The Fourth Perimeter

January 28, 2002
If Green was as obvious on the football field as he is in the writing of his latest thriller (after The Letter of the Law), his NFL career would have been a lot shorter. The first clue to what's going on in this story about a former Secret Service agent trying to investigate and avenge the death of his son comes early on, followed almost immediately by three more thuddingly obvious markers. Any chance they will prove to be red herrings quickly disappears: they are all exactly what they seem to be. Too bad, because the basic premise is sound and promising: Kurt Ford, former Secret Service agent and successful computer entrepreneur, knows his beloved son, Collin, better than anyone, and is ready to stake his life on the certainty that Collin—an able and ambitious Secret Service agent himself—would never commit suicide, as the Washington, D.C., police have concluded. So when a former rival within the Treasury Department, David Claiborne, contacts Kurt secretly and tells him that two other Secret Service agents have also died under mysterious circumstances, it's definitely possible that all three agents witnessed something they shouldn't have when they accompanied the president to a clandestine meeting at a Maryland farmhouse. As Kurt uses his own experience to plan a private vendetta, fans of Green's previous books might hope for—and certainly deserve—a few more plot twists and a much more interesting resolution. Instead, they are served up an all too predictable finale. 3-city author tour.

February 1, 2002
In this new novel by National Public Radio commentator and best-selling author Green (The Letter of the Law), a beautiful woman gets Secret Service agent Collin Ford drunk and, in his Washington, DC, home, murders him with the help of two thugs, attempting to make it look like suicide. When Collin's wealthy father, Kurt Ford, himself a former Secret Service agent, receives the news, he flies his jet to the capital, convinced that his son would not kill himself. Later, Kurt meets with his old Secret Service pal David Claiborne, who, after 20 years, has reached the high-level position that Kurt achieved before leaving to start his highly successful company, Safetech. David convinces Kurt that the President had Collin killed after he and two other agents saw the President in a compromising predicament. Kurt then hatches a plan to assassinate the President, and political plots and subplots abound. Because David Claiborne appears to be the most likely suspect, despite Kurt's fatuousness in believing what he says about the President, there is no suspense. And although Kurt is supposed to be a self-made billionaire, he's not smart. Not recommended, though there may be demand. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/01.] Michelle Foyt, Russell Lib., Middletown, CT

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.