Breakthrough
A Thriller
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Detective Julian Palmer is taking a break from homicide-or so she thinks. Signing on to assist in a simple insurance investigation, she soon finds herself enmeshed in something far more elaborate. It's a bizarre case, one that leads her from a dead investment banker with a mysterious briefcase, to a renegade inventor in the New Mexico desert, and ultimately, to the investing frenzy of Wall Street in the late 1990's. It also leads her to an unexpected romance with Tom Hartley-a man as lonely as Julian, and as passionate about uncovering the truth.
Welcome to the twists, turns and switchbacks that are Jonathan Stone's trademark. A world of puzzles and mirrors, where the possibilities move as fast as the characters. Where the trail goes from cold to warm to searing hot. And where a beautiful young banker seems to wield more power dead than alive.
In Jonathan Stone's Breakthrough, the collars may be white, but the blood still runs red.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Stone's convoluted third Julian Palmer thriller (after 2001's The Heat of Lies), the impenetrable nature of the crime and the elliptical writing style perfectly complement one another. Tom Hartley, an appealing if not riveting, unassuming guy of 40, lives with his mother and commutes from the suburbs into New York to keep his printing business alive. One day on the train, he becomes intrigued with a beautiful stranger, Laura Hodges and her papers. He realizes he can make some money by using the information she has unwittingly shared with him. Indeed, Tom makes a big profit. His source, however, is not as fortunate: Laura dies "after a brief illness," reads her obituary. Suspicious, Tom searches Laura's house and finds a mysterious silver cylinder. When his house is trashed and his mother terrorized, he realizes the cylinder, now out of his hands, is valuable. Enter the engaging Julian Palmer, a police detective on maternity leave, tough and unsentimental (it's a little disappointing when later she gets sappy about an affair, endlessly ruminating on its future). Julian doesn't simply visit a case, she lives it, and it's this dedication that makes her good at her job. The plot becomes increasingly complex and at times difficult to follow, but the delicious twists are satisfying in the end.
