Amazon.com Review
Penzler Pick, July 2001: Tom Coffey has a genius for creating antiheroes. His first book,
The Serpent Club, featured an all-too-human reporter named Ted Lowe. In this his second book, he has created a public relations man, Garrett Doherty, who exhibits all the character and decency of, well, the people next door. Based in Miami, Garrett is an honest enough man, given his job, and is married to a good woman. His parent company in New York is proud of the job he is doing. But at a company party he begins to get into a situation that will spiral out of control and will not end until he betrays everyone and everything that he holds dear.
Standing at the bar, Garrett strikes up a conversation with a man who is as big a Yankees fan as he is. After discussing the pitching talents of El Duque, the stranger hands him a card, but it is not until he gets to work the next morning and is congratulated for doing a great job at the party that Garrett realizes he was talking to an important man. His company has been trying to do business with Ernesto Rodriguez for a long time, and now Rodriguez is willing to do that business providing Garrett is the man assigned to him. Without really knowing what exactly Rodriguez does, Garrett makes an appointment with him and is soon up to his neck in compromising situations. Rodriguez is a land developer and, through him, Garrett meets Frank Hedges and his wife, Magdalena, around whom Garrett develops a rich fantasy life--which we get to share. Six people's lives will collide over a short period of time. Not all of them will survive and those who do will never be the same. Coffey's writing, which is superb, can best be described as "edgy." --Otto Penzler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Coffey's followup to his bestselling debut, The Serpent Club, is a routine and often repetitive suspense novel. Garrett Doherty, a public relations man, and his wife, Helen, have lived in Miami for almost two years when Garrett meets Ernesto Rodriguez, a Cuban exile and land developer. Ernesto has plans to build a major housing development called Tierra Grande and wants Garrett to handle the public relations side of the deal. While working on Tierra Grande, Garrett is approached by Frank Hedges, a man who worked with Ernesto many years ago and wishes to resume their partnership. Frank's wife, Magdalena, is so gorgeous that Garrett immediately falls in lust with her, jeopardizing his career and his marriage. To make matters worse, questions arise concerning the financing of the housing project, suggesting that Ernesto is funding the deal with drug money. But just as Garrett decides to confront Ernesto, his boss disappears. With the company breathing down his neck for the money Ernesto owes, and just after his wife announces she is pregnant, Garrett finds solace in the arms of Magdalena. It is hard to dredge up much sympathy for Coffey's faithless, self-absorbed protagonist he's the type to confess he married his wife for convenience, then expect sympathy. Just as off-putting is the novel's stiff prose and its relentless focus on Garrett and Magdalena's lackluster, distasteful affair. Drama gives way to self-dramatization in this stale, sluggish thriller.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
