Riptide [Hardcover]

Catherine Coulter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2000

Revenge and murder become entwined in this riveting new contemporary suspense novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Edge.

With four back-to-back bestselling suspense thrillers to her credit, Catherine Coulter has earned an ever-growing following thanks to her original plots, vivid characters, unexpected twists, and satisfyingly unpredictable denouements. The Los Angeles Times found The Edge "full of surprises." Now Coulter delivers a novel predicated on a baffling threat, fueled by an animus dating back a generation.

Political speechwriter Jessie Matlock is at the top of her professional game, working for the re-election campaign of New York's popular governor, when she receives the first phone call: "Stop sleeping with the governor or I'll kill him." Though Jessie isn't sleeping with the governor, the menacing ultimatums persist. The police suddenly stop believing her, even after the stalker murders an innocent person to prove his point.

When the governor is shot in the neck, Jessie flees for the safety of coastal Maine, choosing to hide not only from the stalker but also from the authorities. For sanctuary, she goes to Riptide, the home of a college friend--but soon finds herself at even greater risk.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rebecca Matlock is in the thick of politics, enjoying her work as a speechwriter for the governor of New York, who's facing a reelection campaign. What she's not enjoying are the menacing phone calls from a stranger who refers to himself as "your boyfriend" and warns her that he will kill the governor if she doesn't stop sleeping with him. Although Becca has never had a sexual relationship with her boss, she is increasingly frightened by the phone calls. The police, who were initially sympathetic to her plight, make it clear that they regard her as a hysteric, even after the stalker murders an innocent bystander to convince her that he means business. Becca seeks refuge in Riptide, an isolated community on the Maine coast, but terror continues to dog her. The skeleton of a woman who may be the missing wife of a college friend is unearthed in the basement of her new house; the stalker tracks her to her chosen refuge; and she is sought by the police and the FBI following an assassination attempt on the governor.

With the appearance of Adam Carruthers, a stranger who says he's her guardian angel but doesn't tell her who sent him, the plot makes a dramatic right turn that requires a willing suspension of disbelief. It seems that Becca's father, a high-ranking intelligence officer, went underground when she was a baby in order to protect his family from reprisals by a Soviet agent whose wife he had accidentally killed. Now it's payback time, as Thomas Matlock calls in his own intelligence community to neutralize the threat on his daughter's life. All the attendant testosterone speeds up the action and propels it toward a shoot-'em-up conclusion, but it also sacrifices a clearer portrayal of Becca's feelings about her father's deception and abandonment. At the same time, the switch from a damsel-in-distress story to a high-velocity espionage thriller relegates the skeleton in Becca's basement to a secondary plot point that is resolved a bit too tidily. Catherine Coulter is short on character development and explication, but she weaves a suspenseful web of danger and intrigue, and for her many admirers, the fact that there seem to be two novels trying to coexist in one book may not be too much of a good thing. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Trouble, in the form of psychopathic madmen, seems to follow political speechwriter Becca Matlock around like a personal storm cloud in bestselling historical romance (False Pretenses) and thriller (The Edge) author Coulter's newest suspense novel. When a stalker who calls himself Becca's "boyfriend" accuses her of sleeping with the governor and threatens to kill his perceived rival if she doesn't stop, Becca turns to New York's finest, but the cops repeatedly dismiss her. Worse, when the governor is shot, they assume she's responsible. With nowhere to turn, Becca retreats to coastal Riptide, Maine, a sleepy community that is also home to her college friend Tyler. But all is not peaceful there either. Tyler's wife apparently disappeared a while back, the locals think he killed her, and a skeleton falls out of the basement wall of Becca's rented house. Things get really out of hand when it looks as though Becca's problems can be traced to an axe-grinding former KGB agent. Although the book's setting shifts from New York City streets to rural New England, there is little atmospheric detail. The unsettling tone moves from NYPD Blue to Murder, She Wrote with creepy Cold War inflections. But convolution doesn't camouflage the fact that the heroine has more guts than brains, and the villains are ultimately silly rather than menacing. When Dillon and Sherlock Savich, FBI computer specialists from Coulter's The Maze, enter the plot, one gets the feeling that the gang's all here, but the hijinks remain untethered. Only diehard Coulter fans will want to tread water with this one. Doubleday Book Club main selection; 20-city author tour. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1ST edition (July 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399146164
• ISBN-13: 978-0399146169
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Coulter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling FBI thrillers The Cove, The Maze, The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh House, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take and TailSpin. She lives in northern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Page-turner of a plot!, July 11, 2000

