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Relative Danger
 
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Relative Danger [Audio Cassette]

Charles Benoit (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

Price: $59.95 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
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Kindle Edition $5.87  
Hardcover $18.96  
Paperback $11.21  
Mass Market Paperback --  
Audio, CD $72.00  
Audio, Cassette, September 15, 2006 $59.95  
Audible Audio Edition, Unabridged $14.95 or Free with Audible 30-day free trial

Book Description

September 15, 2006
Young Doug Pearce, just fired from his steady job in the brewery, has never strayed far from home. But he's always been fascinated by stories of his dead Uncle Russ, the family black sheep. So when an old friend of his uncle invites him up to Toronto, he accepts. On arrival, he learns that wealthy and glamorous Edna has an agenda: she has assembled enough clues to solve the murder of Russell Pearce and to recover a legendary red diamond he was thought to be smuggling.

Doug, nervous but game, agrees to play detective. But by the end of his first day in Casablanca, he knows he's made a mistake. From Morocco to Egypt to Singapore, Doug stumbles on. And whether he's escaping across Cairo rooftops, ducking bullets in a high-speed desert chase, or killing time in a crowded Egyptian jail cell, Doug is sure of just one thing: he has no clue what he's doing.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Benoit's smashingly good, action-packed first novel leads Douglas Pearce, a young brewery worker from Pottstown, Pa., on a quest for information about his long-dead uncle that takes him from Toronto to Casablanca, Cairo, Bahrain and Singapore, before returning him to Toronto. He gets on the trail of a huge stolen gem, and along the way finds rascals, thugs, thieves and vamps among the archeology scholars, ex-museum directors and encyclopedia publishers who appear to be his guides. With much wit and invention, Benoit convincingly portrays the Middle East. A hilarious account of chaos in the Cairo airport reads like an updated scene from Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad. Benoit adroitly contrasts the modern features of North Africa and Asia with the remnants of their ancient pasts. Two murderous chases through urban and rural Egypt build to a resolution that remains well concealed until the final pages. Some readers may find the sex scenes too brief and a bit strange, but this is a quibble. Benoit is a rare discovery, and one hopes that he plans to produce more adventure-oriented mysteries with the same skill and energy that propel this excellent debut.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Where has Benoit been hiding? With a debut novel this good, it's hard to believe he hasn't published at least 10 previous books. Every element of this rollicking adventure shines, from its suspenseful, globetrotting plot to its nicely rounded characters. Unlikely young hero Doug Pearce, most recently of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, leaves his small town at the request of Edna, an exotic older woman who knew his black-sheep uncle, Russell Pearce. It seems that Russell was murdered in 1948, apparently while trying to smuggle an outrageously big red diamond out of Singapore. Edna thinks Russell was framed and wants Doug to help clear his uncle's name; he agrees, mainly because he's never been out of the U.S and because Edna is footing the bill. Beginning in Casablanca and continuing through Morocco and Egypt, Doug eventually lands in Singapore, where his uncle's life ended. Along the way, he meets a stately museum curator and a stunning heiress, among other exotic characters, and unwisely trusts both of them. This captivating debut makes great use of a familiar gambit: throwing a naive, untraveled hero into foreign climes and forcing him to hit the ground running. Readers will eagerly await more from the very talented Benoit. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Audio Cassette
  • Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc. (September 15, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 078614758X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0786147588
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
5 star:
 (16)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book!, September 20, 2004
By 
N. J. ONeill (Tarpon Springs FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Relative Danger (Hardcover)
The story starts in Singapore in 1948, but most of the action takes place in present day locales. Douglas Pearce is a Pottsville, Pennsylvania, native who loses his job at the local brewery just in time to embark on an Indiana Jones-like adventure, in search of the killer of his Uncle Russell, the black sheep of the Pearce family, who was murdered in 1948 Singapore.

He finds himself confounded in Casablanca, confined in Cairo, bogged down in Bahrain, and celebrated in Singapore. Benoit had me hooked from page one, and kept me riveted all the way through.

I picked this one up because I had recenty been to Singapore, and thought it might be interesting to read about the city in a novel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing! Benoit has Singapore down pat. His descriptions made me want to visit the other places Doug visited, as well.

My husband loved this book, too. We both laughed out loud at some passages, and the solution to the mystery wasn't obvious until very close to the end. I'm looking forward to Mr. Benoit's next book!

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Three Chambered Heart, December 18, 2006
This review is from: Relative Danger (Hardcover)
"Relative Danger" is a mystery with a three chambered heart. First is Doug Pearce's hunt for answers about a long lost uncle who came to a bad end in a hotel room in 1948 Singapore. Doug is about the least likely sleuth one might ever encounter in the genre. He is an "innocent abroad" with a nice earthen hue. His only credentials are a blood relationship to the victim and (thanks to being laid off from a brewery job) enough free time to look into the case. His dependency on "the kindness of strangers" begins in chapter one with a mysterious benefactor financing his journey overseas. It continues person-to-person to the very end of the story with a timely arrival of Singapore authorities and media. This person-to-person connection makes the figures we meet along the way real, even recognizable.

All points in between Morocco and Singapore are connected in the second beating lobe of this story's heart by a hunt for a blood red diamond that chases through some of the most exotic and interesting places on Earth. The taste, smell and feel of each waypoint is so richly told that a it's hard to resist the urge to check the passport between chapters for freshly inked visa stamps.

The most delicious pulse of this story's heart comes from its third lobe, Aisha Al-Kady, a woman as exotic and sensual as the environment she fills. In Arabic, Aisha means life. In "Relative Danger", Aisha means life AND to have it more abundantly. She's so strongly drawn that dents in her halo are real, the beauty bone-deep, the sex exuberant, and the bullets deadly.

This isn't the kind of story intended to be heady or profound. No, what earns "Relative Danger" its chops is the way it's told. This is a story with compelling prose, a gut-feel reality, an unexpected twist ending, and a delightfully Southern pace. It is an Edgar Allan Poe Awards® 2005 Nominee for Best First Novel By An American Author. It is an impressive first outing for Charles Benoit. I look forward to more.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good beach read. Entertaining but lacks depth., October 26, 2009
By 
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Relative Danger (Paperback)
This is a good book. I was entertained. The author is smart and has an eloquent writing style. However, the characters lack depth, the three exotic countries the character travels to are covered only superficially, and the venues visited are the most popular tourist traps. It's as if the author traveled to Morocco, Egypt and Singapore for only about three days each, and then decided to write a fiction novel based on his limited experience. I studied in Egypt and live in Singapore now, so I was hoping for a little greater insight into these countries. I would also rate the book PG, because the action is mildly intense and no one dies. If you are looking for a gritty fiction thriller that takes place in an exotic locale and presents an Asian country with depth and insight drawn from years of in-country experience, check out The Opportunists by Yohann de Silva. Here's the link: The Opportunists: A Novel
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