Run the Risk

January 10, 2005
Pasadena bomb squad detective Dylan Harrison describes the man who's just blown up Lt. Alex Delillo's partner: "He's very skilled, very dangerous, and he enjoys his work." It's an apt, if understated, description, as Frost proves in this chilling debut novel about a serial-killer bomber who plans to demonstrate his incendiary powers on live TV during the annual Pasadena Rose Parade. Alex is a single mom whose feisty teenage daughter, Lacy, is captured by the bomber early on and used as bait to lead partners Alex and Harrison from one gruesome killing to the next. Alex sees herself as a failure as a mother, a fact she bemoans too often, and Harrison bears the burden of a murdered wife whose killer has never been caught, giving the two plenty of tragic backstory to engage reader sympathy. Frost's screenwriting roots (Twin Peaks
; The X-Files
) provide a solid background as he expertly shows rather than tells how the brainy bomber outwits his pursuers. All too often, savvy mystery readers guess what's going on way too early, but that won't happen here. The bomber is not only ahead of the police, he's just as far ahead of the reader. This, the first in a series, is a jaw-dropper that will leave readers clamoring for more. Agent, Elaine Koster. (Jan.)

Forecast:
Despite a terrible title, this novel should be a hit if Putnam can get the word out.

August 1, 2005
It is always a pleasure when a reader is in sync with the material she performs. Such is the case with Frasier's fine reading of this exciting thriller by Frost (Twin Peaks
; The X-Files
). A small-time florist is shot and killed, and Los Angeles homicide detective Alex Delillo is assigned to the case. What at first appears to be a simple murder investigation soon blossoms into a gut-wrenching race to stop a madman from committing a terrorist act during the annual Pasadena Rose Parade. At stake are the lives of hundreds of parade watchers, including Alex's teenage daughter. Frasier gives her detective a professional, just-the-facts voice as she relates Frost's tight mystery plot, but injects a more intimate note when she's musing over her more personal situations. As the stakes and suspense begin to heighten, so, too, does the emotion in Frasier's performance. Unlike some narrators who have problems portraying a multitude of characters and often cross the line from character into caricature when voicing the opposite sex, Frasier uses a simple and subtle shift of inflection to differentiate the variety of people populating this audiobook and keeps the flow smooth and involving. Based on the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 10).