By 

Michelle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riptide (Hardcover)

Well, this was a great read. I was a bit uncertain after the last hard cover release by Coulter (The Edge). I was glad to see Coulter return to her 3rd person style of writing. I also enjoyed the plot twists. It was a bit of a challenge to pull the different plot strings together from time to time. It was almost as if there were two books in one. I really did enjoy the primary characters of Becca and Adam. The only missing element in this great suspense was the deeper development of the romance between Adam and Becca. It was almost an afterthought in the story. However, I truly was engrossed and couldn't put it down until I finished it. So, overall it was very enjoyable.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This got published?? One star is too much., February 4, 2002

By 

M. Winter (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riptide (FBI Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have always found it difficult to part with a book once read, so I keep building bookcases. However, Riptide is the second book in my many years of reading that I cannot wait to get out of my house. I bought the paperback because the name Catherine Coulter was familiar and she was a "best-selling" writer. Then there was all this critical praise in the front pages. Was I ever stupid to believe that. This book is so poorly written that I found myself underlining and cross-referencing all the stupid things that were written. (It reminded me of one of the two Danielle Steele books I read - I only read a second one to give her a chance, but she failed again - in which one of the female characters is descibed as having "endless legs" over and over again. Gag.) Where was the editor of Riptide?? Was this originally published unread?? Here's a couple examples from early on in the paperback edition of Riptide:

Chapter 5: Becca is in her rented house on the coast of Maine when she checks the weather report on TV and hears that the worst storm in years is approaching and everyone is being warned to go to shelters. The wind and rain hit. The lights flicker. She has bought candles and set them on her bedside table (perhaps in case the power goes out??). The thunder is deafening and the house is rattling. Get the picture? Then the last line of Chapter 5:

"Suddenly, with no warning, thunder boomed, lightning streaked through the sky, and the lights went out."

Suddenly?? No warning?? This was a surprise?? I should have thrown the book away right there.

Then there's page 45: "Had she come here just to be killed in a ferocious summer storm?" followed on p.48 by: ". . .making her wonder if she'd come to Maine only to be done in by a wretched storm." Did Coulter think we had forgotten she's already said that?

I could go on and on. My personal opinion is that anyone who thought this book - with it's convoluted plot(s) and inane, unrealistic dialogue and narrative - is a good read has NEVER read a really good book. Or they are 12 years old. This book stinks. I am not even giving Coulter the second chance I gave Steele. My review in a word, Yuck.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN ENJOYABLE THRILLER, July 24, 2000

By 

Nick G - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riptide (Hardcover)

Becca Matlock is the senior speechwriter for New York's governor, she is also the victim of a stalker. Becca pleads with the police department to believe her, and even after the murder of a homeless woman, and an attack on the governor himself, the police still don't believe her claims.

Becca moves back to her hometown of Riptide, to try and make peace with her mother's death, and the threating letters and phonecalls from the stalker. After settling in her new home, she runs into an old friend from college, whose wife has left him to raise his son.

During a rough storm, Becca's basement wall cracks, revealing the skeleton of a young woman. As her life begins spinning out of control, Becca, becomes faced with the stalker (who has found her in her new home), and the fact there are lies in her family history...lies that are resurfacing present day, and may cost Becca her life. Becca finds safety in the arms of Adam, the man protecting her. Adam will work with Sherlock and Savitch (characters from previous books) to solve the mystery involving her family's past.

"Riptide" is fast-paced, and enjoyable, the only flaw is in the juggling of the two plots (The family history, and the stalker). The plot featuring the stalker is the most interesting and an important part to the shocking climax.

Catherine Coulter keeps the reader in suspense by switching the plot themes, and by revealing many secrets along the way. If the entire book was focused on the stalker it would have earned 5 stars.

A good read for fans of fast-paced entertainment.

Nick Gonnella