Customer Reviews

The Inner Sanctum

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I am a fan of Stephen Frey. His book 'Take Over' was fabulous. This one though seems to stumble around quite a bit.

First the story: It deals with an investment firm, the government, a huge airplane contract and a young IRS agent. This young IRS agent, Jesse, finds out that her admired boss, who was just killed, had some damning information on some illegal activities of a government contract and a political candidate. The boss knew that this was some explosive information he was uncovering so he set up a safeguard that if he was killed, he would have this information sent to someone that could figure out the entire web and uncover all the deceit. So who did he send it to? The FBI, the Police? Nope. He sent it to a 25 year old woman. He was killed for this information and he sent it to his employee, a friend, who is 25 years old to unravel it all. Huh? Well, the plot takes us to Jesse running for her life at times, having friends she is not quite sure she can trust (David, an investment banker who is a member of a firm that Jesse is interested in but he is a man that she may not be able to trust...and Todd who is a good friend of hers who has gambling problems and issues and a man that Jesse may not be able to trust as well) all the while trying to figure out who the bad guys are and what they are trying to acoomplish. Convuluted story.

The characters--nobody comes off real likeable. Even Jesse has some issues, some of which are brought up but not really explored The guys are even worse. You never really get to know either one of them real well and even worse, you don't really like either one of them.

The book has so many characters and it has such a weak plot that you as a reader end up just plodding along. Disappointing effort from an author that I very much enjoy.

This book isn't great literature and doesn't claim to be, but it's fine for a lazy afternoon when you just want something to read. It's the kind of book you can enjoy but forget you read a year from now. It also has what you might expect: a plot based on a string of incredible coincidences and 'not-very-deep' characters (I found myself actually hoping that the bad guys would snuff-out the heroine at one point just to shut her up). It provided a pleasant diversion for a few hours which is all I really expected.

This is the WORST plot I have read in years! I am quitting it today after 98 pages, and I'm writing this review. The story is about a heroic, wonderful black Democrat senator from Maryland whose Senate seat is being stolen be evil Republicans. The Democrats have no money, but they are fine and honest - the Republicans are filthy rich and they're having people killed to steal this election. What a crock! I'll never buy another Stephen Frey novel, and I wish I had my money back for this one!

I eagerly looked forward to reading this novel after having read two other works by Stephen Frey. This one was definitely a disappointment. Frey has also stepped partially away from the financial world with this one and seems to be on somewhat unfamiliar ground.

Once again the main characters come from impoverished backgrounds that they prefer to hide - where have we heard that before? David Mitchell is almost a cookie cutter copy of Andrew Falcon and Mace McClain, although a bit more suspicious. At least the ending was a bit different from the Frey formula of the previous two books.

I would have given this book 1 star except the last 100 pages or so were pretty gripping.

Sorry, but a book of card board cut outs, washington defense cliches and simplistic dialogue seems a poor third novel for Frey. For those who say they couldn't put it down, a real page turner, what do they usually read--the telephone book?

From the moment I picked up this book and read the brief description on the back, I simply could not put it down. Frey had my undivided attention from page to page. The drama and suspense had me biting my nails! A real thumbs up. I just can't wait to read The Legacy. This book will not disappoint thriller lovers.

I'm a Stephen Frey fan, so bear with me. This was a stinker...a financial thriller version of 'The Firm.' Not nearly as good as The Takeover or Vulture Fund. Why? Unrealistic and grossly cliched dialogue and description primarily.

For instance: Pierce, a military guy, is described as "steely-eyed" and with "ramrod" bearing. Characters are always "interjecting" or "replying" or "shooting back" or "interrupting" or "uttering" as opposed to just "he said." And the redundancies: "...he murmured quietly" (how else?) and "it was a Manichaean struggle between good and evil" (is there any other kind?). And the cliches: She was "like a cat on a hot tin roof trying to get off." Actually, I fault Frey's Dutton editor on this (you can see who she is in the acknowledgments section), because this book has a complex plot and fast-paced story, and Frey pulls it off, albeit just barely. I'm a fan. I'll give him another shot.

From what I see of the reviews shown, that people either liked the book or didn't. Well, I really liked it. I have been reading a lot of political books lately, and this is indeed a book based on reality in many ways. A reality that many of us don't want to believe because we all hope that integrity and honesty is the basis that our businesses and the people in our government hold to, but, alas, money and the power that it can produce is far too hard for many to resist.

It is a political story about how an investment group, a crooked senator, military people and others manipulate to get defense contracts so that certain people can make a lot of money. We have seen a lot of this lately ourselves. I am sure there are a few details that someone who is more familiar with the procedures involved in acquiring defense contracts could disagree with, but as a novice myself, and as this is just a book of fiction, I found it to be fascinating.

David Mitchell, a young man who came up from a poor background, has been working at a job that he hopes will fulfill his dreams of becoming rich, even if he has to do a few things that aren't exactly kosher in the legal department. As he isn't a crook by nature, he is having doubts about his job. He has been manipulated by the people he is working for into using poor judgement in his actions and now it may be too late to get out.

Jessie Hayes' boss, in the IRS, dies suddenly of a mysterious heart attack, and she receives a delayed memo from him about a case he was working on-very secretive. She finds the file where he said he had hidden it and is almost killed in the process.

There is murder, mystery and thrills to the end of the book. I wasn't disappointed.

I've read a bunch of Frey books (The Vulture Fund, The Takeover, The Legacy) and have enjoyed each one of them. This book seems to be written during a period that Frey may have been tired!

Unlike other Frey books, this one slogs along at a very slow pace with incredibly boring characters. The whole thing revolves around a conspiracy to get a new Navy bomber built. The company vying for the contract is owned by a group of Washington politicians, some military bigwigs, and a bunch of investment brokers. The group meets in secret in a secured room (why the inner sanctum of course!) to discuss the progress of the project and to decide what to do with things or people that might jeopardize the project.

The main character, Jesse, is a woman whose boss was killed when he suspected that there was a conspiracy going on to rig the upcoming senatorial election. Jesse receives a posthumous email from her boss that tells her where she can find a folder with evidence about the conspiracy. Through some magic or some whim of the author, we are led to believe that the system can fire off the email without leaving an audit trail of where it went to just because it left the company and was later delivered from an external address back to the company. Doesn't the author know that most systems would have a copy of all incoming emails so it would be fairly simple to compare the outgoing message to all incomings to figure out the recipient.

Some problems I have with the book. First we have a methodic hit man who becomes a bumbling dolt when he has to go after Jesse. Secondly, we are expected to like one of the main characters, David. David is a stock trader who has very "dirty hands" and is highly involved in insider trading, performing [illegal] corporate transactions, possible money laundering, and hiding records of financial transactions. We are expected to like him. Thirdly, another main character, Todd, has been late in paying back the mob for his gambling debts. They seem to go way to easy on him.

If you read this book, try not to judge Frey on it. Just about everything else I read by Frey merits 4-5 stars.

If you like Stephen Frey then you will enjoy this book. I've read most of his books and this would rank toward the top. Sure the other reviews complain about depth of characters and a somewhat unbelievable plot but that is Frey. Lots of action, lots of twists and lots of fun. That is what Frey is about. As I always end: Remember, get this book from your library and save your cash.