Customer Reviews

No Safe Place

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

For years, Patterson has written courtroom dramas that are like Grisham but just a bit deeper and not as region-bound. With Dymo-tape cover designs to boot. He apparently run out of Dymo tape for his dispenser one book back, and maybe he's sensing that the lawyer-book market has peaked. So he's going for political drama, and I have to say he's as good as any of them, and BETTER than Tom Clancy was in "Executive Orders" (which was a bit of a hybrid). What we have here is not an election campaign story, it's a nomination campaign story, so we don't get to see who gets elected. Our hero is Kerry Kilcannon, kid brother of "Private Screening's" James Kilcannon, following in his big brother's footsteps twelve years later. It's too much of a temptation to compare the two brothers to the Kennedys, so please try to resist, okay? You'll deprive yourself of a pretty decent story. There's a bit of lawyer stuff in flashbacks to Kerry's earlier career as a prosecutor crusading for abused children and their mothers. You see, he hadn't originally planned to be a politician, but he's successfully pressured into it by friends. He loses his wife in the process (maybe she's thinking of what happened to her brother-in-law), draws the ire of the far right on gun control, gains the attention of an assassin over the abortion issue, rekindles an old flame with a newscaster whose inability to be objective about him handicaps her reporting (neither of them have totally faced the fact that they still hold feelings for each other). And what's worse, he's got the current Vice President to run against--a guy he'd campaign FOR if it weren't for the fact that the Veep's a bit too politically elastic to be much of a statesman. So not only has Patterson apparently decided to switch genres, he's chosen to write about a different stage of the electoral process--the party nominations. Interesting.

Fans of Richard North Patterson, be ye warned. "No Safe Place" is not a legal fiction novel like his more recent novels ("Silent Witness", "Final Judgment"). But what Patterson does so well for that genre, he masterfully morphs to the campaign trail. Like his previous books, much of the character and plot exposition of "No Safe Place" is told in flashback. The "present day" portion takes place the week before the decisive California primary for the Democratic Presidential candidacy. Senator Kerry Kilcannon's run for the Rose Garden is placed in jeopardy by the threatened disclosure of illegally obtained information of an earlier extramarital affair, and the abortion that went with it, and his team of spin doctors must labor to soft soap the news in advance.

Patterson makes no real effort to disguise the analogies between Senator Kerry Kilcannon -- the upstart former-prosecutor thrust into the political limelight after the assassination of his older brother during his campaign for the same spot eight years prior -- and the late Bobby Kennedy. Or the thinly veiled comparison between Dick Mason -- the Vice President with campaign finance issues seeking to succeed his two-term Democrat predecessor -- with Veep Al Gore. (Mason, like his alter-ego, is so wooden even Geppetto and the Blue Fairy could never turn him into "a real boy".) To this Patterson adds such "ripped-from-the-headlines" issues such as abortion clinic murders, extramarital political peccadillos, well-placed press leaks, and "public figures versus private lives". The result is a stimulating, thought-provoking novel of possibly prophetic proportions.

The book has a number of interesting characters which I especially liked, particularly Liam Dunn, Kerry's well-mannered mentor. I really liked Patterson's portrayal of the behind-the-scenes repore among the members of the Press Corps.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the book, I find, comes from Mr. Patterson's Acknowledgments. Patterson lists as two of his primary sources former President and First Lady George and Barbara Bush. This is somewhat surprising considering the book's overall liberal leanings.

All in all, it would be a misnomer to call this book a thriller. It doesn't take much thought to figure out what will ultimately transpire in the end. But, as with most of Patterson's books, it's the getting there that's the fun part.

Good fun reading a novel about a senator fighting through the preliminaries to become presidential candidate for his party and comparing it to the real-life saga of Bush v. Cain!

During the first 100 pages I thought, so old-fashioned: Focus on one character (Kerry Kilcannon) and provide flash-backs to his childhood (have you noticed, every Irish male at that stage is an alcoholic and a wifebasher!) and formative years, for the reader to understand the motivation behind every decision he makes, every action he takes in his later life.

And then the depiction of his loveaffair with Lara: Just didn't seem like end of twentieth century, too romantic to be true.

I don't understand why the author had to throw in the storyline of the fanatical pro-lifer, intent on killing Kilcannon. I didn't think it did anything to enhance the suspense. Maybe because of the twist in the end...

