Customer Reviews

By Dawn's Early Light: A Novel

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Thrillers don't get much more intense than this one. Sloane Ryder is a New York financial analyst. She stumbles across dirty financial dealing in a major corporation and is fired and blacklisted for reporting it to the SEC. She despairs of finding a job, but is noticed and hired by a secret division of the General Accounting Office. It has detected some disturbing happenings involving the Chinese and high officials in the US government. Soon, with the help of Secret Servicewomen, Holland Tylo and Hollis Fremont, whom Shelby readers will recognize from previous books, an incredible plot emerges. The Chinese government intends to kill the American president and use the confusion as cover to conquer Taiwan. But as Sloane's unit closes in on the American traitors, the Handyman, a professional assassin hired by the Chinese, murders them. The action moves ever-faster to a breathtaking climax. This is a genuine thriller. I usually can put any book aside, no matter how thrilling, until I have time to read again, but I couldn't stop reading this one. Shelby has given us a first-rate story.

I liked the plot and the use of female characters in roles normally associated with men but found myself wanting several things...I've missed a few earlier books, reading them would help establish who's who and what. The Handyman seems both a little too good (in hits and escapes) and yet being so good manages to make some awful mistakes. I found some of the other "bad guy" characters to be much more believeable, Dodge Fench and his unnamed band of profit seeking no matter what types are just so much like what some people really are like. I won't go into details to avooid spoiling the story too much but the Chinese attempt on the President is very good (the weapon delivery is better than the weapon itself) as is her response to their actions concerning Taiwan. One last note, the story seems to be set after the term(s) of the current President Bush yet President Ballantine refers to December 7 1941 as being 58 years ago.

The Handyman crosses borders and oceans with little difficulty and seldom, if ever, leaves behind any witnesses. He has been hired to facilitate a plan to assassinate the first female president of the United States. The story opens with his trip to an orphanage in North Korea to select a child to be used as a human bomb. It moves to New York to Sloan Ryder, a super smart trader who discovers an insider-trading scheme. When she blows the whistle on her boss, she sets in motion a sequence of events that eventually uncover the plot to kill the president and lead her to the attention of the Handyman.

The suspense is exciting, and the books moves through a series of unexpected plots. ...AND the coverup that takes place could just as well be a new job for some actual character in Washington today.

It's a great read...a hard one to put down until the end which makes way for the next book. Hope it comes along soon.

An employee in an investmant house discover a shady investment
by her boss.She turns him into the SEC and a full blown scandal
erupts.Her boss is payed a visit by the villian in the Gatekeeper
the Handyman and commits suicide.There is even a deeper scandal
involving prominent and powerful figures in the power elite of the government. Sloane Ryder,the investment house employee is
hired by the GAO after being blackballed by Wall Street.She
discovers the scandal and begins an investigation.She discovers a
conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States(the
widow of the Presidential contendor in Gatekeeper).Ryder is in for the fight of her life trying to expose the scandal and stop
the assassination plans of the Handyman.An exciting read.You will
enjoy this book.

Philip Sheby delivers once again and this may be his best yet! It is simply a page turning read with well drawn characters, a fascinating story and enough twists and turns to keep one's interest up until the last page. Don't let this one stay on the shelf!

The Handyman, who we last saw in THE GATEKEEPER, returns and he is trying to kill the President of the United States by using a Korean orphan as the weapon. The President of the United States is interfering with the plans of several government insiders and they want her stopped.

Shelby introduces a new character named Sloane Ryder. She is a whistleblower who broke a fraud scheme within her former company but later was hired by the GAO to work as a regulator. It is in her position within the agency that she starts to uncover a conspiracy involving the Chinese government.

The story does not end properly with this novel. It seem the story will continue in Shelby's next novel. This might disappoint some people, others might not care. My main problem with the novel was that I thought the conspiracy and the assasination attempt came up a bit too easily. Once they find some evidence, something happens to nullify it.

Ms. Ryder saves the day several times and as a civilian she makes law enforcement seem inept. She finds the clues quicker than the police and she does a better job of defending herself than the Secret Service. She gets to see the face of the Handyman up close and personal. Now there are two women who know who he is (the first being GATEKEEPER's Hollis Freemont, who has a short and unsatisfying role in the novel) they will probably team up and try to bring him down in the future. Only time will tell.

The Handyman is one of the top four assassins in the world. He recently was hired to kill the first female President of the United States, who insists that the world recognize Taiwan's sovereignty. The Handyman plans to use a North Korean orphan (number 1818) as the instrument of the President's destruction at a Thanksgiving party where the attendees include one hundred and thirty children suffering from AIDS.

Sloane Ryder is a fierce believer in justice as evidence by the fact that she blew the whistle on her boss whom performed insider-trading fraud with a choice firm on the mainland. She is recruited to work in M6-11 a covert group within the General Accounting Office. She inadvertently finds a traitor who has ties to somebody high up in the government as well as with the Handyman. As she and others begin to investigate this seditious conspiracy, Sloane and the assassins are on a collision course with destiny.

BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT is an exciting political thrillers with more twists, turns and hairpin S curves than the most exhilarating roller coaster. After the events of September 11, Phillip Shelby's latest potboiler seems very conceivable as the tale relies on technologies that already exist. This makes for a very plausible plot.

Harriet Klausner

This was one of the better books I have read lately. In no other novel have I been so excited to find out how it all would end. The characters were intense and believeable. The setting of the book was also very interesting. Political thrillers that give an in-depth look at the workings of the highest levels of government positions are fun to read and make you want to join up! A fabulous book!

Shelby has done it again. First rate material. I could not put this down even in lieu of sleep. I had to get to the end to discover just how it all worked out with Sloane Ryder and the Handyman. Sloane Ryder is a very believable character. Enjoy this, but don't let it be your only Shelby read. Picked up Days of Drums in an airport somewhere in 98. Have been a committed Shelby reader since. Take the time to read them all Days of Drums, Last Rights, Gatekeeper

Great read, spies, intrigue, and some good tradecraft, and then some