Crossing the Line [Mass Market Paperback]

Clinton McKinzie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

Clinton McKinzie writes powerhouse thrillers that are like nothing you’ve ever read— novels that crackle with raw emotion and brilliantly explore the nature of risk: the risk that lovers take, adventurers seek, and men and women live with on both sides of the law. In an unforgettable new novel, set against the breathtaking Rocky Mountain landscape he has made his own, the acclaimed author of Trial by Ice and Fire brings back Special Agent Antonio Burns and his renegade brother, Roberto—two men who have chosen very different lives, now coming together to make a treacherous descent into a world of loss, betrayal, and terror.

Antonio Burns is a cop, not a saint. Having earned the scornful nickname “QuickDraw” for a shooting that went very wrong, the Wyoming narcotics agent is fighting for redemption and holding on to his family with all the strength he possesses. His brother, Roberto, is another story. His quicksilver heart, hair-trigger temper, and unquenchable hunger for adrenaline rushes have landed him prison—and make him the right person for an FBI agent with a plan. Agent Mary Chang—cool, collected, and always under control—wants to go after Hidalgo, a murderous drug lord who has moved his operation from Mexico to a Wyoming canyon. In Roberto, Chang has found someone who can penetrate Hildago’s heavily guarded crime ranch. And she has found a man who can quickly take her to her own wild side.

Now, while Mary and his brother watch over him, Roberto goes to work for Hidalgo for the promise of a free pass from prison. But Roberto can’t stay withany script for long, and soon starts making up the game as he goes along. With Antonio sure that his brother is taking the ultimate death trip, and Chang guarding a secret of her own, the perfect plan starts to veer wildly off course. And no one is prepared for the dark forces that are about to engulf them—or the final betrayal that will send them to the dizzying heights and abysmal depths of love and loss. A novel that plunges like a knife, Crossing the Line is vintage McKinzie: brilliant, breathless, and utterly impossible to put down.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Antonio "Ant" Burns, special agent with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, is back with his trusty wolf-dog Mungo, rusty Land Cruiser the Iron Pig and berserker brother Roberto in the fourth installment of this adrenaline-juiced mountaineering, crime-busting series (The Edge of Justice; Trial by Ice and Fire; Point of Law). Roberto, a dope addict, is on the lam when he is taken into custody by two FBI agents, the beautiful Mary Chang and the overbearing Tom Cochran. These two are planning to use Roberto to get the goods on Mexicali drug lord Jesus Hidalgo. After a tough turf war with rival gangs in Mexico, Hidalgo has moved to Wyoming, where he intends to set up a meth lab deep in an abandoned potash mine. Antonio is a straight shooter, both physically and morally—"That was why I'd become a cop. To enforce the rule of law"—and he joins the Feds, tracking Hidalgo down and sending in Roberto, who once rescued novice climber Hidalgo off a mountainside. Roberto's job is to get enough evidence to persuade a judge to issue a warrant for Hidalgo's arrest. The recalcitrant judge hampers the team's efforts and puts Roberto in grave danger, forcing Antonio to charge in and attempt a rescue. Antonio spends too much time agonizing over his relationship with the law, his crazy brother, his boss, the Feds and his pregnant girlfriend, but when the Burns brothers are high up on a rock face or hunting down evil banditos, the pace and intensity shoot skyward. Readers will find themselves hanging on by their fingernails as they wait to see who will fall and who will live to climb again.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A very good thriller: the series best so far."
--Kirkus Reviews


From the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Dell (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440240816
• ISBN-13: 978-0440240815
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 1 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,289,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars deserves 10 stars!!, November 8, 2004

By 

lusty22 "avid reader" (VT United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crossing the Line (Hardcover)

This book was SOOOO Awesome. Why there are only three reviews so far I do not know. I have read every book in this series and I have to say it is the best series I have ever read besides Patricia Cornwall's Kay series. I love Antonio Burns and in this book, I got to love his brother Roberto also. We were introduced to Roberto in previous books, but never got to know him well until this installment. This book was probably the best in the series, but they are all amazing. I will read this series again and again, and this is a book worth owning at hardcover price. The author is so talented in his writing that it blows you away. He makes everything so real and exciting that all you can do is read until the end and be disappointed that the thrill is over. This is one of those rare books that I became so involved in, not only the storyline, but the characters who are so well developed, that when I had to put it down to do something in "real" life I was in a fog and disoriented because my life had become Antonio Burn's life. I could not think of anything except getting back to the book. I can't wait until his next one. This story was more emotional than his others and it had me crying more than once and even laughing. I ADORED it. You will not be disappointed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Story of Passion, Betrayal, Trust and Ever-Present Danger, May 2, 2004

