histories
“This is a fun and exciting read that will appeal to all audiences. It is a must have for any library. It is a great book for general entertainment, and it will take many adults on a nostalgic journey to their teen years.”—Children’s Literature on Jack: Secret Histories
“Readers of the adult Repairman Jack novels will enjoy bringing their background to this reading, but, luckily for kid readers, knowledge of the series is not vital to enjoying this smart, spooky mystery adventure.”—Kirkus Reviews on Jack: Secret Circles
“Will appeal to sci-fi fans.”—Booklist on Jack: Secret Circles
“Wilson has created an engaging, fast-paced and yet deeply thought provoking work that builds upon (and builds up) the Repairman Jack mythos. It might seem like a book for younger readers, but Wilson's many fans will want to grab a copy right away. Strongly recommended.”—SFRevu.com on Jack: Secret Circles
“I really loved this book and can't wait for further installments.”—Teen Reviewer on Jack: Secret Circles
Product Description
Everyone loves senior Carson Toliver, the captain and quarterback of the football team, heartthrob of South Burlington County Regional High—especially the girls. Even Jack’s best friend Weezy has a crush on him. And unlike most of the popular kids at school, he’s not stuck up. Jack even sees him defending a piney kid who is being bullied in the hall. Which is why Jack is so surprised when Weezy tells him that Carson took her on a date and attacked her.
Jack tries to convince her to report Carson, but Weezy would rather just forget it ever happened. She begs him not to tell anyone, and Jack reluctantly agrees. But then Carson starts telling his own version of what happened that night and suddenly everyone is calling her “Easy Weezy.” Jack’s concern turns to rage. Carson needs to be taught a lesson. With the help of the pineys—reclusive inhabitants of the mysterious Jersey Pine Barrens who have secrets of their own—Jack finds a way to exact secret vengeance…
In F. Paul Wilson's third young adult novel, the teenage Jack demonstrates the skills that will serve him later in life as the urban mercenary known as Repairman Jack.
All languages
English
Español
Deutsch
Français
Bulgaria
Netherlands
Italiano
Hungary
Spanish
România
Українська
Catalonia
Polski
Belarus
Lithuania
Latvia
Serbian
Czech
Esperanto
Portugal
Swedish
Slovensko
Hrvatski
Србија
Latine
Chinese
Ελληνική(Greece)
Uzbek
Norsk
Turkish
Việt Nam
Denmark
Azerbaijan
Qazaqstan
Galician
Chuvashia
Indonesian
Other Languages
