The Cutout [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Francine Mathews (Author), Trini Alvarado (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2001

Four cassettes, 6 hrs.

Cut-out: A third person used to conceal the contact between two people-usually an agent and a handler who do not want to meet because one or both may be under surveillance. A pawn.

As thousands watch, the American Vice President is kidnapped from the streets of Berlin, and in the midst of the fire and terror, a dead man comes back to life.

Eric Carmichael was a risk-taking CIA agent obsessed with a terrorist organization called 30th April- until they got him first, bombing the jetliner on whih he was a passenger. Caroline was once Eric's protegee. She became his wife, and then his widow. but whe the tapes of the VP's abduction show Eric alive, it is Carline who must discover whether his obsession has driven him into playing the ultimate double game. Caught in the intricate snare of lies and deceit, she is plunged into the deadliest assignment of her career-becoming the perfect cutout to spearhead the desperate search for Eric and the dying Vice President. And, in doing so, she begins an ever-more intimate dance of sexual attraction and murdeous intent, a dance which leads her to the dark heart of a ruthless man's vision- and a deadly plot whose implications are stunning.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Former CIA-analyst-turned-author Francine Mathews delivers the goods in this page-turning debut of a husband-and-wife agent team involved in a terrorist plot, one that results in the kidnapping of the American vice president and a threat to destabilize the entire European continent. Caroline Carmichael's husband, Eric, died when the terrorist group known as 30 April blew up a plane full of innocent travelers. Two years later a massive explosion in Germany's new capital city results in the capture of U.S. vice president Sophie Payne. A man who looks suspiciously like Eric is photographed leading the kidnappers. Caroline's colleagues in the intelligence community set her up to be the so-called cutout: the pawn whose invisible presence will conceal the risky contact between a man who may be a rogue agent and the handler who set him on his bloody path. Fans of the spy genre who've been languishing in the literary wasteland created by the death of the Evil Empire will be delighted with Mathews's nail-biting narrative, great pacing, and ability to create complex, multidimensional characters in this novel of revenge, betrayal, and global politics. Her secondary characters, especially Sophie Payne and the conflicted young son of the psychopath--who will sacrifice anyone who stands in his way, including his own child--are very well-drawn. But it's Caroline we hope to see again in a sequel to this suspenseful thriller. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The kidnapping of the U.S. vice-president, Sophie Payne, sets off a firestorm of CIA intelligence and rescue activity in this first espionage thriller by Mathews, the popular author of the Merry Folger mystery series. After making a controversial speech in Berlin, Payne is abducted by a fringe terrorist group known as 30 April. For CIA operative and protagonist Caroline Carmichael, the kidnapping becomes more complicated when her husband (and associate), Eric, is spotted in the video footage of the abduction, leading her boss to think that he may have turned traitor on his CIA colleagues. Carmichael is chosen to head up the clandestine rescue operation because of her knowledge of the terrorist leader, but the time window for Payne's rescue is reduced considerably when her captors inject the v-p with a deadly anthrax strain. Carmichael sprints to Budapest and then Bosnia, all the while trying to balance her love for her husband with her knowledge of his duplicitous and often deadly tactics. Mathews, a former CIA intelligence analyst, keeps the action moving at a sprightly pace, and her presentation of espionage and CIA tactics is impeccable. But the secondary characters from Eastern Europe are a faceless bunch, and the author focuses so intently on the espionage activity that she ignores the reaction of the world at large to the kidnapping, although she does toss in an intriguing subplot dealing with the possible involvement of the German chancellor in the crime. Mathews makes up for these small flaws by avoiding an obvious formula ending, allowing the final riveting rescue attempt in an abandoned underground concentration camp to end on an unlikely note. It remains to be seen whether Merry Folger readers will make the genre leap with Mathews, but fans of spy thrillers should be alerted to this promising debut. Major ad/promo. (Jan. 30)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (January 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553527975
• ISBN-13: 978-0553527971
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,142,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Francine Mathews, who also writes as Stephanie Barron, is the author of twenty novels of mystery, history, and suspense. A graduate of Princeton and Stanford, she spent four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA, and presently lives and works in Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The strenght is the central dilemma of Caroline, February 22, 2001

By 

Ethan Kline (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cutout (Hardcover)

What I liked best about the book was the dilemma the main character found herself in. In most thrillers the central character is either charged with the task of find the villain or has been wronged so they have a personal grudge. What the author has done so well here is to create a central character that, for reasons that I won't mention as it will ruin the plot, is extremely conflicted about finding out the truth. I think this creates a much more real character with conflicting motivations which makes the plot that much more interesting.

She also gives you a lens to view the problems in the Balkans that is, even though it is fiction, probably much more accurate and in depth then the one you get through the media.

Lastly, it is a real page-turner. And those are really rare.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional, surprising, and smart as hell., March 5, 2001

By 

"d5994" (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cutout (Hardcover)

Francine Mathews, take a bow. THE CUTOUT is a fierce and dynamic thriller that posits a truly chilling "What if?" beginning and carries us through some hairpin twists and turns.

What I really appreciated even more than the inventive plot, however, was the character of Caroline, who got me in the gut. Everything she did seemed right, everything she felt I understood, and I wanted to spend a whole lot more time with her when this book was done - I can't think of higher praise than that.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relentless Suspense...I couldn't put it down!, March 2, 2001

By 

Christine "loves to read" (Setauket, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cutout (Hardcover)

While giving a controversial speech in Berlin, the Vice President of the United States is kidnapped by a known group of neo-nazi terrorists. What is surprising and shocking to CIA analyst Caroline Carmichael is that one of the extremists appears to be her dead husband, also a CIA agent, who was supposedly killed years ago in a plane crash.

The Cutout is drenched with international intrigue, espionage, biological terrorism, vivid details of what it is like to work inside the CIA (thanks to the author's real-life work experience as an analyst), maps of eastern and central Europe (as to not lose the reader geographically), and marvelous psychological suspense.

Francine Mathews clearly knows her stuff and she does a terrific job of leading us through the maze of espionage activities from the vantage point of one who has worked in this arena, without losing our interest. Actually, the only thing I lost while reading this book was about 6 hours of sleep!

Well worth it, I might add.

Highly recommended.

Cris