With a Vengeance [Hardcover]

Eileen Dreyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2003

Maggie O'Brien, a nurse and a medic on a SWAT team, has a thirst for justice, and a chip on her shoulder. She lives in the shadow of her father, a famous (or infamous) cop. Is she more like him than she wants to admit? The question hits home when Maggie feels the desire-as all police, nurses, doctors and medics sometimes do-to dispense her own brand of justice. Soon she finds evidence that someone else may be acting on the same desire. Her search for the truth is a searing tour through the shades of gray between the impulse to heal and the urge to punish.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fast plotting, thorough research and a swaggering-cop style elevate this sixth novel from Dreyer, known for Brain Dead (1997) and other standard medical/serial-killer thrillers. "SWATBabe" Maggie O'Brien is one tough broad. As a new tactical emergency medic for the city and county of St. Louis, Mo., trauma nurse at Blymore Memorial and part-time firefighter medic, she has to be. This single 26-year-old overachiever lives, loves and plays hard to release the pressure found in her work and in her stormy relationship with her abusive father, ex-cop Tommy "the Terminator" O'Brien. When one of her favorite mental patients, Montana Bob, a former top FBI agent, becomes a casualty in what should have been a fairly routine call, O'Brien finds her name on "The List" at Blymore-the hospital's wall where names of troublemakers are scrawled by medical personnel to relieve tension. Her gut instinct leads her to start investigating people on the list with a link to Montana Bob who have turned up dead, but no one wants to hear her suspicions, since they may implicate her own beloved colleagues. Soon O'Brien discovers she's being prepped as the "fall gal" when a series of inexplicable ER deaths appear to be caused by her. O'Brien makes a complex, conflicted heroine, defiantly macho and yet so scarred by family violence that she refuses to use a gun even when doing so could save the lives of those she loves.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...a roller coaster ride driven by a kick-ass heroine who navigates the twisty line between life and death." -- Nora Roberts

"...smart, provocative, page-turning thriller. Cutting edge suspense with characters as sharp as knives. An absolutely terrific, hair-raising read!" -- Tami Hoag

"Dreyer evokes the edgy, sketchy world of crisis and trauma medical operations better than anyone I've read." -- Robert Crais

"Dreyer is one of those rare authors who can raise laughter and chills at the same time." -- Tess Gerritsen

"Eileen Dreyer is the next big thing in crime fiction...Her prose is greased lightning." --Keith Ablow

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (March 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739433741
• ISBN-13: 978-0739433744
• ASIN: 0312265778
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,207,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wild roller coaster ride of a thriller, February 28, 2003

By 

E. McKee "Book lover" (Rosemont, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With a Vengeance (Hardcover)

Maggie is an over-achiever - working as an Emergency Department nurse, an EMT, and a medic on a SWAT team. Life is pretty good for Maggie. She is dedicated to her work and enjoys belonging to a team. Her co-workers have become her friends and family - replacing her abusive alcoholic ex-cop father and his string of bimbo wives. She also has a cop lover who is great in bed.

Then Maggie discovers that someone is killing the bad guys - cleaning out the gene pool. Drunk drivers, gang-members, and abusive fathers are ending dead from non-life threatening injuries. Nobody seems to notice except Maggie and she needs proof that her suspicions are real. She no one to turn to - because the killer has to be one of her friends. What Maggie doesn't know is that the killer knows that she is investigating the deaths.

Maggie is a great character - she is smart, mouthy, and caring. The ER scenes and SWAT team deployments are grippingly real. The story is exciting and taut.

This is Eileen Dreyer's first book in a while. It's been worth the wait - but I hope the next one comes out sooner.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong crime thriller, March 1, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With a Vengeance (Hardcover)

The city of St. Louis and its County join forces to form a first rate SWAT Team that services the region. The only person on the group who doesn't carry a gun is the medic Maggie O' Brien. Maggie and her team are called in to break up a hostage situation with the victim being Maggie's boyfriend Sean Delaney and the perpetrator is a paranoid schizophrenic Montana Bob, a former FBI agent.

She talks Montana Bob down but he suddenly dies in the hospital. Maggie wonders if somebody killed him after he told her the names of three other people. When she seeks the trio, she learns that the two gangbangers and the pediophile also died in her hospital where she works as a trauma nurse. Maggie starts collecting evidence involving a silent conspiracy between people she knows in the hospital and the police department. She just has to figure out where to deliver her information to before she is killed or framed for murder.

It has been too many years since a crime thriller from Eileen Dreyer was released, but WITH A VENGEANCE is well worth the wait. The heroine is an admirable person with a subtle sense of humor who lives in perpetual crisis mode that would break many people, but she thrives on it. Her decision to root out the perpetrators knowing she will be shunned by her peers or killed is courageous but she still willingly pays the price. This is a first rate action packed medical thriller on a par with Robin Cook.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars who dispenses justice?, August 4, 2003

By 

Howard E. Aldrich (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With a Vengeance (Hardcover)

i could not put this mystery book down and was holding my breath until the very end! the main character, maggie o'brien is a hospital nurse and medic on a SWAT team. you are given a glimpse into the world of hostage negotation and also into the frenzy of a hospital trauma unit. looming big in this fast-paced story is maggie's father, a cop no longer 'officially' on the police force and her boyfriend sean, who is a policeman. i found myself questioning how would i deal with truely 'bad' people given the opportunity to work 'outside' of the law and this is one of the issues maggie has to resolve.