Customer Reviews

The Program (Alan Gregory Series)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Sentenced drug dealer Ernesto Castro warns New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Kirstin Lord that for every thing he loses, she will lose twice. A few weeks later, Kirstin goes to meet her spouse Robert at the Galatoire restaurant, but sees the hitman wearing the Saints cap assassinate her husband. Though grieving her loss, Kirstin realizes that Castro said "twice" and worries that her eight-year old daughter Amy will be next.

Ironically, Kirstin, a vocal critic of the witness protection program hiding killers from justice, enters the Federal witness security program. She becomes Peyton Francis and Amy becomes Landon, and they relocate to Boulder. Needing psychological help to cope with the upheaval and tragedies of her life she begins to see Dr. Alan Gregory, whose other WITSEC patient is former hitman Carl Luppo, a killer of at least 15-20 people. Carl realizes that something is not right with Peyton's disguise and takes the two females under his personal protection whether it is from Castro or someone more sinister.

THE PROGRAM is an exciting thriller that provides an insightful look into the pros and cons of the witness protection program. Kirstin and Carl are intriguing characters hiding for different reasons. The return of Dr. Gregory is always a reason to rejoice, but in all honesty his role is a secondary catalyst to the fast-paced main plot starring Kirstin. Still, he plays a pivotal role and his sessions with his two patients seem very real, making the story line feel genuine. Best-selling author Stephen White may have written his best novel to date with this tremendous taut tale.

Harriet Klausner

I like Stephen White's books (and have read them all) for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that he's not afraid to shift the focus away from psychologist Alan Gregory and his now-wife, prosecutor Lauren Crowder. To compare him to Jonathan Kellerman (as Doubleday does on the flap copy-something Doubleday just loves to do, as if comparison is a huge selling point rather than a risk of turning readers away) is to do White a great disservice. White never, as Kellerman always does, inflicts himself on the material. (One can almost hear Kellerman exclaiming from the pages, "Aren't I clever?" Well, no, actually.) Aside from brief mentions now and then of discredited syndromes (like repressed/recovered memories) he doesn't actually travel down the potentially hazardous road of bad therapy. Instead, he allows the characters to remain in character. And fine characters they are, too! In The Program, not only is the story original and clever, but also he's created in retired hitman, witness-protected, Carl Luppo, one of the most original and well-conceived people I've read about recently.

What I also like about White is his plotting skill. Each book seems to get just that much tighter, that much leaner, that much more labyrinthine. And the different "voices" in this book have genuine authenticity, particularly the exchanges between what, for want of a better term might be called, the "contract arranger" and his sundry hitmen/women. No overly technical whiz-bang stuff, just meat-and-potatoes serious business.

Kirsten Lord's (the prosecutor in witness protection) whale motif is a tad peculiar, but since the woman never for a moment goes out of character, who's to say it isn't valid? Certainly her concern for her daughter, and her grief over the murder of her husband, ring very true. Maybe people start thinking about whales when they're threatened with the loss of everything they value.

Finally, any writer who can endow two dogs with such character that the readers can actually see them, is a writer to be reckoned with. I highly recommend all White's books. They're never less than very good. The man really does get better and better and, in large part, I think it's as a result of his willingness sometimes to let his two central characters play secondary roles.

Assistant DA Kirsten Lord is on the run along with her eight year old daughter. After Ernesto Castro,s drug dealing conviction, he threatens her saying, "For everything I lose, you will lose twice." When Kirsten's husband is shot down by a professional hit man in front of her, she and Amy change their names and leave town thinking they can relocate with the support of friends in her state but without any real protection. When Amy is nearly kidnapped, she asks for help from the Federal Witness Security Program (WITSEC)

The story line continues to develop as the reader learns that Kirsten has been a vocal and successful critic of the program and there are many federal agents who do not think she deserves their protection whatever the danger to her and her child. As she joins the program and is relocated to Boulder, Colorado, she requests the help of a psychologist to help her deal with all the trauma that she is dealing with. The psychologist is Dr. Alan Gregory, and old friend from Stephen White's previous books.

Dr. Gregory is also treating a second member of the WITSEC program...a mob hit man named Carl Luppo. Carl and Kirsten meet as the suspense grows and Kirsten realizes that she knows someone wants to kill her, but that she cannot determine by herself if it is Ernesto Castro, someone within the WITSEC program, or a third party from an old case that she had prosecuted. The book is worth reading to find out who all the characters are and whether or not they are the bad guys with the intent to kill.

Incidentally Dr. Gregory's wife, Laura, an Assistant DA herself, gets involved with helping solve the mystery even though she is nearly ready to have the baby that she and Alan were waiting for in an earlier book. The old neighbor Adreinne is still next door as well even though she plays only a very minor role. The book is a page turner worth reading and Stephen White is an author I will look for again.

New Orleans District Attorney Kirsten Lord prides herself on putting away criminals, but when one of the men she puts away tells her "For every precious thing I lose, you will lose two", her life goes out of control.

After her husband is killed in front of her, Kirsten enters the Witness Protection Program, to escape the threat that has been put upon her.

Changing her name, and relocating to Boulder, Colorado, Kirsten and her young daughter will live each day in fear.

While settling in her new home, Kirsten will make friends with a Program veteran Carl Luppo, a former mob assassin, tortured by his past.

Sensing that someone inside the Program has been leaking information on Kirsten's where-abouts, Carl takes on the role of protector, for this may be his last chance at redemption.

Not sure what to believe, Kirsten suspects that Carl's warnings of the Program's darkside are true, and the only people she could trust are her daughter, Carl, and her program appointed psychologist Alan Gregory, for the survival of her family depends on it.

