 |
||
 |
||
|
|
||
Critic's Corner
|
|
THE FOURTH PERIMETER Reviewed by: Patricia Ann Jones "It was the taste of metal wiped clean with gun oil. It was the taste of horror, of death. Collin's teeth bit instinctively into the gun's barrel, and he closed his eyes against the coming blast." Collin Ford, Secret Service agent, a member of the President's Fourth Perimeter team, was the only son of Kurt Ford, a former Secret Service agent who has since become a successful high-tech entrepreneur. Ford knows his son would never take his own life and determines to find out why the police so quickly ruled the death a suicide. What follows is one of the best thrillers you're likely to read this year. Tim Green, author of "The Letter of the Law," and six other best selling novels, offers up a page-turner motivated by a father's rage for revenge. Kurt Ford learns from his old friend David Claiborne, a SSA, that several other young agents have met with mysterious deaths and all had witnessed a strange, secret meeting involving the president at a remote Maryland farmhouse. As the enraged father begins to ask questions, and uncover clues into not only his son's death but the other agents as well, the story gathers momentum. The evidence uncovered reveals that the man behind the murders is none other than the president of the United States. Although Kurt Ford, a widower, is a man at the pinnacle of power and on the verge of a new marriage, he makes the decision to assassinate a president who has spun out of control. "He didn't care who the man was, if he was president of the United States or the emperor of China. The man who killed his son was going to die, up close and personal." This gave me pause. How could a man of Kurt's position and temperament immediately decide to risk everything in his life to avenge the death of his son? For a few pages I had trouble suspending my disbelief that anyone, even a character in a novel, would do such a thing as plot the assassination of a sitting president of the United States. A quick glance back at history showed me that not only is this something a grieving father might do, but it has been done for lesser reasons, and successfully. Green's use of Kurt Ford as a protagonist offers readers the opportunity to see inside the life of a self-made millionaire who earned his money the hard way. Ford's wife Annie died twenty years ago, and he has devoted himself only to his son Collin, and his business. Then, he met Jill. She made his life complete. Their impending marriage would now have to wait. Green methodically spins out his story of a father mad with revenge. In the process, we learn how the Secret Service operates, and how the agents protect the president regardless of his location. The Fourth Perimeter is the one closest to the president and the position with the most responsibility for his safety. Ford, having been in the Secret Service, knows the job and sets out on a foolproof plan to avenge his son. Politics make strange bedfellows and large political donations cause some politicos to make bad judgement calls. President Calvin Parkes learns from Butch Reynolds, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, that a major contributor will give the party five million dollars if only the president will consent to taking an afternoon fishing trip with him. Parkes asks, "Five million? Not the Chinese?" He's assured that the money is legal. "All you have to do is go fishing . . . ," Reynolds tells Parkes. "The donor's name is Kurt Ford. He's the founder of a company called Safe Tech. He's about as American as you can get. He's worth about a billion dollars." Parkes loves golf, hates fishing, but is convinced by his minions that this will be an easy Five Million dollars for his campaign. Green's detailed style and vernacular stir emotions and raises the hair on the back of your neck. The characters are brilliantly complex. The relationships are deftly defined, but you won't like some of the players very much. Even the protagonist Ford has flaws that raise your hackles. Nonetheless, this is a story readers of suspense thrillers will find entertaining if frightening. In today's perilous times, "The Fourth Perimeter" is sure to offer a story topical enough to intrigue the worried minds' of its readers. Click Here to Order The Fourth Perimeter
Jones is a published writer & literary critic. Copyright April 18, 2002, Patricia A. Jones, all rights reserved.
|
|
|
