Hidden Agenda [Paperback]

Thom Racina (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Hoping to persuade her boyfriend to propose, Audrey Goh "kidnaps" him for a fantasy weekend in the unfinished luxury hotel she owns in Hawaii, but an obsessed stranger has slipped through the hi-tech security system, someone who is determined to have Audrey for himself. Original.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Broadcast journalist Jonelle Patterson is wooed by a huge salary to Network ONE, a start-up TV channel backed by the Christian Right. Here she is promised free reign to travel the world covering sensational stories. Her husband suspects that her timing, luck, and personal involvement in these stories is more than mere kismet, and Jonelle reluctantly agrees. Is she being used by the Christian Right? Is the news being "created" for her to report? Racina (Snow Angel, LJ 6/15/96), a former TV scriptwriter, offers a timely story filled with recognizable people from our own political arena, but the conspiracy is revealed too early, diluting the suspense. The negative treatment of the extreme Christian Right may thrill some patrons while offending others, and the characters, family situations, and plot line should make a predictable TV movie of the week. Large fiction collections may want to consider.?Terrill Persky, Woodridge P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Annoying, manipulative tale of annoying, manipulative media moguls who lie, cheat, steal, and murder to further the career of their trusting, naive star TV reporter. This third novel from Racina (Snow Angel, 1996, etc.) decries the trashy sensationalism and dumbing-down of TV news by offering generous helpings of what the author presumably despises, on pages spattered with names of the rich, famous, or merely good-looking. Beautiful, competent CNN twinkie Jonelle Patterson is selected from the ranks of budding TV talking heads by the oafish trio of sleazy suits that runs the fledgling all-news Network ONE cable channel. A mother of two, married to a dashing airline pilot (who's also a whiz at editing videotape) and a devoutly fundamentalist Christian (her father-in-law is a professor at Pat Robertson's Regent University), Jonelle is to be groomed as the ``domestic Christiane Amanpour'' by Barney Keller, her balding, vulgarian Yiddish-slinging boss. Keller, with his cronies on the Christian Right and his Republican friends, steer Jonelle toward one high- profile assignment after another, during which grotesquely violent accidents, inexplicable deaths, and outright murders occur just as she unpacks her microphone. Jonelle's witless eyewitness accounts of so many fortuitous disasters effortlessly boost the ratings of her one-woman newsmagazine, but it takes the artful videotape manipulation of perfect husband Steve to discover that, lurking in the background of every scene she covers, is a man with a gold ring on his hand. After about 150 pages of such nonsense, the Pattersons learn that these murders are part of a conspiracy, orchestrated by the GOP and the Christian Right, to transform Jonelle into a God-fearing presidential candidate for the 2008 election. Finally, after twice saving the life of Hillary Clinton, Steve and Jonelle have to race against probability and healthy skepticism to take their story to competing networks. Painfully bad. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Onyx; Open market ed edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451186001
• ISBN-13: 978-0451186003
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,665,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twisting. Compelling. Wonderful., January 15, 2000

By 

Chris Beakey "Chris" (Lewes, Delaware and Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Agenda (Paperback)

This was a terrific book, full of twists that would be completely unbelievable . . . if they weren't so true-to-life! As usual, Thom Racina sets up a compelling conflict and uses his sharp, remarkable storytelling skills to spin it towards a rewarding resolution. For all of you thriller fans who are tired of getting disappointed by "big" books with "high concept" plots that end up being wordy and poorly written (ie: the bestsellers that publishers hit you with the instant you walk in the big-box stores) look to the tightly evocative writing of Thom Racina for the real thing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GUILTY PLEASURE, September 3, 2002

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hidden Agenda (Paperback)

If one reads the Kirkus Review of this book, they would be tempted to pass it by, as they call it "...painfully bad..". Well, that's why it's so much fun. "Hidden Agenda" reads like the script for a tv movie of the week with Jaclyn Smith and Gregory Harrison, with Leslie Nielsen and Dabney Coleman as the villains. But, I have to admit, I really enjoyed this book. It certainly sets no new standards for contemporary fiction, but as an old fashioned, good guys vs. bad guys, political vs. religious fanatics, it's a whopper! We NEED perfect husbands like Steven Patterson; we need gullible heroines like Jonelle Patterson, who works her way up from a child with an alcoholic mother, not to mention a problem of stuttering, to become the most famous newscaster in the world! Sure, the use of real people in fictional roles is quite a manipulative move, but it adds a little color and humor to the goings-on; and the love scenes between Rex and Clay, though brief in number, are outright ridiculous. But, what a fun read. There are several scenes of suspense and you have to wonder---will they make it in time??? The finale is so over the top it's wonderful! Catching the villain right on t.v.! And the epilogue is so woefully predictable, that you almost want to say, "What else?"
Ah, but readers, if you are looking for a way to kill some time and have some fun along the way, grab this one and have fun!
RECOMMENDED

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit of a Disappointment, December 27, 1999

By 

Jenn I Am (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Agenda (Paperback)

This was an okay book...something to keep you entertained on the long train ride to work. However, a 4 year old could have guessed the ending.