"The Program" is a heart stopping thriller, that grabs hold on page one, and doesn't let go until the final page has been turned. Dr. Alan Gregory, star of previous Stephen White novels, takes a secondary role in a novel that is as good, if not better, than any other novel Stephen White has written.

Stephen White has written eight previous bestselling novels, and I am sure this will rocket up the list's as well.

Thriller fans should not miss this one.

Nick Gonnella

(Originally submitted 3/18/01)

Kirsten Lord was a New Orleans District Attorney before the murder of her husband by a vindictive defendant forced her and her daughter into the federal Witness Protection Program. Transplanted to Boulder, Colorado, with a new identity, her only friend and unlikely ally is a former hit man for the Mob who is also in the Program. Dr. Alan Gregory is a Boulder psychologist appointed by the Program to work with both of them, and it is to Dr. Gregory that Kirsten turns when it becomes apparent that her new identity has been compromised. There is evidence that someone inside the Marshals Service may be feeding information about her to the people looking for her, but there is evidence also that more than one set of thugs has it in for Kirsten Lord. There are many layers to this richly structured story, including a Death Row inmate who might be innocent, a Miami drug lord, bad cops, and rogue U. S. Marshals. I have come to anticipate each new Dr. Gregory novel and this one (with the possible exception of the soap opera-like names) is exceptional.

New Orleans District Attorney Kirsten Lord watches helplessly as her husband is assassinated moments before they are to celebrate their anniversary at a posh New Orleans restaurant. A condemned man's mother is killed in a car accident. He blames Kirsten because if she didn't prosecute him and win, his mother would have never been traveling on that road to visit him in jail. Kirsten suddenly remembers how he threatened her as he was being sent away to jail. "Every precious thing I lose, you will lose two." .The first had been her husband. The second has to be her little girl. Now she and her daughter must enter the Witness Protection Program, the antithesis of everything she believes in...the very program she has publicly assaulted during her years as a prosecutor. "The Program" may now be the only thing that can keep her and her daughter alive. She soon meets and befriends program veteran Carl Luppo, a mob assassin turned good guy, who tells her that someone may be leaking Kirsten's whereabouts to the wrong people. Now the only people she can trust are Carl, and her program-appointed psychologist Alan Gregory. Before this story is over people will die and many lives will be changed.

Once I muddled through the very shaky beginning, which included random changes of perspective, lackadaisical plotting and other languid unmentionables, I found this book to be quite a page turner.

Stephen White offers a story chock full of spicy dialog, engaging characters, and great little tidbits of information. I enjoyed witnessing the interplay among the characters, and Dr. Gregory's psych sessions were fascinating. A different type of work for this author that is nicely done, albeit the rocky start.

Stay with it and enjoy.

Cris

Even at her young age, Sandra Burr is a veteran performer who first walked on a civic theater stage at the age of six. She gives an appropriately menacing reading to this frightening story of a woman and her nine-year-old daughter who seek refuge in the Witness Protection Program.

After New Orleans District Attorney Kirsten Lord's husband is murdered by a hit man, she soon discovers that her own life and that of her daughter's is threatened. Feeling she has no other valid choice she agrees to be hidden in Colorado.

However, once in the program she meets another who is being protected, Carl Luppo. He is a lone mob hit man very much, she suspects, like the man who killed her husband. Sensing her danger, Luppo befriends Kirsten; he appoints himself her guardian.

Kirsten's chaotic life is in stark contrast to the relative tranquility enjoyed by a psychological consultant to the Protection Program and his wife who are preparing for the birth of their first child.

There's both darkness and light in this suspenseful tale, and Sandra Burr reads it superbly.

This is the 9th book in Stephen White's series with psychologist Alan Gregory and a cast of characters that we have come to know over the previous eight books. The difference with this book is that it has little to do with Alan Gregory or any of the other characters. It was a risk in my opinion for the author to make his main star a minor character in someone else's story. And, the risk paid off.

I'll admit, I started reading this book because I was reading the series and thought it would be a good read since I already knew the characters. When I realized that the book was totally about someone else and their entrance into the Witness Protection Program and eventually their run from it, I decided I would not like the book. I kept reading anyway and soon I was caught up in the story just like all Stephen White's other books.

A different read, but a surprisingly good one.

The Program starts with one hit man and ends with another. Along the way it's an exploration of the Witness Protection (Security) Program and two participants who come from different directions. Kirsten (nee Peyton) is a prosecutor forced to seek help from the agency she has ridiculed to hide her daughter and herself. Carl Lupo is a hit man informer. Both lives take interesting and different directions when they both end up in Boulder Colorado. I enjoyed the way Carl "picked up" Kirsten. This is the first I've read of Alan Gregory, White's psychologist protagonist. He has a relatively small and tangential part in the story that unfolds. He and his pregnant wife play a bigger role at the end. If anything, their involvement in the story is it's weakest point. I found the story to be very well written. This felt like a Thomas Perry book, well written, nice characterizations, interesting story line, tension building . . . Recommended to me by my friend George, and I'm recommending it to you.

I thought I was embarking upon a Burger King of a novel and instead I found myself at a Five Star restaurant. Well, Four Stars. The characters are both interesting and magnetic. Moral conflicts arise that remain unresolved, always a believable result. Kirsten Lord doesn't have all the answers, but she has enough of them to recognize that if she doesn't address something in her past where she "went along to get along," whether she survives the Witness Security Program or not won't make a difference because she would have become 'a witness' [was this intentional? Brilliant if it was] to her own moral decay.

Carl Luppo is one of the best supporting characters I have ever read. Like Kirsten, I'm not sure I like him but I would certainly like him on my side. Carl would always have my back.

The daughter is a loving, intelligent, pain in the you know what, just like real 9-year olds.

Wonderful moral confusion, observable growth and fascinating characters. Good dialogue. Very good book.