The Blue Zone

THE BLUE ZONE is one of those novels that make you want to smack some sense into its characters. Ilyana Kadushin portrays an American family caught in the web of an international drug-smuggling ring. The actions of the family patriarch have caused the situation, which lands the family in the dubious safety of the federal Witness Protection program, that is, until the father disappears into what the feds call "the blue zone," their way of saying he has disappeared without a trace. The extent of the husband's involvement in the drug trade is the big question of the novel. Kadushin plays her role perfectly, never revealing too much but delivering just enough to keep us listening. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

March 5, 2007
Having coauthored five bestsellers with James Patterson (Lifeguard
, etc.), Gross makes a solo debut superior to his collaborative efforts, if short of the first thriller rank. His engaging heroine, Kate Raab, a medical researcher in the Bronx, is shocked when the Feds arrest her beloved gold trader father, Benjamin, and charge him with laundering money for a Colombian drug cartel. A hit team's attempt to kill the entire Raab family prompts all of them, except Kate, to start their lives anew in the witness protection program. Kate's choice, predictably, places her in continuing danger, even as she begins to suspect that her father's involvement with the narco traffickers was more deliberate and extensive than he's willing to admit. The secret revelations at the heart of the plot may strike some as a little far-fetched, and the details about the witness protection program fail to convince, but Gross shows sufficient talent for readers to want to see more from his pen alone.