Amazon.com Review
Trained by Navy SEALS, a graduate of Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, and similar venues where, according to the jacket copy on her first novel, "street survival skills are measured, " C.J. Songer is an ex-cop who could give Dirty Harry a run for his money. In
Bait, her first novel, Meg Gillis's partner is missing, and Meg suspects the worst--even before her house is ransacked, her stolen car is found soaked in blood, and she's caught up in a deadly game of murder and deception where the cops make all the rules. They seem to think she's holding out on them--especially Joe Reilly of the Special Tactics Unit, who might have known Meg's husband Charlie before he was killed. Or maybe not. Charlie was a cop, too, and the details of his death have never been cleared up. Even paranoids have real enemies, and Meg's inside knowledge of dirty deals by dirty cops makes her inability to trust anyone perfectly plausible. While she's willing to put herself out there as bait to trap her partner's kidnapper, she's never quite sure who's holding the keys to the cage. It makes for a taut thriller, and the sexual tension between Meg and Reilly holds up all the way to the explosive finish.
--Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
First-time novelist Songer, a former Glendale, Calif., law officer, develops her convoluted, often enticing tale in a series of interwoven plots told in repetitive phrases and partial sentences, an elliptical style slightly reminiscent of James Ellroy's. The narrator, ex-cop Meg Gillis, gradually unravels the story, repeatedly speculating and recapitulating, revealing a little more of the background and the key events each time. When Meg takes a phone call for Mike Johnson, another ex-policeman and her partner in a security business, she's immediately caught up in several simultaneous police investigations involving possible corruption in the Beverly Hills Special Tactics Unit, harassment of Iranians living in Southern California, drug traffickers, her missing partner Mike's dealings and the still unsolved shooting of her own husband, also a cop, three years earlier. Meg spends a lot of time traveling from her office to her home or the Burbank police station. Although many of the scenes are physically static, the dialogue creates emotional electricity among the characters; the occasional action scenes are fast-paced and visceral. Songer has a gripping story to tell, but the choppy, circular style she has chosen can be aggravating. It all makes sense in the end, but getting there is often as annoyingly bumpy as it is compelling.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
