Customer Reviews

Silent Partner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Story starts off well enough as two inseparable girl friends attend a Carolina college fraternity party that goes bad. One of them, naturally the one who was reluctant to go the party ends up being attacked by drunken brothers and as she tries to save herself she falls out a window and dies. Believe me these nine pages are gripping. It's straight downhill from there. The author seems totally fixated thruout the rest of the book in totally unbelievable characters. There seem to be racists and bigots absolutely everywhere. This was really a painful read to get thru.

They snort, they scream, they roll their eyes. Experienced readers will recognize that any of those things are a bad sign. Here we have all three, sort of like a bad day at the bull paddock. Eventually I simply lost interest but my impression is that top level bankers are prepared to kill, die, and otherwise go crazy for? You guessed it, mortgage descrimination by evil white guys!!! Oh, and they all seem to gulp bar wine. And the heroine is a brave, intrepid bank executive who is afraid to fly. And the hero? Well, it would be unfair to those of you who might like this book. Actually for aficiandos of bad writing who are willing to spend an hour skim reading it is not a bad deal.

The prose here is increadibly choppy. It breaks and starts like a second graders first story. In many ways this is some of the worst writing that I have encountered in some time. One of the other reviewers here said that "the first nine pages were gripping and that its all down-hill from there." But I disagree. I think that from the outset, the plot is tortured in its absurdity. The death that Angela witnesses is contrived and sets up a very idiotic racism bent that seems to prevail throughout this book. I think that if you are going to touch on a subject like racism these days you are going to have to treat it with a little more respect than as a 3rd rate plot device.

Beyond the campy racisim, you have strong figures that are as 2 dimensional as can be. I mean, these figures here are straight out of every bad book you have ever read. It is like the author has combed old books and bad movies searching for the prototypical bad guy.

Avoid this book like the plauge. It is very very bad.

In Stephen Frey's world, apparently, all the villains are blonde haired fraternity members ("frat boys" in Freyese) or racist businessmen. The only decent people are either poor, members of ethnic minorities, or leftist acitivists. Matters are made worse by an unbelievable plot, plodding writing, and motivations, which to put it kindly, do not ring true. If Mr. Frey has any understanding of the subtleties of human nature or life's ambiguities, he fails to reveal it in "Silent Partner." I have read a lot of thrillers so the law of averages decrees that some of them were not very good. Nevertheless, I can't remember one as bad as this silly left-wing rant.

I agree with the reviewer who called Silent Partner silly. I read this book through page 50 and then started skimming. Since the ending was very predictable, I doubt I missed much.

this my first time reading this author and my last. this a story about a billonaire seeking help from a women because of incident in her past. of course, we are not sure who or what he is, or why he really needs her help when he has all the money in the world and she is a nobody. this story only becomes more absurd at the conclusion. SAVE YOU MONEY!

I absolutely agree with all the other one star reviewers and have nothing more to add except that this author continues to go down hill... as if he is fulfilling a deadline for an advance already spent.

Cardboard characters and silly leftwing rants. Spare me. What a waste of perfectly good paper.

I am glad that I only paid thrift shop price for this book. Even then it was overpriced and I am sorry that I wasted the time I did on it. I bought it because I have enjoyed the author in the past. What happened? This book was bad writing, unbelievable characters and a ridiculous plot. I would expect more from a grammar school student. Mr Frey owes us all an apology. I won't be buying another one of his books.

One of the wealthiest men in the world has a job opening. He needs a smart, athletic, beautiful woman who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. How very original? He finds a woman who fills the bill and more.

Silent Partner is entertaining, but like a fairy tale that you have heard several dozen times, it is also predictable. I enjoyed the easy plot, even though it was silly.

This is a commuter book. Little concentration is required to follow the plot. At the end of the tale you will have been entertained and will chuckle to yourself when you remember that I warned you that Silent Partner is predictable and silly.

Three stars and no more.