Customer Reviews

Blindfold Game (Center Point Platinum Mystery (Large Print))

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Whether or not you like this novel, you do have to give the author credit for some gutsy research. She states at the end of the story that she spent 16 day aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley while it patrolled the Bering Sea in the middle of the winter. I only hope that she didn't get as seasick as I felt when reading about the exploits of the same cutter (renamed in the novel as the Sojourner Truth) during its patrol in the midst of an icy storm with 70 knot winds. Her onboard research enabled her to write plausibly about Coast Guard life at sea. Although I am a navy veteran, I had no idea until now that the Coast Guard has some fairly large ships. The one in the story is the length of a football field, displaces 3000 tons and has a crew of 100.

Lieutenant Commander Sara Lange is the executive officer of the Sojourner Truth, and she is joined at sea with her CIA husband who has come upon information indicating that terrorists are about to make a missile attack on the United States. Sara's husband and a cohort obtain the plan of attack by torturing a participant in the plan. This, of course, is unrealistic as we know that the CIA would never torture anyone. Hmmm.This is essentially a chase thriller, and it is a well paced one.

As other reviewers have indicated you won't be to surprised at how all this goes, but that doesn't detract from the fun read the novel provides. There is one point, however, where I said to myself, "Oh no, not again" when facing the trite situation where a bad person is about to shoot a good person, and the good person asks the bad person why he has embarked on his mission. Usually not one for lengthy conversations when dispatching those who get in his way, Mr. Bad Guy now decides to detail his plans. Of course you and I both know that when a Bad Guy decides to provide his victim with a speech the rules of thriller writing demand that the speechmaker be quickly done away with.

There are some corny parts at the ending, but still I enjoyed this book, and hope Ms Stabenow will decide to write another thriller. I am sure that if she decides to write one about mountain climbing she will undoubtedly climb Mt. Everest before sitting down in front of her computer to spin her tale.

The dirt bomb set in a busy market street on Pattaya Beach, Thailand killed over a hundred mostly local shopkeepers and Japanese tourists, but some were American and other nations' military. No one stepped forward to claim the act.

Just after the terrorist strike, two men calling themselves Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones meet with sea Captain Fang and maritime shipping expert Mr. Noortman. They hire the two maritime experts to deliver a special cargo to Alaska.

CIA satellite technology catches the notorious Fang and Noortman with the two men in Thailand. Concerned that they were involved with the Pattaya Beach terrorism, which may have been a test run for something greater, CIA Agent Hugh Rincon is assigned to investigate and stop any incident from reaching American shores. He quickly realizes that he might spend quality time with his wife, whom he has been with the equivalent of one year in the decade they have been married, because Sara Lange is the executive officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Sojourner Truth patrolling the Maritime Boundary Line in the northern Pacific Ocean. That is quality time trying to stop the plot of Smith and Jones targeting 240,000 civilians in Alaska.

Expanding from her wonderful Kate Shugak and Liam Campbell Alaskan mysteries, Dana Stabenow provides readers with an action-packed, fast-paced, but very plausible international thriller. The story line travels the globe until the climax off Alaska, which includes battling the nasty weather as much as a terrific sea and air maneuvers. Thriller fans will welcome Ms. Stabenow into the genre with this powerful tale that will be read in one enthralling sitting.

Harriet Klausner

A terrorist bombing in Pattaya Beach, Thailand, in October, 2004, is the prelude to this dramatic and exciting sea chase, as Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Sara Lange becomes engaged in much more dangerous activity than patrolling the Maritime Boundary Line between the US and Russia. Two brothers, known only as Smith and Jones, from Korea, have joined a Singaporean pirate named Mr. Noortman, and a Chinese pirate named Fang and have bombed Pattaya Beach as a dress rehearsal for bigger destruction. They have succeeded in obtaining cesium-137, usually used for radiation treatments in hospitals, and they plan to make a "dirty bomb" from it, firing it into Anchorage, Alaska, with its population of 240,000 people.

Lt. Cmdr. Sara Lange is married to Hugh Rincon, a high-ranking official in the CIA, though their separate careers keep them apart for most of the year. Sara is on patrol, dealing with Russian incursions into US waters, a Greenpeace vessel which plans, on its own, to drive the Russians from the fishing sanctuary, and a mounting storm which soon results in twenty-foot seas, when she learns from Hugh that a major terrorist attack is planned on Alaska. A "dirty bomb" is believed to be aboard an unknown ship near her in the Bering Sea. As the narrative alternates between the Sojourner Truth, to which Sara is assigned, and the vessel in which the four terrorists and their small army are hiding, a dramatic chess game unfolds, just as the fierce winter storm develops to hurricane force.

Author Dana Stabenow, who spent sixteen days aboard a Coast Guard cutter in the Bering Sea collecting information, fills this novel with details about Coast Guard life, giving it a verisimilitude which makes the action, behavior of the crew, and the dialogue come alive. Her insights into the problems of piracy, illegal arms sales, the impossibility of checking every container on every ship, the disregard of the Maritime Boundary Line by Russian fishing trawlers, and the complications created by well-meaning groups such as Greenpeace, give depth and high drama to the action as it unfolds.

