Breaking Faith [Hardcover]

Maynard F. Thomson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

The theft of vital technological information could spell disaster for Zoltec Industries, the world's only producer of high-powered-microprocessor computer chips. Enter tough, smart private detective Nason Nichols, who--joined by Zoltec's top scientist, Dr. Rachel Ornstein--races across New England to disentangle a web of intrigue, deception, scams and blackmail.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Boston PI Nason Nichols (Trade Secrets) gets a hard lesson in urban politics after the murder of a much-admired black college student during a police sweep in the youth's neighborhood. Recruited by an old friend to help a mayoral commission investigate allegations of police brutality against blacks, Nase begins to fear the probe is a sham to vindicate popular police commissioner Francis X. "Dapper" Flanagan. The commission seems stacked with members ready to do Mayor Conor O'Conor's bidding: the chairman is a venerated but perhaps doddering figurehead, and the chief investigator is the mayor's niece, blind prosecutor Peggy Kiernan. Even an activist critic, the Reverend Theophilus James, has changed his anti-police tune. Nase, digging deep, learns that a cop had been on the trail of the young student, who was not as exemplary as he seemed. With a sure grip on Boston's patois and politics, Thomson adeptly demonstrates how effectively political and financial interests can muster the power to steamroll even a high-profile murder case. While this brew may not have quite the depth of a George V. Higgins tale, it still delivers especially good scenes of pols and their pals on the make.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Murder is only the beginning of an endless chain of malfeasance in this bare-knuckled rondelet of Boston politics. It all begins when the cops fish Roxbury Yalie Purnell Whitmore out of a dumpster en route to Rev. Theophilus James's African Apostolic Temple of Glory. Police brutality! shrieks James when he hears that a white cop was seen entering the fatal alley with the scholar-athlete. Under pressure from the black community and the liberal Boston Hub, Hizzoner Conor O'Conor suspends Police Commissioner Francis X. Flanagan, architect of the ``Blue Tornado'' crackdown that's already divided the city, and appoints a blue-ribbon commission to look into Flanagan's reign. The hilariously ``balanced'' commission includes whiners and editorialists of every predictable sort, from Rev. James to the Mayor's blind niece, crack prosecutor Peggy Kiernan--and one wild card, snappy, well-connected private eye Nason Nichols (Trade Secrets, 1993). By the time he finds the hapless cop and turns him over to his avid colleagues--an arrest that leads at length to riots instead of a well-behaved denouement--Nase will be well on his way to getting the dirt on every shyster, developer, demagogue, and fellow blue-ribboner in town. He'll also have found out, incidentally, that Purnell Whitmore was not exactly the paragon he seemed. Scoundrels of every stripe are intent on turning every possible social interaction into a greedy sellout--yet Thomson's expert carpentry allows each delectable double-cross its full weight before proceeding to the next. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Atria (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671749005
• ISBN-13: 978-0671749002
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,167,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly modern political morality tale set in Boston, December 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Breaking Faith (Paperback)

If contemporary American urban politics can be mundane and boring, it can also be the setting for compelling fiction, especially when Boston is the setting. In Boston as in Chicago, politics is a contact sport. Maynard Thomson has an excellent eye and ear for this sport, and "Breaking Faith", which involves cops, detectives, Irish pols, and an African-American preacher, reads true. Also included are some central-casting types (suburban liberals. urban firebrands) but Nason ("call me Nase") Nichols, the narrator/private eye, is the main man. It's a terrific read with a not-too-obvious ending that is revealed only in the last few pages.