The Color of Night [Large Print] [Hardcover]

David L. Lindsey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999

Former intelligence officer Harry Strand learns that a secret agent can never retire--and never surrender. A widower, he has started his life over and fallen in love with Mara Song, a beautiful Asian art collector. But Harry's peaceful world is shattered when he discovers a shocking videotape of his wife's death in Mara's tape collection.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

An engrossing thriller about autumnal Cold Warriors. Harry Strand, erstwhile super spy, has been in from the cold for five solid years. The art dealer's world, once his cover, is now his reality. Though still in a kind of half mourning for his wifekilled 11 months earlier in an automobile collisionhe is reasonably content, at least as content as melancholy Harry ever expects to be. His routines, his business, and his select company of friends solace and comfort him so that, in all, its a manageable life. But enter Mara Song, a gorgeous Chinese- American divorce with a collection of valuable drawings she wants him to sell for her. Before he knows it, Harry is head over heels. But just who is this remarkably attractive person? Is she at all who she purports to be? The question intensifies when Harry finds a certain shocking videocassette in her room detailing an auto smash-up, the very one that cost him his wife. And, clearly, what Harry had always supposed was an accident was anything but. Harry, though, convinces himself that Mara is true-blue and the cassette a plant. And almost instantly, he realizes who must have planted it. The implications are disruptive and scary: a deadly secret, which hed long felt was safely buried, has been disinterred by a powerful enemy whos no longer a sleeping dog. Once duped by Harry, he now seeks retributionon Harry and on the group of intelligence agents Harry once ran. What it comes down to, Harry grimly decides as one former ally after another is isolated and brutally dealt with, is kill or be killed. Lindsey (Requiem For a Glass Heart, 1996, etc.) is in that army of thriller writers who are regularly measured against le Carr. And hes one of the few who consistently bears up. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

After beginning his writing career in 1983 with the publication of two mystery novels in the same year, David Lindsey's tenth suspense novel, The Color of Night, was published by Warner books in April 1999. In the early years of Lindsey's writing career he published five psychological mystery novels featuring Houston homicide detective Stuart Haydon. In 1990 Lindsey began featuring protagonists other than Haydon, including a Latina homicide detective named Carmen Palma in the critically acclaimed Mercy, and Irina Ismaylova (a Russian assassin) and Cate Cuevas (an FBI undercover agent) in 1996's Requiem for a Glass Heart. As Lindsey's popularity has grown so has his international reputation. His books are now translated into 17 languages and in 1992 Body of Truth, set in Houston and Guatemala, won Germany's Bochumer Krimi Archiv award for the best suspense novel of the year. Lindsey's novels have also attracted the attention of Hollywood. Mercy completed filming in late 1998 and will be released as a feature film in 1999, and the several of the Stuart Haydon novels are currently in option negotiation. Lindsey grew up in the ranch country and oil fields of west Texas, studied English literature in university, and was an editor for many years with small publishers in Texas. He lives in Austin with his wife. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 641 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786219955
• ISBN-13: 978-0786219957
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,206,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Lindsey has published 14 novels in the mystery, thriller, suspense, and spy genres. He began his writing career in 1983 by publishing two mystery novels in the same year. One of those novels, "A Cold Mind" featuring Houston homicide detective, Stuart Haydon, has been called by reviewers "one of the best suspense novels of all time"; and "a classic of the genre." Lindsey began working closely with the Houston Homicide Division for his research, and by the late 1980s Lindsey had written four Haydon novels.

In 1988 he changed directions and began extensive research for a novel that would become one of the first to be published about a then new criminal phenomenon, the serial killer. Published in 1990, "Mercy" became an international bestseller. In 1992 the German television network Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), featured Lindsey in an hour-long special program in their "Literature and Culture" series. "Mercy" was optioned for a feature film production, and remained under option for over a decade before it was finally filmed and premiered on HBO in April 2000.

In 1992 "Body of Truth", the fifth and last novel to feature Stuart Haydon, was published and won Germany's Bochumer Krimi Archiv award for the best suspense novel of the year. Lindsey turned to international settings with "Requiem for a Glass Heart" (1996) and "The Color of Night" (1999). The first novel dealt with international crime, while the second was set in the world of spies and international intelligence. "The Rules of Silence", Lindsey's twelfth novel was published in 2003, and was the first to be set in his home city, Austin. It was immediately bought outright by Universal Studios for a feature film production.

