Killer Weekend (Sun Valley Series) [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Ridley Pearson (Author), Christopher Lane (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2007 | Series: Sun Valley Series (Book 1)

Eight years ago, in Sun Valley - snowcapped playground for the wealthy and ambitious - all that stood between New York State attorney general Elizabeth Shaler and a knife-wielding killer was local patrolman Walt Fleming. Now Liz Shaler returns to Sun Valley as the crown jewel and keynote speaker for billionaire Patrick Cutter’s world-famous C3, a media and communications conference where the richest, most powerful business tycoons converge. The attorney general, a political lightning rod, is expected to announce her candidacy for president. It’s a media coup for Cutter - but a security nightmare for Walt Fleming, now the county sheriff. As C3 gets under way, authorities learn of a confirmed threat on Shaler’s life, and various competing interests - the Secret Service, the FBI, Cutter’s own security forces - begin jockeying for jurisdiction. Beyond the logistical nightmare that the conference’s extravagances represent for Sheriff Fleming, he must also contend with a raft of other local concerns: his nephew’s arrest, his wife’s infidelity, the death of a socialite under suspicious circumstances, and a series of apparent maulings by a cougar. Each of these incidents comes to a head just as Shaler’s assassin puts his chillingly precise plan into action.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Pearson's workmanlike thriller, the first in a new series, has all the right ingredients: a down-to-earth hero, sheriff Walt Fleming; a neatly focused venue in the form of a weekend business conference at an Idaho resort; and a sense of impending danger in the form of a threat on the life of Elizabeth Shaler, the New York State attorney general, who's about to announce her candidacy for U.S. president. Shaler knows what it's like to be a victim. Eight years before the killer weekend of the title, she was attacked in her Sun Valley, Idaho, vacation home and saved by Fleming, then a patrolman. Fleming takes the present threat very seriously, but Shaler's handlers and the event's organizer, billionaire Patrick Cutter, won't cancel her speech. Fleming doggedly struggles to identify the assassin, who cleverly (if incredibly) overcomes massive security to infiltrate the event, but the motive for the threat is never satisfactorily explained. Pearson (Parallel Lies) tries hard to give his characters depth using an inventive array of backstories, but only the capable Fleming really comes across.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Eight years ago, Sun Valley, Idaho, sheriff Walt Fleming bravely thwarted an attempt on Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler's life. Now AG Shaler is back in town, poised to announce her candidacy for president at a three-day conference catering to the world's most prominent business leaders. The event is the brainchild of Patrick Cutter, a tycoon whose sybaritic lifestyle is a source of both scorn and awe. (He is but one example of the super-rich citizenry that's taken up residence in the once-quiet ski town.) There is no shortage of security for the proceedings--local police, Secret Service, and Cutter's own team--but it's not enough to deter a cunning assassin who slips seamlessly between a pair of identities. (His blind-man act is particularly impressive.) Meanwhile, Sheriff Fleming must cope with the suspicious death of a beautiful socialite and the breakup of his own marriage; it doesn't help matters that his deputy is sleeping with his ex-wife. This is the first in a new series for Pearson, whose cleverly interwoven plots and crisp, economical prose have graced more than a dozen thrillers, most notably the Lou Boldt-Daphne Matthews series. Pearson is the first American recipient of the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in detective fiction at Oxford University. The late, great creator of Philip Marlowe would be proud--both of the selection itself and of the recipient's latest work. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• MP3 CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD Lib Ed; Library edition (July 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423321286
• ISBN-13: 978-1423321286
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,727,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ridley Pearson (www.ridleypearson.com), the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in Detective Fiction at Wadham College, Oxford University, is the bestselling author of over 35 novels including, Peter And the Starcatchers (co-written with Dave Barry), the young adult novel, The Kingdom Keepers, and two dozen crime novels including: Probable Cause, Beyond Recognition and Killer Weekend (July 2007). His novel The Diary Of Ellen Rimbauer, a prequel to a Stephen King miniseries, was a New York Times #1 bestseller, as was Peter and the Shadow Thieves (#1 for 6 weeks). Ridley adapted The Diary Of Ellen Rimbaurer for ABC Television; it aired in 2003.

