The Dead Man
By Joel Goldman
Pinnacle, $6.99
ISBN: 978-0-7860-2040-9

When Jack Davis is told by his friend Simon Alexander that “this job is perfect for you” Jack should have known better and ran the other way. Instead, he allows himself to be shuttled into an interview with billionaire Milo Harper whose Harper Institute of the Mind is under attack by a cutthroat attorney litigating on behalf of two patients who died in situations similar to their own dreams. The FBI retired Jack upon discovering his recent attacks of unexplainable shakes and neurological dissonances, so he’s at loose ends and sympathetic to Harper, who is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s. Jack soon discovers that the deaths are anything but accidents and that a predator may be hiding within the institute.

Just as critical to Jack are two FBI agents who are determined to prove that he is complicit in another murder connected to his daughter’s crimes, so he comes to accept unexpected help from his new landlady, a former sheriff’s deputy who was forced out of the department and imprisoned when she fell to temptation. With a love interest who is absent more than she is present and still mourning the loss of his marriage, the abduction, molestation, and murder of his son, and the tragic drug addiction of his daughter, Jack buries himself into this new investigation that has become more complicated than he ever could have imagined.

Joel Goldman always writes thrillers with compelling plots and extraordinarily unique characters, and he continues to entertain with dialogue that is witty and sharp. Despite the bleakness of Jack’s past, in this second outing (after Shakedown) Jack appears to be more upbeat and the novel never becomes dark or morose. Jack’s unusual investigating team is entertaining and the humor that shone through in his Lou Mason thrillers reappears here. This is a complex thriller with plots that merge towards an exciting, satisfying conclusion with a hint for more excitement in the future.

Review by CINDY CHOW

©2009 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.