The First 48

January 26, 2004
More often than not, a person missing as a result of foul play will be killed if not rescued in the first 48 hours after the abduction. This actuarial statistic is taken as gospel by struggling lawyer Tom Redmond in Green's sloppy third thriller (after The Fifth Angel
) when Redmond's Washington Post
reporter daughter, Jane, disappears. Before she vanished, Jane was investigating the purported sexual misconduct of powerful Senator Gleason, who years ago destroyed her father's career as a district attorney. Now Tom believes the senator has hired a former CIA assassin to do away with Jane. Enlisting the help of former biker Mike Tubbs, Tom sets off on a 48-hour rampage of criminal trespass, kidnapping, assault, grand theft, burglary, torture and murder, racing up and down the east coast with the duct tape–wrapped senator in tow. Meanwhile, Jane makes her own escape, running half-naked around a Hudson River island, fighting snakes and psychopaths. Just as she thinks all is lost, she meets up with Mark Allen, a handsome mystery man who was one of her key sources on the Gleason story. Mark seems to be on her side—but who is he, really? After the 48 hours elapse, the action extends to the evil plan of a Ukrainian terrorist who talks like Speedy Gonzalez, and Jane's vigilantes commit a few more felonies to save the day. Improbabilities vie for attention with contrivances, and the novel is riddled with careless writing ("Mike began typing again, his stubby fingers running the keys like a prodigy"), silly dialogue (" 'This is GD big' ") and irrelevant detail ("Tom paid at the Home Depot with cash"). As things wind down to a predictable ending, Redmond's 48 hours may seem interminable. Agent, Esther Newberg. Major ad/promo.

October 15, 2003
When his daughter disappears before she can rat on an influential senator, cop-turned-lawyer Tom Redmond packs for Washington.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2003
Green's career as a mystery-thriller author began with football-based novels--a subject close to him as an ex-NFL player and a current Fox Sports commentator. Then he changed course and started turning out high-concept legal thrillers (most recently, "The Fifth Angel," 2002). If his latest is any indication, perhaps it's time he returns to football. Here we meet Tom Redmond, who seemed destined to become something more than the drunken, slip-and-fall attorney he is today. His daughter, Jane, an investigative reporter for the "Washington Post," senses that her father is burying a dark secret that would explain how a once-rising star in the prosecutor's office fell from grace. All she has to go on, though, is the name Gleason. While investigating a corruption ring involving a high-profile senator named Michael Gleason (Gee, could it be the same Gleason?), Jane is abducted, and Tom wakes from his boozy haze to look for his daughter. Though not lacking in intrigue, the story is predictable, and the characters, likable enough, are thinly drawn. Green's celebrity ensures his books a strong marketing presence, and that usually is enough to draw a crowd. This one, however, just might bring out the boobirds. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)