127 of 139 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Suspense filled story of deception and love entangled together, March 18, 2008
I have now read both of Andrew Gross's books, The Blue Zone and The Dark Tide. I am convinced he is here to stay among today's top authors of suspense fiction that has just enough facts to keep your brain thinking and wanting more. His characters and locations are very well described and the stories well scripted.
Karen Friedman has a happy family consisting of her loving (or so she thought), husband, two children, Samantha and Alex, and family pet dog Tobey. Husband Charles is a highly successful investment banker who was thought of also being so by his associates in his business, and in giving his family a very nice life. The kids were into sports and Karen was always there with her support and Charles when he could make it. The neighbors of their upscale neighborhood thought very highly of the entire family
All of the above was true for many years of their marriage until Charles was in a commuter train bombing in Grand Central Station. This threw the family, the company Charles worked for, and their friends into deep sorrow. That is except for the ones involved in the money laundering schemes that Charles had been performing for many years, all of which his family knew nothing about. Many felt they had been swindled through Charles' actions and they wanted their securities and money back!
Lieutenant Ty Hauck of the Greenwich Police Department was a local hero from high school and college and had worked his way up in the department. He was highly thought of and worked on some tough cases. Ty became involved in the death of Charles Friedman when it became apparent that the hit and run of a young man was somehow tied into Charles disappearance. At first Karen's worry was that Charles was buried in the rubble of one of the still burning train cars. Her mind wondered all over the place until some identification was found that led the authorities to believe that Charles had been in the destruction and was dead.
Time went on without any sign of Charles body and no word from him to anyone. Karen and the remaining family went through hard times trying to invent a new life. Eventually a detective came to the Friedman's house to ask Karen some questions unrelated to the bombing. The detective happened to be Ty Hauck and the purpose of his visit was to see if the family knew the man that had been killed in the hit and run that had taken place at about the same time and near where the bombing occurred. The family did not know of the man but Karen and Hauck seemed to hit it off personally noticing each other from the beginning. The killings increased, some seemingly related and some not, so more authorities became involved.
One part of the investigation led to another until Hauck was delving too deep for some apparently involved in the deep-rooted problems Charles had created. Hauck was led to other parts of the world and back again as he continued to find clues to the work and people that Charles had worked for and against. One of the men Charles had worked with and had been a good friend of Karen's, Saul Lennick, was in contact with Karen telling her that he would do all he could to assist her and also he pumped information out of Karen regarding all the things she has researched.
Going any farther would give too much of the authors many great plots and storylines away. The Dark Tide was extremely hard to put down. You must read this book. Take my word that it is a non-stop action filled story with lots of adventure, shrewd dealings, love and sex, trips to tropical islands, and much more. As I said at the beginning of this review, I truly hope Andrew Gross continues for many years to give us great stories such as his first two have been.
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97 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
worth what I paid, April 7, 2010
I got this book free for my kindle and it was worth it. Karen is a woman with caramel, honey, auburn hair and hardened ,sharp brown, hazel eyes who lives in a fancy Greenwich house with two teen-age kids who fight over a shared bathroom. When her husband is supposedly killed in a bomb blast ,and nothing is found but his briefcase handle, she has no problem getting a death certificate and collecting 4 million dollars. When she meets detective Houck he has his 10 year old daughter on his shoulders. Two months later the daughter is thirteen and too stupid to flip a burning pancake.Houck falls asleep watching a house and when he wakes it's light so he gets his flashlight to do some B & E. The suspect is an ex-cop and professional security alarm installer but Houck has no trouble finding the breaker on a bush. Fortunately there is no battery back-up on the alarm system and he has no trouble running the computer and printer without electricity. And LORDY! all the physical side effects of the emotions! Eyes screw, drill, snap to the page like a magnet (shades of wiley coyote). Heads explode. hearts crash, blood explodes out of the veins, legs turn to jelly. guts feel like they've had a wire dragged through them, arm hairs tingle and stand on edge. One more "wink" from either a bad guy or good guy and I would have bounced the kindle off the wall. Any high school kid, with a proper outline and time-line, could have done a better job.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
May not be able to finish, March 27, 2010
Yikes, I downloaded this title to my Kindle for free. You get what you pay for. This may be one of the few books that are so bad I may not be able to finish it. Other reviewers keep saying there's a good story line in there somewhere. I don't know yet; trying to read this book is strenuous. I keep having to reread sentences to figure out what the author is trying to say. Some reviewers are blaming the proofreader or editor. I blame the publisher; never should have let this one go out the door.
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