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crossing the Line (Hardcover)

I know a family with two adult children, a boy and a girl, separated by only a couple of years. The parents have been married for 50-plus years, and have no substance abuse problems. Everyone was raised on Donna Reed and Ozzie and Harriet. The daughter is a sweetheart, married with a couple of ankle biters of her own, a midlevel executive in a mid-sized company. However, the son has been a piece of work since he was two years old. When he was four, he deliberately broke my favorite toy. He continued on a path of self-destruction, thievery and embezzlement --- you name it, he has done, and is doing, it to this very day. Siblings --- same heredity, same environment. One cake rises, the other goes flat. Why?

Clinton McKinzie has been sort of exploring that same territory with the Burns Brothers, Antonio and Roberto. Antonio is a Special Agent for the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation, while his brother Roberto has been what might be generously referred to as a renegade, assisting drug mules during dangerous desert transport and happily sampling their wares, always in search of the next artificial rush. The brothers, notwithstanding their differences, are close, sharing a passion that borders on a pathology for climbing. Indeed, the act of climbing is a metaphor that is infused throughout McKinzie's latest novel, a herald of passion, betrayal, trust, cooperation and ever-present danger.

CROSSING THE LINE begins with Antonio Burns on the threshold of some resolution of a number of personal issues. He is in a stable if somewhat uneasy relationship with Rebecca, his intended; he still has his badge and position, even if he is walking on tenterhooks; and his beloved brother Antonio appears to be on the verge of completing a deal that will get him out from under some troubles with the law. All Roberto has to do is help the FBI take down a drug dealer named Jesus Hidalgo, a murderous kingpin who is hiding in plain sight at a fortress-like ranch in the mountains of Wyoming. To do this, he must infiltrate Hidalgo's compound and gather evidence against him.

Roberto, it seems, saved Hidalgo's life during a rock climb several years previously, and the murderous drug dealer in a twisted way regards Roberto as a friend. While Roberto's end of the deal isn't exactly a cakewalk, it doesn't seem to be impossible. In return, Roberto will be granted leniency with respect to several criminal charges that are outstanding against him, do his time in a minimum care facility with an exercise room and a salad bar, and receive some federally sponsored drug rehabilitation treatment.

The Feebs bring Antonio in to help them keep an eye on Roberto. But from the beginning, the setup looks like ... a setup. The FBI agents, a young woman named Mary Chang and a veteran with a mad-on named Tom Cochran, are at odds with the Burns Brothers and each other almost from the gitgo. Also, it turns out that they have a program of their own. When things go sideways for Roberto, Antonio takes matters into his own hands --- unaware that he is doing exactly what was expected of him.

McKinzie does a fine job here of delineating the characters of Roberto and Antonio. While they function on opposite sides of the law, Antonio has a wild, uncontrolled side to him that has earned him --- unjustly --- the unfortunate nickname of "QuickDraw," while there is a fierce but subdued nobility within Roberto. McKinzie leaves a number of significant issues hanging at the conclusion of CROSSING THE LINE, an indication that another novel concerning the Burns Family will be in the offing. Considering the tension that infuses CROSSING THE LINE from beginning to end, McKinzie's next installment will have a built-in audience.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't Wait To Read The Next Installment!, July 11, 2005

By 

G. H. Giroux "Eccentric Writer" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crossing the Line (Hardcover)

Although I don't quite get the rock-climbing mystique, the two (anti-)heroes of the book, Antonio & Roberto Burns, are interesting enough to want to read more. The plots are essentially incidental to the relationship between these two polar-opposite brothers and their relationships with the law and justice. Although it is Antonio who is the de facto 'hero' of these books, it is his unpredictable, out-of-control, wildman brother who is the more fascinating character. I rated this book with 4 stars instead of 5 because of what happens to Roberto at the end, a fate far too extreme and unfair for the character I've come to appreciate. I can only hope that in "Badwater," the next installment, some of the horror visited on him can be reversed or mitigated so that he participates fully as a well-drawn and compelling character.

NOTE: I couldn't wait for months for Badwater to come down in price and ordered it full price from Amazon: the only book I've ever done so with, and for the reason that it begs to be read NOW! :)