Customer Reviews

The Ripple Effect: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When the World Trade Center was hit by terrorists, Aiden Page saw a chance to save himself from prison. He and his brother had been involved in stock shenanigans and were about to come under investigation. Page disappears to the Caribbean and works on sailboats, however one day he calls his daughter, but hangs up before identifying himself, but she knows it's him. She steals a sailboat, because she believes if her dad would go to ground he'd eventually wind up on a special island in the South Pacific. Only trouble is there are some terrorists there who are plotting an even greater evil than 911. This was a book that kept me away on a balmy Hawaiian night. Friends were partying next door, but not me, because there was nothing that could've torn me away from this very special thriller.

See book summary above.

While consistently coming out with suspenseful novels, Garrison always seems to add an extra flare. The action takes place not only on the sea (thank goodness) but also on land. Some of his characters do have a tendency to be super human (a youngster sailing halfway around the world and a guy who loses an eye, which hardly effects him).

His knowledge of the sea comes through clearly in all his novels. Of course I have very little knowledge about sailing and the sea, so while I learn more from his books, much of it still goes over my head (ref: boat parts and shipping terms). Yet even with all the boating jargon it makes for a gripping thriller.

Recommended.

I just finished this book and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was different from the usual books I read (Grisham,Finder,Ect), the sailing terms were a little difficult to understand sometimes but for the most part the book keeps you guessing till the very end. Who cant love Morgan for her passion to find her dad win or lose. For a good read this book is a sure thing.

I'm both a sailor girl and an avid reader. I'm also a huge Paul Garrison fan, so whenever he comes out with a new book, I know my day and most of my night is shot, because once you start something of his, you just can't put it down, and THE RIPPLE EFFECT is certainly no exception. In fact, if I may be so bold to say, I believe this is Mr. Garrison's best work. He delivers up people you believe in, puts them in unbelievable situations and makes you believe in them too. And he weaves the real world into his fiction so tightly that you can't tell what's real and what's not.

The story opens with Aiden Page in the Caribbean. We learn that he miraculously survived the tragedy at the World Trade Center on September 11, and that the world thinks he's dead. Because he was being investigated for crimes he didn't commit, because he was faced with losing everything and because he had life insurance, he disappears, leaving a daughter that misses him horribly. He has too much to drink one night and calls her, but he hangs up without speaking. However daughter Morgan knows it's him.

Aiden feels to the bone that his older brother Charlie also survived and just before the planes hit the towers, Charlie gave him a fake passport and told him if anything bad ever happened to run for the island. Blind Man Island, one of the many islands that make up Tonga in the South Pacific, was the island he was talking about and Aiden signs on as crew with a of couple gay nuns who are heading that way in their ageing sailboat. Charlie did survive and he's headed toward the island with a wealthy widow on an expensive yacht. And Morgan steals a small boat in California and is also heading toward the island.

But the island is not the idyllic resort local in the South Seas they'd been lead to believe it is. There are very bad people there who are plotting an act of terrorism that will make what happen at the Twin Towers seem like child's play. Plus getting there is no easy feat for the family Page. Rough seas, kidnapping pirates, a hurricane and more will conspire to stop them as they all race toward the exciting climax.

I'm not too impressed with this book. I expected a lot more action involving boats, a la Clive Cussler. Instead, I got tons and tons of pages of business/financial blabber. I really couldn't follow that part of the story - money laundering, arms dealing, computer files? As Tom Clancy is to techno, as John le Carre is to political, so Paul Garrison is to financial. At least in this book. The good part of the story are the chapters of a 15 yr. old sailing around the world by herself.

It's been awhile since I read a book I didn't want to put down - The Ripple Effect is one of those! You start off admiring Morgan's spunk and ingenuity then rapidly turn the pages hoping she just "makes it"! It was the entertainment I was looking for - I loved it!

This novel has an intreging premise. Two brothers survive the collapse of the World Trade Center, steal some money, and flee to an island. Then the daughter of one of the men gets a strange phone call and realizes that her father is still alive. She steals a sailing boat and sails across the Pacific to "Blind Man's Island."

I loved all this! What a great beginning. BUT!

I got past the fact that one brother had a green eye and a blue eye. Talk about distracting from the focus of the story. But when that man got stabbed in the eye at "Blind Man's Island," that was too much. Come on. This is not a supernatural story.

He's making love to the wife of the owner of the island, and she tells him to close his eyes as she rides him. Then she stabs him in the green eye. If they wanted to kill him, why did they do that--trying to get the reader to flinch. So recently being blinded in one eye, he hides out from the bad guys. Please...this eye business destroyed the novel for me.

Leave out those two things, and I could have finished and enjoyed this novel. I would have given it 4 stars.