Detour: A Novel [Hardcover]

James Siegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2005

DESCRIPTION: From the bestselling author of Derailed comes the adrenaline-charged story of one man who must be-tray everything he believes in to save his family. Paul and Joanna desperately want to have children, but their failure to conceive almost ends their marriage. Instead, they decide to adopt and arrange a trip to Colombia to bring home a baby girl. Joelle is everything they've hoped for. To help them ease into parenthood, a nanny has been sent. When they return one night, they discover to their horror that the baby waiting for them isn't Joelle. Suddenly, they're taken prisoner and handed an ultimatum: Either Paul transports millions in cocaine to a location in the US within l8 hours, or his wife and daughter will be killed. The decision seems obvious--yet the outcome will be anything but.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Siegel's acclaimed debut, 2001's Epitaph, was eclipsed by last year's electrifying thriller Derailed (to be a feature film starring Jennifer Aniston), which reached bestseller lists and marked Siegel as an author with serious chops. It's no surprise that Siegel's third novel offers yet another exhilarating ride, albeit not quite up to the bar set by Derailed. The premise is terrific. Paul and Joanna Breibard, childless Manhattan professionals, travel to Colombia to adopt a baby, but are kidnapped by left-wing militia who make an offer they can't refuse: Paul must swallow 36 condoms stuffed with cocaine and deliver the contraband to a contact in New Jersey within 18 hours; if he fails, Joanna and the baby will die. But in New Jersey, Paul finds a burned-out shell of a house at the contact's address. For help, he contacts Miles Goldstein, the Orthodox Jewish lawyer who arranged the adoption, and when a further delivery attempt ends in gunplay, Paul and Miles turn to Moshe Skolnick, a Russian mobster; later, a DEA agent steps in. Meanwhile, Joanna is held hostage in a country house whose walls are stained with blood. Siegel keeps tension at a steady high throughout, in part by employing short chapters and paragraphs à la James Patterson. He makes great use of local color, not only of the easily exotic Colombian settings but also of the no less unusual Brooklyn Jewish and Russian enclaves where Paul finds himself. The novel features some smart twists, although a key one will be spotted by veteran thriller readers from the first page of its setup. Overall, this is first-rate entertainment, not quite as fresh as Derailed, but sure to brush bestseller lists as well as become a favorite airplane read both in hardcover and, eventually, mass market.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

After five years of unsuccessful fertility treatments, Joanna and Paul Breidbart fly to South America to adopt a baby girl; after spending less than a day there, however, Paul is convinced that Colombia "wasn't Third World as much as fourth dimension." Then things go seriously wrong. Their Colombian nurse and chauffeur, provided by the adoption agency, kidnap the couple and their baby and deliver them to a revolutionary cartel. Paul is told that the only way to free his wife and daughter is to smuggle $2 million worth of cocaine into the U.S. His attempt to deliver the goods, however, is sabotaged, and after losing the drugs and the money, he must scramble to come up with an alternate plan. The familiar formula--ordinary man (Paul is an actuary) forced to deal with a nightmarish scenario--is given plenty of twists by the inventive Siegel (Derailed, 2003). Crisp prose, a breakneck pace, a surprisingly tart sense of humor, and some pointed social commentary give this thriller a good deal of bite. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 341 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1 edition (March 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446531855
• ISBN-13: 978-0446531856
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,003,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget It..., October 18, 2005

By 

Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detour: A Novel (Hardcover)

Forget your job. Your family. Plans for the weekend. Forget it all if you decide to pick up James Siegel's "Detour". Once you start, consider your life on hold till you finish.

Like Siegel's "Derailed" of two years ago, "Detour" is a high adrenaline rush of terror for the ordinary guy who finds his life spinning violently out of control. This life is that of Paul Breidbart, an insurance actuary, and his wife Joanna. Wanting nothing more than to adopt a child, Paul and Joanna find themselves in a nightmare of South American drug cartels, crooked lawyers, and the ubiquitous Russian mobsters seemingly obligatory in pop thrillers. As an actuary, Breidbart views life in probability and risk - a skill that comes in handy as he finds himself facing so many successive steroid-class catastrophes that an alien invasion would not have occurred improbable. Unthinkable brutality and enough twists to qualify the title, this is one mean read.

As with "Derailed", Siegel's lean prose wastes no time as it moves at the pace of the best thriller films, giving neither characters nor readers much chance to catch a breath along the way. If Paul Breidbart were to handicap "Detour", I suspect he'd calculate a 98% probability of unqualified entertainment. Bravo!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some thrilling parts, but far too many unlikely happenings, April 7, 2005

By 

Craig (Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detour: A Novel (Hardcover)

Anytime you read a thriller, you need to have a willing suspension of disbelief. In his latest effort, however, Siegel provides a chain of unlikely, almost impossible, events that make it difficult to believe anything like this could happen.

The story is pretty straightforward - A couple goes to Colombia to adopt a baby, only to be taken hostage. To free his wife and new child, our hero must smuggle drugs back into the U.S. Of course, complications ensue, and he must fight to find a way to save his family and himself. To that end, it's an effective story, one that anyone with a child can relate to.

The reason I don't think this rates 4-5 stars is that, as I said earlier, the events that take place simply become too unbelievable to have any credence. It's unfortunate, because I believe this could have been a great book if Siegel had chosen to focus less on trying to shock us with plot twists, and more on the efforts of a desperate man trying to save his family. Ultimately, the book becomes predictable, and it's easy to guess the outcome.

Siegel is a fine writer, and I don't question his ability to keep the pages turning. However, I think he needs to worry less about twists (just like in Derailed) and focus on his strength, which is in building tension. He's written 3 good books to this point, but I think he can get better.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO SAVE THOSE YOU LOVE?, March 11, 2005

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detour (Audio CD)

The question resonating throughout the latest spine-tingler from James Siegel is "Just how far would you go, what would you risk to save the person you love?"

Stage, film and television actor Holter Graham gives an accomplished reading to this story of a man caught in a life or death struggle.

Paul and Joanna Breidbart are a devoted married couple. Their lives are happy and complete save for the absence of a child. The waiting list to adopt a child in America is lengthy, so they decide to fly to Colombia to adopt a baby there. Their happiness is all too brief as Joanna and the baby are kidnaped; they're in the hands of drug dealers who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends.

Paul is told that in order to secure the release of his wife and baby he must smuggle cocaine worth millions into the U.S. and turn it over to a mysterious person in New Jersey within one day. If he does not do this, Joanna and the baby will both die. But, when Paul arrives at the meeting site in New Jersey the house has been destroyed.

What will he do and where will he turn in order to save his wife and child?

Siegel, the author of Derailed which Miramax has optioned for a major motion picture, delivers his story a bit like gunfire, in staccato bursts. And, it's frightening. If a fast-paced thriller laced with memorable characters is your pleasure, Detour is for you.

- Gail Cooke