Suspicion of Rage [Hardcover]

Barbara Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2005

With a sizzling Cuban setting and a murder plot that hits too close to home, the New York Times bestselling mastermind delivers her most dramatic case to date.

Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana have recently married. Gail hopes to learn more about her new husband by visiting the island that still claims his heart. Anthony’s loyalties are divided between his family, who believe in the Revolution, and his friends, dissident writers José Leiva and Yolanda Cabrera. No one is aware that Yolanda’s idealistic twenty-year-old son, Mario, belongs to an underground group plotting the assassination of a top Cuban general.

The night before Gail and Anthony leave for Havana, the CIA pays a visit. They want Anthony to deliver a message to his brother-in-law, General Ramiro Vega: He is in danger, and unless he defects, he could be killed.

Why is Vega so important to the CIA? The answer leads to the discovery of a violent death, a secret terrorist threat, and a love from the past that could tear Gail and Anthony apart.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Well, here's a surprise: Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana, who have been edging ever closer to marriage through several episodes in Parker's Suspicion series, have finally done the deed--tied the knot during a weekend trip to the Florida Keys, much to the consternation of their respective families. Now they are planning a jaunt to Cuba, Anthony's homeland, but the trip is complicated when the CIA asks Anthony to pass on a message to his brother-in-law, a general, who may be the target of an assassination plot. Further muddling matters, one of the assassins may be the son of two of Anthony's closest friends. This series has been around for a while, but it hasn't yet reached the point where the characters feel too familiar or its plots have drifted into formula. The interpersonal dynamics between Connor and Quintana remain sharp, and the Florida setting continues to add to the appeal. If Parker keeps writing them as smartly as she has written this one, her series may never turn stale. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Top-drawer suspense. (The New York Times Book Review) Razor-sharp portraits . . . riveting. (Publishers Weekly) A real find for those who love taut, highly literate yarns. (Tony Hillerman)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (February 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525948058
• ISBN-13: 978-0525948056
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,561,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of action in this romantic thriller, December 5, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suspicion of Rage (Hardcover)

After a quickie marriage, Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana plan to travel to Havana via Mexico so she can meet the Cuban branch of her new husband's family. They plan to stay at his sister Marta's house; she is married to General Ramirez Vega, a rising star in Castro's government. Anthony is also friends with political dissidents so he tries not to talk politics while he is there.

This trip proves impossible because before he leaves a government investigator wants Anthony to persuade his brother-in-law to defect; they want him to verify what Major Omar Cespedes Ruzi, a Cuban defector, told them when he arrived in the United States. Gail and Anthony find that General Garcia, Romero's boss, wants Anthony to find out what Cespedes told government officials and he won't let them return home until he gets some answers. While these events are transpiring, dissidents in an underground cell plans to assassinate General Vega and one of these rebels has a very special relationship to Anthony.

Unlike the previous books in this series, this novel takes place on Cuban soil and readers see how life is like for those who support the government and those who oppose it. Much against his will, Anthony is forced into the role of spy in order to keep America from invading Cuba. There is plenty of action in this romantic thriller but the heart of the story lies in Anthony's love for a Cuba that he was forced to leave when he was thirteen years old .SUSPICION OF RAGE is a fantastic thriller that will grab and keep reader interest.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, June 5, 2006

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suspicion of Rage (Hardcover)

Here I thought I was buying a mystery...only to find the author using this book as a soapbox for Cuban history and politics.

I've found this series to be less enjoyable since it's morphed from the Gail Connor mysteries to the Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana mysteries to what I believe is now the Anthony Quintana mysteries. Gail seems to have become a supporting character in her own books as Mr. Perfect continues to zip around in his red cape, saving the world and all its people.

Aside from her character being minimized, Gail has gone from a fiesty indepedent lawyer to an annoying, harping shrew who whines and complains to and about Anthony constantly, but then forgets all about it as soon as he kisses her hand and calls her "bonboncita" (which is usually about when I throw up). Anthony is way too slick for my tastes -- I lived in Miami for 15 years, and having known many Anthonys, I can guarantee that this guy wouldn't give someone like Gail a second look, let alone marry her and put up with her garbage. And no one...I mean NO ONE...is as perfect as the author tries to make us believe Anthony is.

I was disappointed in the supporting cast in this story too. I didn't think any of the Cuban characters were fully developed and there were a lot of loose ends left hanging, particularly with Mario and Marta. I also thought the regular supporting cast was pretty useless to this story. The author would've been better off leaving them all at home and not wasting so much time on finding stuff for all these people to do.

While this book was suspenseful and well-written, I really didn't expect or want to read a political novel about Cuba and Cubans. Had I wanted that, I would've picked up a Carolina Aguilera-Garcia book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A dreary non-suspensefull history lesson!, March 23, 2005

By 

L. Lyman (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suspicion of Rage (Hardcover)

I love Barbara Parker and can't wait for each book, so I was really disappointed to have purchased a Cuban history book instead of a legal thriller. I understand that the writer is passionate about Cuba and Cuban exiles, but this story was so perdictable and dull, she lost my sympathy early on. My guess is that anybody acting against Fidal Castro while in Cuba will always be in danger, so the unfolding events were no surprise.

Hopefully the next book will have both a legal case and Gail's family life or I'm thinking Parker's books go off my "must buy in hardcover" list.