Evan Casher had a normal life until his mother called and said she needed to see him right away. He goes to her home but finds her murdered. The killers also try to kill him but a man who says he's Evan's mother's friend saves him.

Steven Jargo is the man who killed Evan's mom. Dizz is his son and associate. They are information brokers. Carrie Lindstrom is the girl posing as Ev's girlfriend so she can get info that may be in Evan's computer.

The man who saved Ev says his name is Gabriel. He says Ev's mother hired him to get her out of Austin. He also asks Ev about files in his computer. Now Evan doesn't know who to trust and he runs from Gabriel.

Evan learns that everything he believed about his family and his past is made up. By checking some names on his father's passports he sees a number of names and when he researches them, he finds one family who disappeared years ago. The story from the internet refers to a concerned neighbor. Evan calls her and asks her to look at his mother's photo on the news and see if that is a photo of her old neighbor. From this, Evan learns his name is Robert Peterson.

Evan hooks up with a man nicknamed Shady who owes him a favor. He calls Jargo and finds that he is holding Evan's father and they arrange to meet in New Orleans.
Then Evan calls a CIA agent who had been in contact with him and he tells that person about the meeting. When he spoke to Jargo, Ev pretended he had the files Jargo wanted. We learn that they contained Jargo's client list. At the zoo in New Orleans there is a shoot out and a major plot twist that is nicely done and unsuspected.

After escaping from the park, Evan is back with Carrie and convinced that she is really CIA and works for Bricklayer. They want to catch Jargo and reveal his clients and some people Jargo has working for him in the CIA who are spies.

A good plot that did get a bit confusing. The suspense was good. Evan is not well developed and in the first part of the story I was not drawn to care what happened to him.
His development grew and together with Carrie the interest became better.

Good suspense, original premise and well told. ( )

This book is ok, but that's as good as it gets. I think the problem is it tries too hard to be clever. The pace is so fast that it runs away from you leaving an empty and cliched plot. The characters aren't particularly worth caring about either. It's one to read when you can't be bothered to read anything heavy. ( )

Evan is a director of documentaries. He is a quiet guy fully immersed into his work. Everything seems to go OK - he is in love with Carrie and starts to plan for possible marriage. All is working fine until one day he receives a distress call from his mother urging him to get to his parents house. The very moment he arrives there he finds himself targeted by unknown people, running for his very life and constantly lied to by almost everybody he meets - and worst of all it seems that his parents..... well it seems they weren't exactly the folks they presented themselves to be.

Fast paced action, it will keep you glued to the book until the very end.

Recommended. ( )

I just could not get into this book. I finally put it down after getting near the halfway point. The story seemed okay, just sort of flat to me. Not sure if it was because the book was not good, or if I'm just not in the mood for this kind of story right now. I'm disappointed that I didn't finish it but I was just slogging through it and thought, Enough is Enough! Maybe I'll give it another try down the road.... ( )

Evan Casher, who makes films, has a telephone call from his mum, she needs him to visit her straight away, it's over 2 hours away, but there is an urgency there that he cannot refuse. So begins his great adventure: Who works for the CIA? Who are the baddies and who are the good guys? Where does Carrie (his girlfriend) fit into all this?

This is an absolutely fantastic read, you never quite know where it's going to head next. I was wondering if I was going to enjoy the book initially as I had seen some low ratings, but I'm glad that didn't deter me. It was totally wonderful escapism. I enjoyed Evan as a character and enjoyed seeing him grow in his travels deeper into the world of espionage.

This is well worth a read, especially anyone who enjoys a light espionage thriller.

Review here: http://bookannelid.wordpress.com/2008... ( )