But afterwards, the author concentrated more on campaign and less on Kilcannon and that's where the book gained momentum: Journalists hunting for a story that could end Kilcannons race; Preparations for a TV debate with the other contestant; how to get the pro-choice votes; how to provide security for the candidate; the relation between Dick Mason (the incumbent Vice President who of course wants the Precidency) and Kilcannon.

My first RNP. The book made that made me a fan of Richard N Patterson. After No Safe Place, Silent Witness,Escape the Night and Degree of Guilt Richard North Patterson proved to be my most favourite author, even over John Grisham and Steve Martini.The campaign trail is amazing, the romance touching and the way RNP takes us to the past of the protagonist Kerry Kilcannon is just great. His feelings and character are well written. Kerry Kilcannon is a lawyer mostly dealing with cases of domestic violence. He then enters politics and runs for president. His brother James was assasinated in a campaign. Past memories,his love and emotions make a great read; u gotcha read this book, you'll surely get hooked.

A love affair with a reporter haunts Senator Kerry Kilcannon's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination after someone leaks the story of the affair to a journalist. As the race closes, we see both the candidate's struggle to do the right thing and a journalist's uncharacteristic wrestling with his conscience about bringing down a decent man.

And while that's going on an anti-abortion fanatic, who has already committed multiple murders, is stalking Kilcannon because of this pro-choice position.

A fast five star thriller that examines a hotly contested political issue.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

This book was a bit slow at the beginning, but the farther I read, the better it got. The writing, plot, and characterization were all excellent. The most surprising thing to me was that the author made the entire thing so completely believable. I think that's a rare accomplishment. This is the first Patterson book I've read (he seems to write mostly crime/mystery stories, which I'm not nuts about), and I'm so glad I had the experience.

Being a neophyte to Mr. Patterson's books, I have been going through them in order; I have been awed overall by this man's brilliant writing. I was disappointed at first in "No Safe Place," as Patterson moves away from criminal law to a political drama. I even considered not reading it after the first few chapters. But once again, Patterson's skills as a writer forced me to finish it and I'm glad I did. For what he achieves again is an incredible mixture of characters and situations that can't help but grab you by the throat and never let you go. In the alternating flashbacks, we learn so much about all of the characters. At times, Kerry Killcannon seems too good to be true, but beneath this saintly figure is a man with bitterness, the need for vengeance, and a need to climb out of the shadow of his assassinated brother, Jamie.
The scenes of family abuse are stunning--and disturbing---the moment at the end of the Anthony Musso trial is shocking and heartbreaking. Kerry's decision regarding the child in this situation has far reaching results.
Lara Costello, the lovely reported that Killcannon has fallen in love with, is portrayed as a career-driven, but ultimately a woman of substance.
The issues attacked in this book are the hard ones that we all face each day. Pro-life/pro-choice/gun control/spouse abusal protection...Patterson packs some powerful comments and whether you agree with them or not, you have to admire him for trying to be fair and realistic in his approach. Journalism takes a beating in this one, as it should. It gives further evidence how the media will do anything to get a story, even ruin people's lives.
The tragic Sean Bean is a very disturbing but pitiful character and the path he takes to his own destruction is gutwrenching, but at the climax of his scene, you'll understand why.
A brilliant book, and quite well done.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Began the book, but unlike every other Richard North Patterson novel, was able to put it down regularly. I still have NOT completed it and probably won't. It is so bad that I had to get on my computer to see how other comments (reviews) were on this. I feel better since I see others are equally bored. I have read all of Mr. Patterson's novels, but unless I see something better, I've read my LAST.

I, probably like most readers, am drawn to tried and true authors that I have enjoyed as a matter of course over the years. However, I feel as though I was misled on this one, in that I was dependant upon the fact that it was written by Richard North Patterson.

Personally, I found the flashbacks far more interesting that the actual story line and found myself able to put this one down on a regular basis.

Quite honestly, I have not, as of yet, finished the entire book and maintain that I will read it to its completion, but only in light of the fact that I don't have another, hopefully better, waiting in the wings!

Too much political rhetoric if you're hoping for a page-turner. I don't agree that this is one of his best. Of course, I did hang right in there through the very last paragraph!!