With broader characterization than one usually finds in an action thriller, the novel also provides personal information about Sara Lange, Hugh Rincon, their friend Kyle Chase of the FBI and his wife and children, and the terrorists themselves, personalizing terrorism and the fight against it by various forces within the US government. Filled with excitement as the storm, the terrorists, and the Coast Guard all come together, the novel provides much to ponder about our vulnerability to increasingly militant terrorist cells. n Mary Whipple

One of the real pleasures in being a reader is to find a new writer that produces stories you enjoy. That happened to me with this book. This is a techno-thriller, apparently a new genre for Ms. Stabenow. I found the characters well developed, the story moving right along, the plot plausible, the technical aspects show no glaring errors.

The author states that she spent 16 days at sea with a similar Coast Guard vessel, and she seems to have spent that time wisely in learning how such a ship works. I especially liked some of the little side bits such one of the cannon on the ship not working because the Navy had been slow in supplying spare parts -- that just had the ring of truth.

My only regret is that she wrapped up this story. The characters have moved on to other things, well away from where this story takes place. I was hoping that this would be the start of a series and that I'd get to spend more time with Hugh and Sara. Their having a bit of trouble marriage, their trying to advance themselves in their own careers, they seem like nice people. Well, maybe in their new locale they can find a way to get into trouble and create another story.

Other than that, I'll just have to go to Amazon and find some of her other books -- Hmmmm, she has written three science fiction novels as well.

Gifted actress Beth McDonald has mastered almost every entertainment medium. She appeared on Broadway in the unforgettable Angels in America and A Few Good Men. She carries off roles in everything from Elizabethan drama to contemporary comedy with aplomb. TV audiences enjoy her as Dr. Lynn Michaels on As The World Turns, and her films include Mona Lisa Smile and Nights in Phnom Phen.

She tackles an audiobook with the same verve and confidence that she brings to all her roles. Her narration of this terrorist driven suspense tale is authentic and true, especially in descriptions of a sea battle in frigid, dark waters.

Edgar Award winning author Dana Stabenow has penned some 16 crime novels, many of which are set in Alaska. She returns to that area with a different twist - it all begins in Thailand where international pirates are paid to smuggle mercenaries and equipment to the coast of North America.

Back at home members of the CIA believe military equipment has been sold over the black-market in Russia. However, they don't have anything concrete. One of them, Hugh Rincon, an Alaska native, gets very close to solving the puzzle. But no one else at the CIA will buy his theory.

Hugh can put up with being ignored by his superiors but when he learns that his wife, Sarah Lane, is second in command of the Sojourner's Truth in the Bering Sea, it's a different story. That is the exact site where he believes a confrontation will take place.

With no one to stand by him Hugh realizes that he must save not only his wife but Alaska is also in peril.

Edge of your seat listening as the two ships draw close to each other.

- Gail Cooke

Dana Stabenow shows her versatility as a writer when she pens this thriller as a departure from her Alaska-based mysteries. Her book moves from location to location as we become acquainted with Hugh Rincon, who works for the FBI and shares a tenuous marriage with Sara Lange, second in command aboard a Coast Guard cutter. Their estrangement is largely due to the heavy demands of their careers which neither one will relinquish. Their personal problems become part of a larger one when terrorists set sail for the Alaskan coast. Hugh uncovers the terrorist plot and discovers that his wife's life is in danger. He makes a heroic (and rather unlikely) attempt to save Sarah, her ship, and the Alaskan coast. Not a bad day's work and not a bad read.

Dana Stabenow is well known for her mysteries. In "Blindfold Game," she branches out into a new direction.

Taking her title from the Rudyard Kipling poem, "The Destroyers," Stabenow delves into the murky world of international intrigue, terrorism and politics. But Stabenow stays within the familiar confines of the Last Frontier, for the most part, with a few side trips to Washington, D.C., the Maritime Boundary Line and some minor side trips to South Korea, Thailand and London.

It stars the CIA, the Coast Guard, environmental activists, the FBI and illicit Russian trawlers.

Three childhood friends, who grew up together in a typical Alaskan village, all go into law enforcement: Hugh Rincon is an analyst for the CIA in Langley, Va.; Sara Lange, his estranged wife, is the executive officer on the Coast Guard cutter USS Sojourner Truth patrolling the Bering Sea; and Kyle Chase is an agent for the FBI in Anchorage. Their paths have diverged since growing up--even Rincon and Lange spend most of their 10-year marriage in different places. But in "Blindfold Game," their paths cross professionally--and dangerously.

Rincon discovers someone is buying black market plutonium. It takes him a while, but he realizes the target is America--in fact, the target is Anchorage. His boss, an appointee with no desire to rock anyone's boat, doesn't believe him. That's pretty typical in a thriller plot.

Eventually, he discovers that the Sojourner Truth is the only American asset that can stop the attack, but the risks are great that Lange will not survive.

