The Next To Die [Paperback]

Kevin O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Everyone has something to hide...The virile, all-American husband. The brainy golden girl. The happily-wed bi-coastal couple. Someone is watching...Someone who has uncovered their darkest secrets. Someone who is hell-bent on making them pay for their sins...No one suspects the truth...Now there is no escaping the shadowy jury that watches their every move. It infiltrates every part of their lives. Stalking. Judging. Condemning. Punishment will be swift...severe...final...death.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

O'Brien (Only Son) mixes show-business intrigue with taut psychological suspense in a clever Hollywood-based thriller that would translate well into film. Attorney Sean Olson, who is struggling to support her two children and terminally ill husband, hardly knows what she's getting into when she agrees to defend celebrity nice guy Avery Cooper. Cooper is accused of murdering an obsessed fan, but a series of incidents, recounted by the author in graphic but credible detail, leads Olson to believe that Cooper and Dayle Sutton, his female costar in a controversial new movie about gay rights, are being set up and targeted by Soldiers for an American Moral Order. The extremist right-wing group which prides itself on stalking celebrities, revealing their secrets and then killing them throws the light of public scrutiny on Cooper and Sutton when it publicizes a private sex tape of Cooper and his wife and exposes a lesbian dalliance that Sutton had years ago. The narrative hits fever pitch in the final scenes as Olson, Cooper and Sutton confront the white supremacists that have sullied their reputations and threatened their loved ones. Gay rights, gun control and other hot-button issues augment the narrative tension, and O'Brien's snappy dialogue effectively maintains the breakneck pacing of this haunting read. (May)Forecast: Although this is only O'Brien's second novel, his readership is likely to increase via word of mouth and strong critical review. Booksellers may also see a rise in sales if this thriller is placed among the recent paperback releases of Lisa Gardner and Michael Kimball.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

Very well written... great dialogue... masterful way of layering stories, O'Brien's work deserves praise. He has found a new fan." -- Dan Anderson, Editor, amazon.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786012374
• ISBN-13: 978-0786012374
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,344,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An action packed thriller, April 27, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Next To Die (Paperback)

In Portland, happily married Jim Gelder meets actor Tony Katz at a restaurant. The famous Hollywood star invites Jim to accompany him for a drink at the Vogue Vertigo. Awe-struck, Jim agrees. However, when Tony realizes that Jim is not gay, he tries to end the evening because the Vogue Vertigo caters to the homosexual crowd. Before they can part, assassins arrive and kill both men. The media plays up Tony's gay lifestyle while concluding that Jim was his new boy toy in spite of the complaints of his family.

Rock and Roll superstar Leigh Simone requests that actress Dayle Sutton provide a eulogy at a special tribute to Katz. Dayle agrees and provides a moving tribulation by underscoring her role. Dayle and Leigh meet not long after the event, but not long afterward someone kills Leigh for her open support of gay rights. With Dayle connected to Tony and Leigh and about to play the role of a lesbian lawyer, one must wonder if she might be THE NEXT TO DIE?

Kevin O'Brien provides a taut thriller that centers on a sexual preference cleansing. The story line is crisp and non-stop as the audience wonders if Dayle or some other Hollywood star is next. The cast seems genuine adding to the tight plot. Fans of a killer thriller that focuses on extreme homophobia will want to read Mr. O'Brien's powerful novel.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Implausible but Effective, January 17, 2004

By 

Hippolytos (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Next To Die (Paperback)

SUMMARY: Someone is murdering Hollywood celebrities who purport, or are even only loosely associated with, liberal political agendas. The bodies are positioned to be found in such a debasing and humiliating way, that any credibility the victims may have had is shattered, and they become mere fodder for the gossip rags. A successful actress with only tangential relationships with those slain is now being targeted. She soon realizes that she is ensnared in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with an ultraconservative political terrorist organzition, one with unlimited resources, and she may be powerful to stop them.

WHY YOU'LL LIKE IT: Taut, well-written action scenes, with a pulse-pounding, nail-biting sense of suspense throughout the work. A plethora of interesting characters, and a genuinely terrifying premise.

WHY YOU WON'T: You must be willing to suspend a considerable amount of disbelief in order to fully be absorbed into the story. While there are many unique characters, they number too many, and as a result, a depth of characterization is lacking, often rendering characters too innocuous or archetypal.

BOTTOM LINE: Good fun, well-written, and maintains a level of suspense not often found in recent thrillers. Doesn't reinvent the wheel, but is excellent for getting lost for a while.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gripping page turner with some holes to fill, November 23, 2002

By 

Jack Fitzgerald "JFD" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Next To Die (Paperback)

I enjoyed Kevin O'Brien's second novel, "The Next to Die," and found it to be a well-paced and nicely orchestrated thriller.

The basic premise is that a right wing group is knocking off people with "alternative" lifestyles. They end up targeting an actress that portrayed and lesbian and an actor that portrayed an abortion doctor.

The novel takes jabs at the entertainment industry, cheesy private investigators, white supremacists in Idaho and far, far right-wingers on television.

There were a couple gaffs and plot holes that could have been fixed. In one scene, a man is talking to a woman in her kitchen and a gun falls out of his pocket on to the floor, and she doesn't notice. She gets shot, of course. The worst one was a blatant lie of a red herring where a shadow character smiles into a phone for no other apparent reason than to be part of an evil plot. Later, this character is innocent. I felt cheated.

I hope the author will clean up some of these types of slips in his next work. He shows promise as a thrill-writer and I can see his novels being optioned for screenplays.