From Publishers Weekly
The third Chase Defoe novel sends the former naval intelligence officer back to his parents' home for the funeral of general Harmon Kilgallen, neighbor of the senior Defoes and father of Chase's childhood sweetheart, Kit. At first it appears that Kilgallen killed himself after burning notes for a manuscript he'd been working on with Kit's daughter. But tapes found among Kilgallen's effects contain evidence that the general was murdered. When the tapes--as well as carbons of the manuscript--are discovered to be missing, Chase and Kit investigate and soon become embroiled in a deadly struggle with those who would not hesitate to kill again in order to protect their secrets. Although Day ( A Cold Killing ) exhibits an unerring ability to build suspense, occasional overwriting and a device of repeating chosen paragraphs detract from his fine plotting.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Day's third novel about do-it-all Naval Intelligence veteran Chase Defoe (August Ice, A Cold Killing) begins with the death of retired general Harmon Kilgallen just as he's reached a crucial point in his memoirs: his recovery following WW II of a priceless cache of Old Master paintings. Day strains to give this tired plot urgency, involving Chase with both the general's daughter Kit (his fondly remembered first love) and her daughter Samantha (who's angling to be his next), planting the suspicion that Chase's ramrod-straight military dad isn't his dad after all, dropping hints of incest right and left, and showing Kit shopping for vegetables and lingerie preparatory to her romantic reunion with Chase--and the first of several lethal encounters with the enemy. But despite Chase's highly adaptable derring-do--he concocts a homemade bomb and breaks out of a car trunk en route to identifying a who-cares mastermind--Day's just playing back old material at a faster speed, like Alvin and the Chipmunks. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
