Midas [Hardcover]

Russell Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2005

Justin Westwood, the detective hero of APHRODITE, is mourning the death of his boss, victim of a terrorist bombing in a local restaurant, when he's called to investigate an air accident: a small plane has crashed on take-off from Hampton Airport. The pilot is dead, but when Justin discovers the body has no ID, the cockpit has been wiped clean of prints and the Federal Air Authority has deleted the aircraft's details he is sure the pilot was murdered. As he tries to get a handle on the man's background he realises there is a link to the bombing, and that the atrocious attack may not have been caused by any terrorist. In fact it looks as though it might have had its origins on Capitol Hill. But what political or financial prize could be worth the slaughter of dozens of innocents? It seems as though Justin may have to sacrifice his own life before he learns the truth.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This well-written "post-9/11" thriller from Andrews (the pseudonym of New York City book editor Peter Gethers) starts off with two seemingly innocuous news items: an EPA announcement that places an Alaskan oil field "permanently off-limits to oil companies" and a Bloomberg report on oil prices. But then the novel explodes with a nightmarish event: a suicide bombing destroys a restaurant in one of Long Island's fashionable beach towns, killing (among others) East End Harbor sheriff Jimmy Leggett. Leggett's widow wants the new sheriff, Justin Westwood (the protagonist of 2003's Aphrodite), to find out who's behind her husband's murder. Soon another incident--a small plane crashes just after take-off--commands Westwood's immediate attention; the dead pilot has no ID and, bizarrely, leaves no fingerprints. Westwood's relentlessly dogged investigation pits him against some powerful characters indeed--Islamic terrorists or our own government?--and puts him in real danger: the book's best section vividly describes what it might be like to be interrogated at Guantánamo Bay. While some readers may be put off by the broad caricature of the current administration and a conspiracy-laden plot that perhaps only Michael Moore and his acolytes could find credible, all will cheer the appealing Westwood as he pursues the truth.
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

Justin Westwood, the small-town cop with a big-city past, returns in this imaginative thriller from the author of Gideon (1999), Icarus (2001), and Aphrodite (2003). When a suicide bomber blows himself up in a restaurant in the tony Hamptons, it appears that terrorists have targeted Long Island's rich and famous. Not too long after that, a small plane taking off from a Long Island airport crashes; transportation authorities call it an accident, but Westwood suspects murder. And, as he investigates, he finds something even scarier: the bombing and the plane crash may be related. Andrews (a pseudonym for author Peter Gethers) handles the sensitive subject matter skillfully, engaging our interest in a complex plot rather than simply exploiting our fear of terrorism. Westwood, who was introduced in Aphrodite, is a strong and enigmatic protagonist, well suited to the convoluted kinds of crimes that Andrews has him investigating. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Time Warner (April 14, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0316725390
• ISBN-13: 978-0316725392
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,947,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Techno Thriller, Quite Anti-Government, April 5, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midas (Hardcover)

Two points about this book immediately come to mind:

1. If you're a devoted fan of Michael Moore and his Hollywood crowd and believe that the Government is truly evil, capable of anything, and putting all kinds of nefarious conspiracy plans into action, then this is exactly the book for you (the author is an actor). If you believe the Government is a bunch of folk stumbling along as best they can, then you might want to ignore this book, or perhaps just ignore the big conspiracy and read it for the rest of the story which is pretty good in its own right.

2. Surprisingly, the technical aspects of the book are also pretty good. I wouldn't put it quite up there with a Clancy, but the planes, bombs, and even the financial aspects are pretty detailed.

The story itself has a post 9/11 plot, which begins with the first suicide bomber in the US. It goes on from there to more terrorism, interconnected in some pretty strange ways.

There's also a pretty strange set of characters, especially the bad guys.

Good story, highly recommended, if the anti-government aspects doesn't get to you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a Conspiracy Buff, September 15, 2005

By 

A. Husted (Overland Park, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midas (Hardcover)

I agree with some of the other reviews regarding this novel--it's mediocre and the ending was ridiculous. Very transparent. Maybe I'm just not a hard-core conspiracy buff, but I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to buy into the story.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, April 28, 2005

By 

EdHopper "Painter" (Cary, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midas (Hardcover)

I've been a fan right from the first book but I have to say this is not up to his usual standard whatsoever. This book read more like a paranoid political mouthpiece than a thriller and I'm very disappointed that he thought his fans would think that was a great idea. This "thriller" was so non-thrilling the only way the author could attempt to bring tension to the story was by blatently hiding facts from the reader (for example Justin would get on the phone with another character and instead of making the reader privy to the conversation we, the reader, get to read that Justin told the other character what he wanted -- not any details. How bogus is that?

Because of the political overtones early in the story I could have written the end of the book about 1/4th of the way into it as well.

I hope this author returns to the original formula that won him so many fans.