There's a lot going on in this book--international terrorists, bombings, piracy, double-and triple-crossing among the bad guys, death, dismemberment, torture, marital discord, career crises even the nature of old friendships come in for discussion. It's tiring, to be honest.

And confusing. There are some plot points that just don't make sense--the book opens with a bomb exploding in Pattaya Beach, Thailand. No one in the novel understands the significance of the target--and neither does the reader. The explanation later--that it was a test run for the bigger picture involving Anchorage--is a bit too theatrical.

The characters are well-drawn, and the reader can become emotionally involved in the outcome and their fate. They are also almost clichés in some ways: There's the guy who couldn't wait to get out of Dodge (Rincon), the girl who is torn between the land, the man and the job (Lange), and the guy who can think of no place else he'd rather raise a family (Chase).

Stabenow has her details pretty well nailed down, especially when it comes to the Coast Guard. She spent 16 days patrolling with the USCG cutter Alex Haley as research for this book, and it shows. The scenes on Sojourner Truth are sharp and clear, easy to see and become a part of.

But the rest--well, there's some work that needs to be done.

Being a thriller fan, I've probably read hundreds of this type of book, by the well-known and barely known. So it was easy for me to find a few problems with the plot itself--most of the set-up is unbelievable. It seems improbable that two people with a wish (I won't get any more specific because I don't want to ruin it for readers) to foster and implement such a grand-scale and wide-ranging conspiracy could manage it alone, and their motive is flimsy and dubious.

The set-up is long and involved, and the ending comes about way too quickly--like a snowball going downhill. Not only does it move fast, but it gets bigger and more difficult to believe with each foot.

And the ending--well, let's just say it was unfulfilling. First on the "Huh?" list is the epilogue, when the powers-that-be are discussing the incident. With seven Americans dead, including a Coast Guard captain, and 13 wounded, not to mention the foreign nationals killed during the pirating, the bombing and subsequent military actions, I think the government would have looked really hard for a money source. Maybe they did, but Stabenow leaves us with this: "We don't know yet, sir. We have some leads, which we are tracing now, and ..."

See what I mean?

The other thing that really bothered me was the fact that the terrorists were successful, in that their "dirty bomb" was detonated, and civilians died--albeit it years later--as a result. The callous (and unmentionably stupid in these days of 24/7 news) reaction of the administration seemed unrealistic as well.

And on a technical note; Stabenow needs a new editor. Not only were there numerous typos and other misspellings, but some fact-checking should have been done. When the bomb went off in Thailand, it had everyone wondering who was behind it, and the Irish Republican Army was named as a possibility. But the IRA had--before the cease-fire, anyway--as its goal to drive England out of Ireland. Bombing a restaurant in Thailand is not something that would have brought them closer to that goal. There are enough suspect organizations out there--one that is a viable threat would have been easier to swallow.

Bottom line; If you're a Stabenow fan, you'll read this because you're a Stabenow fan. If you like thrillers, you might want to wait until she's a little more seasoned in this genre.

Dana Stabenow writes forcefully about the majesty of the Alaskan wilderness. I always consider a trip every time I finish one of her stories. The passion to protect her home state and to admire and uphold the native population is as familiar to her as to her favorite brand of coffee. The characters and plot of this book are as challenging as they are engaging. I had to evaluate who had the perception of the most to gain or loose in order to figure out "who-done-it". I really enjoy participating in the climax and ending even when I am wrong.

In Thailand, two men hire a pair of international pirates to smuggle them, a small team of mercenaries, and some equipment aboard a freighter at a Russian port. It's frighteningly easy, and the ship sails east, toward the western coast of North America.

The crew onboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sojourner Truth, stationed in the Bering Sea along the Maritime Boundary Line, is busier than usual, catching fishing vessels on the wrong side of the line, but it's not enough to cause undue alarm.

In Washington, D.C., a CIA analyst has been hearing rumors about the sale of radioactive material and military equipment on the black market in deep Russia but can't get it confirmed.

The analyst, Hugh Rincon, originally from Alaska and more keenly aware than most in Washington of Alaska's vulnerability with its air force base and proximity to the Far East, begins to piece it all together. He can't get anyone to take him seriously, however, least of all the director of the CIA.

Then Hugh learns that his estranged wife, Sarah Lange, is second in command on the Sojourner Truth in the Bering Sea at the heart of the potential conflict. And the chase is on.

The first stand-alone thriller from the pen of Dana Stabenow, Edgar Award--winning author of seventeen crime novels, delivers a nail-biting, action-packed read, international in scope and frighteningly real.

Reading this tepid adventure, it is hard to remember that this is a Dana Stabenow book. Shugak and Liam and all the folks readers have come to care about in Stabenow's Land of the Midnight Sun are MIA. Alaska itself, frequently a character in her stories, doesn't appear until Chapter 3. The new cast never quite gets fleshed out enough to engage the reader, who swiftly discerns what evil is gonna come down long before Stabenow-as-wannabe LeCarre/Clancy/Cusler, gets there.

This reviewer hopes that Stabenow has this genre-jumping out of her system and returns to what she's good at. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer