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Jericho's Fall by Stephen L. Carter
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Jericho's Fall (original 2009; edition 2009)

by Stephen L. Carter

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19911135,414 (3.15)12
In an imposing house in the Colorado Rockies, Jericho Ainsley, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency and a Wall Street titan, lies dying. He summons to his bedside Beck DeForde, the younger woman for whom he threw away his career years ago, miring them both in scandal. Beck believes she is visiting to say farewell. Instead, she is drawn into a battle over an explosive secret that foreign governments and powerful corporations alike want to wrest from Jericho before he dies.… (more)
Member:psychomamma
Title:Jericho's Fall
Authors:Stephen L. Carter
Info:Knopf (2009), Hardcover, 368 pages
Collections:Your library, To read
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Tags:literary fiction

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Jericho's Fall by Stephen L. Carter (2009)

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» See also 12 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 11 (next | show all)
I don't know why I didn't read this when it came out since I had read the three preceding books by Mr. Carter but I was happy to find it now as a "new" book. As expected the book is well constructed and the factual situation is interesting and complicated. I enjoyed the flow of the story and the gradual way information found its way to us. Like le Carre´ or similar writers it is very hard to know everyone's motivations and veracity, making the entire situation fraught and thrilling. A solid, good, enjoyable book. ( )
  MarkMad | Jul 14, 2021 |
I enjoyed this book - well written, lots of subplots and a few surprises. A good read! ( )
  ChetBowers | Mar 10, 2021 |
Don’t you hate it when good writers do dumb things and their editors let them? I don’t mean the whole book which was a departure for Carter at the time. No. I mean the prologue. On the whole prologues are pointless, a sign of poor story-telling ability and chock full of cheap, reader manipulation. This one was especially unneccessary since the novel’s opening chapter takes place in the exact same time, the exact same location and with the same person. In other words, it picks up precisely where the prologue left off. Why?? OMG.

But I let it go. It’s been a while since I read one of Carter’s novels and so some of the names I should have recognized went by me (like Tish), but some I recognized and I appreciate the vast, tangentially interconnected world he’s built. I’m still waiting for a book about Mona from Palace Council though.

Anyway, Carter says in an author’s note that he just wanted to write a page-turner and he has, but gone are subtleties of character, plot and pacing. It goes from scene to scene, much like the movie version of this would and toward the end Beck says that she’s lost the plot and by then I had, too. There are a dizzying array of characters and connections, something I’m normally very good and comfortable with, but this was a bit too much. Everyone is suspect, everyone could be in on the plot to take down Jericho before he can do damage. Or is there a plot? Has Jericho’s mental instability finally resulted in a full-blown paranoid delusion? Beck doesn’t know, but sticks with him despite many warnings to leave. She gets to be a bit Mary-Sue-ish in the end and I never got to understand why she captured so much of Jericho’s mind, attention and affection. You just have to accept that it is true.

And, as usual, I couldn’t help but pick out some ordinance blunders. Beck decides to practice with a pistol she found in the house. Years ago she received instruction on a similar Glock, but since she can’t shoot in the house, she practices grip and stance. What? She’s never heard of dry firing? Ugh. Then later she suffers a sore hand from the recoil. A Glock 19 doesn’t kick much no matter the load and even less when you have decent grip technique. Finally, a sniper was using a tripod in the woods to take down multiple moving targets. Not bloody likely. Too static, too bulky, too difficult to maneuver quickly. He’d use a bipod like everyone else. ( )
  Bookmarque | Aug 15, 2017 |
I read this on my beach vacation, and it was perfect for that. Kind of formulaic, but still managed to keep my interest and keep me guessing most of the book. ( )
  bravewoman | Feb 3, 2017 |
Beck's former lover, a former high power CIA administrator, is on his deathbed, so she travels cross country to say good-bye. But of course, all is not as it seems, and there are intrigues within secrets within longstanding feuds. The reader knows there are surprises in store, if not the particulars, and the suspense mounts right up until the end. ( )
  sleahey | Mar 11, 2014 |
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Epigraph
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he
lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a
man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand:
and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou
for us, or for our adversaries?

--Joshua 5:13
Dedication
Once again, with love, for Enola
First words
On the Sunday before the terror began, Rebecca DeForde pointed the rental car into the sullen darkness of her distant past.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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In an imposing house in the Colorado Rockies, Jericho Ainsley, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency and a Wall Street titan, lies dying. He summons to his bedside Beck DeForde, the younger woman for whom he threw away his career years ago, miring them both in scandal. Beck believes she is visiting to say farewell. Instead, she is drawn into a battle over an explosive secret that foreign governments and powerful corporations alike want to wrest from Jericho before he dies.

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