Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

For years superstar anchorman Crawford Sloane and legendary correspondent Harry Partridge have been professional and personal rivals: yet it is to Partridge that Sloane turns when the woman they both love, Sloane's wife, is kidnapped by terrorists. This latest offering from Arthur Hailey, his first novel since Strong Medicine (LJ 10/15/84), follows the winning formula that has made his previous books best sellers. By pairing exhaustive, penetrating research with an exciting and taut story, Hailey gives us a fresh behind-the-scenes look at a complex and topical industry. So what if characterization is not one of Hailey's strengths, or if it's hard to swallow the coincidence that a rich, suburban housewife who gets kidnapped just happens to have taken lessons in CQB (close quarters battle) classes that sure come in handy in captivity. A winner just the same. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/89 . -- Lydia Burruel Johnson, Mesa P.L., Ariz. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In his first book in six years, Hailey ( Airport ; Hotel ; etc.) links the infamous Medellin drug cartel with the violent revolutionaries of Sendero Luminoso --``the Shining Path''--a Maoist terrorist group that in this scorcher kidnaps the family of CBA-TV news anchor Crawford Sloane. After a slow, creaky start, and despite a pasteboard cast of guerillas who shoot off more stilted phrases than bullets, the story moves with speed and heat as Crawford's valiant wife Jessica, her young son Nicky and flinty father-in-law are smuggled in coffins to Peru, then marched to a steaming, remote jungle village. Back in the States, heavy-weight correspondent Harry Partridge, Jessica's old lover, spearheads an investigation that the network's slimy parent company, Globanic Industries, tries to hamper. Gripping behind-the-scenes action at CBA-TV and a vivid primer on terrorist tactics pepper the boiling pot. Credibility gaps in the final chapters are paved over by sheer, reckless drama. Literary Guild main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Book Club selection. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

``We interrupt our regular programming to bring you a special report. . . police . . . have reported the apparent kidnapping of the wife, young son, and father of CBA news anchorman Crawford Sloane'' summarizes the plot of this exciting novel. Readers will feel a part of the team of CBA staffers who become detectives in the exciting race to rescue the family from ruthless Colombian terrorists rather than give into their demands for free air time. Readers also witness life with the captives--both the brutal and the kinder moments. In typical, well-researched Hailey fashion, the behind-the-scenes world in the news department of the network is realistically brought to life. Italicized flashbacks present background that develops the characters more fully. The length of the novel may prevent many students from picking it up, but those who do will find an action-filled adventure that's hard to put down. The novel may also appeal to students interested in electronic journalism as a career; in addition to depicting newsroom life, the book will open their eyes to both the close camaraderie and the bitter conflicts that can exist in a large organization. --Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Hailey here eschews his customary attention to industrial detail in favor of action-packed melodrama with trendy bells and whistles. Early on, a band of Peruvian revolutionaries under the command of a hired gun for one of Colombia's drug cartels stages a well-planned abduction from a supermarket parking tot in New York's Westchester County. There axe three victims: the wife (Jessica); preteen son (Nicky); and father (Angus) of Crawford Sloane, star anchor-man at CBA-TV. A local stringer with a police-band radio stumbles on the crime, which soon becomes a media circus. Whilst the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies dither, the network swings into high gear, assigning its top correspondent, Harry Partridge (a sometime contender for Crawf's megabuck job and Jessica's first lover) to head the investigation. Meanwhile, the kidnappers fly their hostages (drugged and in coffins) to a remote hideaway in the Amazon rain forest. From this seemingly safe haven, they announce that CBA can ransom the prisoners by broadcasting propaganda tapes extolling the Maoist philosphy of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). Although Partridge and his resourceful crew track the terrorists to their jungle lair, Margot Lloyd-Mason, a chilly blonde who was put in charge of the network after its acquisition by a multinational conglomerate, undermines the task force's efforts. Her intent is to keep career-threatening costs to a minimum and spare the parent organization any chance of embarrassment on the score of its unsavory dealings with high officials in Lima. Spurred on by the murder of Angus and piano-playing Nicky's loss of two fingers, noble newsman Harry overcomes the daunting odds. He leads a daring raid that results in the rescue of Crawf's family (minus father) and, after a climactic chase-cum-gun-battle, his own death. At the close, the good-guy survivors are winging homeward to uncertain futures while the earthbound mercenaries scatter to escape the lethal fates their failure has earned them. A blood-and-thunder thriller that, though unwontedly shy of nuts-and-bolts background, seems sure to keep Hailey's undemanding fans turning its 576 pages at rapid clips. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Television film writer Arthur Hailey was born in England in 1920, where he was a decorated pilot in the RAF from 1939 to 1947. When he was 27, he emigrated to Canada where he served in the RCAF in 1951.

Hailey was best known as author of over twenty television plays. His first, Flight into Danger (1956), was conceived on a business trip when he imagined what would happen if the pilots became unable to land the plane and he had to step in. Drawing on his professional history but with no experience in the publishing industry, he blind-mailed his script and it was accepted.

While the TV-movie genre made his reputation as a writer, Hailey has gone on to write a number of novels, including In High Places (1962), Hotel (1965), Airport (1968),The Moneychangers (1975), Strong Medicine (1984) and Detective (1997). All his novels have been published in foreign-language editions, and many have been adapted for the screen. He died of a suspected stroke in 2004.

(Bowker Author Biography)