After publishing his thirteenth novel, Lindsey spent the next several years pursuing two large teleplay projects before his curiosity brought him back to novels in 2007. He began researching the astonishing rise of the government's outsourcing of national intelligence. Silently, and out of sight, privatized spying had become a multi-billion dollar industry in the years following 9/11. The industry's growth has been so explosive that private contractors now command over 70% of the nation's entire intelligence budget. Some of the corporations have become information industry giants with government contracts in the billions of dollars annually.

Lindsey thought this subject was tailor-made for long form fiction, but he soon realized that the story he wanted to tell was too large to be encompassed in a single volume. In 2011 Lindsey, writing under the pseudonym Paul Harper, published "Pacific Heights", the first volume in a serial novel featuring former intelligence officer Marten Fane. "Sorrow's Spy", the second volume in the Marten Fane Story serial novel will be published in 2012.

Lindsey researches and writes his novels in his library, which is adjacent to his home in Austin, Texas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite writing, especially if you are an artist, February 27, 2000

By 

martha woodworth - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Color of Night (Hardcover)

As both a writer and artist, I was taken with this exquisitely-drawn - and I do mean "drawn" - novel. It is like a perfectly beautiful colored drawing, sometimes black and white, in brush and inks, just like the works of art Lindsey writes about with obvious knowledge of his subject.

You just saw everything so vividly. I particularly appreciated the mouthwatering European travelog, the descriptions of scenes, restaurants, food, hotels - visited by the rich and famous.

There is a flaw in this book that keeps it from being a great, however. (Sorry if it bothers some amazon review readers, but I often give five stars to a book for having entertained me thoroughly, and this one did). It is this: every truly great book is laced with wit. Read the grimmest novels, say, by Dostoevsky, Dickens or Tolstoy, and even and even some of the best contemporary detective and mystery writers and you will be chuckling, laughing, amused. "The Color Of Night" would have benefited had Lindsey given us a few wry touches here and there. He was too dead serious, which sometimes lent it a slightly precious tone. Of course, "precious" can be hilarious, and he might have capitalized on some of his foppish characters, but I found this novel too stolid.

Another flaw: like some of the beautiful drawings one sees, the perfect, deft creations of the greatest artists, there is a coldness about the book itself. If I didn't know otherwise, I would have guessed that the author wrote the whole book with a quill pen and ink. I can see him thinking, dipping, scribing, again and again, with a dispassionate hand - and heart. Not exactly an insult, but sometimes I like a feeling (and the word 'feeling' is exactly the word I meant to use) that the work is coming from the artist's gut. Like Van Gogh, for example, who wasn't afraid to make a mess.

Nevertheless, despite these flaws, "The Color Of Night" is a fun book to read and Hollywood would be crazy not to make it into a movie. Clint Eastwood as Harry? This time, clean, of course. Harry Strand is a morally upright man, despite his years of spying and his (acceptable) thievery. I'm glad he lived to "watch" Mara cross the street.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Decent, Exciting Read, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Color of Night (Hardcover)

I read Color of Night, because it sounded interesting (though I don't usually like spy novels). I am still glad I read it, but my opinions are mixed. Lindsey's treatment of action was superb - I really almost felt the anxiety of the characters as they executed their plans. But the book was quite a bit longer than it needed to be, and only a few characters did I really like (or care about). Attention to detail was good, and the various European locales were refreshing. All and all, while the story could have been better, it was still a decent and thrilling read for me, and I may well read more of this author's works.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars very disappointing.lindsey should return to his texas roots., May 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Color of Night (Audio Cassette)

i have been an avid reader of lindsey since heat from another sun. a cold mind was superb and the dark underbelly of guatamala city in body of truth made for good social commentary as well as a nicely constucted thriller.Lindsey is now out of his milieu. obviously took a first cabin trip to europe on the proceeds of his earlier works. a conde nast guide to europe is no substitute for a convincing plot and real characters. i also have to say the three stooges look alike serbs were quite ridiculous. Mr lindsey should return to Houston immediately and base his next novel between bogota and oklahoma city. there is enough things going on in Tia Juana for 3 major novels. San Antonio would be a interesting study as i am sure Mr Lindsey knows full well.