Peter and the Starcatchers is to open as a stage play, off-Broadway in March 2011, under Disney Theatrical.

Ridley is a founding member of, and plays bass guitar in, the all-author rock band, The Rockbottom Remainders (www.rockbottomremainders.com), with Dave Barry, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan and Greg Iles. The band has raised over 2.5 million dollars for charities over its 18 year history.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unsatisfying, August 18, 2007

By 

Thriller Lover (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Killer Weekend (Walt Fleming) (Hardcover)

Ridley Pearson's a fine writer, but I was somewhat disappointed with KILLER WEEKEND. This novel is written like a James Patterson novel, with lean writing, very short chapters and a relatively fast pace.

Unfortunately, like a Patterson book, the characterization in this book is very thin, verging on cardboard in many cases. There is a large cast of characters in this rather short book, and most of them struck me as underdeveloped. Only the main sheriff character really has a three dimensional personality. And even in the sheriff's case, much of his back story is left unexplained, although Pearson will presumably reveal more about him in later books in the series.

KILLER WEEKEND is also kind of slow to get going. This is not really a thriller, but more of a whodunit. The first two thirds of this book is mainly a setup for the events of the last third. I didn't find this novel particularly exciting or involving until maybe the last hundred pages or so.

In short, this novel is easy to read, but not particularly compelling. I think there are far better choices out there for your reading time. Still, if you like James Patterson's writing style, you may want to give KILLER WEEKEND a try.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is this the beginning of the end?, July 26, 2007

By 

Pierce E. Scranton Jr. (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer Weekend (Walt Fleming) (Hardcover)

Lou Bolt! Daphne? Where are you? Rather, where is the great character development and the understated intrigue that comes up and slams you from Ridley Pearson? I like Sun Valley,too. I like the sexy waitresses and great food in the SawTooth, and the hanging canoe, and the shellacked table in the Pioneer. But describing these and all the other places Ridley knows and loves in Sun Valley is not literary genius. It is contrived and boring. Come on Ridley! Give us some of the old razzamatazz!!!

Pierce Scranton M.D.
author, "Death on the Learning Curve"

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A poorly written book, November 24, 2007

By 

Andrea "antiquegirl5" (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer Weekend (Walt Fleming) (Hardcover)

(This is a copy of my comment added to the last customer review. I felt the need to add my own 2 stars.)

This is my first and last Pearson book. Not only were the characters under-developed and the plot full of holes, but the writing was terrible. I found myself having to read many sentences several times to get the meaning, as he put far too much information into one sentence. I've taken the trouble to copy some of them:

"With O'Brien attending a dessert function at Trail Creek Cabin, where the commissioner of the FCC was giving an informal talk on the Politics of Policy to forty-five special ticket holders, he'd suggested meeting Walt at the Hemingway Memorial.

The Warm Springs tributary to the Big Wood slipped past beneath the concrete bridge connecting the Sun Valley's River Run high-speed quad-chairlifts and the glorious River Run ski lodge.

By 8 a.m. he was overseeing Brandon's leadership in securing Sun Valley Road Police Department's attempts to contain the burgeoning number of First Rights protesters who twice had broken through a barricade trying to get closer to the inn and the C3 gathering, only to be pushed back to the area allotted them."

Boring and confusing sentence structure. They could have been broken up and written so much more fluidly. After reading the last one for the third time, I wanted to chuck the book out the window.

Yes, if you like James Patterson, you will like this book. I have always thought that Patterson was the absolute worst writer in popular contemporary fiction. Pearson is not as bad, but still a waste of precious reading time. There are so many better writers out there in the same genre. I will not give him another chance.