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Summary
Summary
Night in the California desert: John Barron---the youngest cop on the LAPD's feared 5-2 squad---will get a baptism of blood and fire on a night he will never forget.
Panic on the streets of LA: An international hit man no one can stop---not the governments he threatens, not the prisons that try to hold him, not LA's bloodiest rogue cops.
Rebecca Barron, John's ravishingly beautiful sister: A night of traumatic terror has left her tragically mute. Now, trapped in a web of global intrigue---and pursued by the same sinister hit man menacing institutions of power worldwide---she will find the shocking violence that robbed her of her speech was only the beginning of a far darker odyssey.
A world-famous baroness---as sensuous as she is singularly cruel---will stop at nothing to fulfill her own maniacal dream, one destined to topple governments and dethrone dynasties, catapulting her to the pinnacle of global power . . . while the world holds its breath and waits.
Author Notes
Allan Folsom was born on December 9, 1941 in Orlando, Florida. He received a BS from Boston University in 1963. He moved to California, where he worked as a delivery driver, a film editor, and a camera operator. He wrote scripts for the television series Untamed World, Hart to Hart, and Sable, and the screenplay for the television film Desperate Intruder.
His first novel, The Day after Tomorrow, published in 1994. He was paid approximately two million dollars for the book. His other works included Day of Confession, The Exile, The Machiavelli Covenant, and The Hadrian Memorandum. He died from metastatic melanoma on May 16, 2014 at the age of 72.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Folsom (The Day After Tomorrow) begins his epic-sized new thriller smashingly, as cops from an elite LAPD squad stake out a train to arrest a killer and find themselves up against the mysterious Raymond, who leads them a murderous dance through the streets of the city, massacres several of them and is then apparently killed himself in a climactic shootout. For its first 200 pages, this is high-octane thriller writing with an almost visceral impact. But already there are dark hints of plot troubles to come. Young up-and-coming cop John Barron, Raymond's nemesis, is found to have a beautiful sister mentally paralyzed by the shock of their parents' long-ago murder, and Raymond begins to receive mysterious phone calls from a sinister baroness talking about his destiny. These kitschy elements dominate the story as it moves over to Europe, Barron builds himself a new life in England with a sexy aristocrat, sister Rebecca emerges from her cocoon as a Princess Di-like figure and the murderous Raymond, now with a new identity, has a key role involving a major upheaval in world politics. Folsom still brings off some entertaining scenes, but the plot becomes so lumbering and improbable (wait till you find out who Rebecca's suave Latin lover is) that even a final burst of action at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg cannot bring back the excitement that launched the book. As for the utterly unprepared-for ending, it breaks at least a dozen popular fiction rules at once. Agent, Robert Gottlieb. (Aug. 17) Forecast: If only Folsom could've maintained the pace and drama of the book's first third, this would be a winner; as it is, word of mouth about the remainder of the overlong novel is likely to dampen reader enthusiasm. $250,000 marketing campaign. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Folsom, the author of the thrilling Day after Tomorrow (1994), which has no connection to the recent movie, and the decidedly less thrilling Day of Confession (1998), returns mostly to form in this fast-paced, exciting adventure. John Barron, a young LAPD detective, assists in the capture of a vicious killer, who dies during surgery following a gunfight. But some of his fellow cops are also killed in the process, and Barron is forced to leave the department, and the country, to avoid retribution from his former colleagues and friends. He assumes a new identity, moves to Europe, meets a nice lady--and then is confronted with the terrifying prospect that the villain who supposedly died in L.A. is not dead after all and is moving forward with his original plan. Written in short chapters, with a sturdy hero and a despicably clever villain, the novel grabs readers from the opening scenes and rarely lets them loose. Although it seems as though the author has written the book with an eye toward a future movie adaptation--short chapters, plenty of physical action, a constant reminder of the date and time, some scenes even written from an audience's point of view (The viewer realized that somewhere out there was Raymond )--it isn't an outline posing as a novel. Sure, it's slick and a bit superficial, but it does what it sets out to do: deliver breathless excitement. --David Pitt Copyright 2004 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Bloated international thriller, knee-deep in cops, rogues, and Romanovs, starts fast--and stumbles. But what a riveting curtain-raiser: an elite LAPD squad--young John Barron its newest member--pursues a mad-dog killer named Raymond Thorne. In the aftermath of this vividly rendered and bloody gunfight--Folsom (Day of Confession, 1998, etc.) can flat-out write an action scene--John is asked to do something he considers beyond the pale, and his refusal turns his life around. Suddenly, he's persona non grata with certain lynch-minded members of the LAPD, so much so that he's forced to flee to London, taking with him his 19-year-old sister Rebecca, an emotional basket case as the result of a psyche-shattering hit suffered when she was a child. John sets her up in London's excellent Balmore Clinic, then wastes no time falling in love with Clementine Simpson, the rich, titled, incredibly sexy Englishwoman he meets there. Encouraged by her, John (Nick now) discovers in himself a latent inclination toward--um. . . landscape gardening, enrolls at the University of Manchester, and settles down to pursue a course. Rebecca, meanwhile, has so fully recovered her health that she learns to speak French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian--in five months! Ah, if only the repellent Raymond Thorne could remain as dead as everyone has assumed he was. But, no, surgically reconstructed, he reappears with hitherto-unsuspected connections that tie him directly to that sturdiest of Russian royal family mysteries. (If you're thinking Anastasia, you're wrong but not by a lot.) Inevitably, Raymond and John-Nick meet in hand-to-hand combat, with the fate of loved ones and a dark, dreary, very Russian conspiracy hanging in the balance. Take away the action scenes--surprisingly few for all these pages--and what's left is a collection of cartoony characters and some head-scratching plot elements. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
After a five-year hiatus, Folsom (Day of Confession) returns with another winner. Los Angeles police officer John Barron is the newest member of the elite 5-2 squad. On an undercover assignment to nab a notorious killer, he and his squad end up on a train heading for Los Angeles with the target clearly in sight. The events that unfold will force Barron to question his values and every other aspect of his life. To tell more would be a crime, but it's guaranteed that no savvy reader will be able to figure out the ending from reading just the beginning. Unexpected twists and catastrophe on a global scale make the story seem a little far-fetched at times, but that doesn't distract from the compelling narrative. Folsom should have another best seller on his hands. For all fiction collections.--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Excerpts
Excerpts
The Exile PART 1 LOS ANGELES 1 TWENTY YEARS LATER. Amtrak Station, the desert community of Barstow, California. Tuesday, March 12, 4:20 A.M. John Barron crossed toward the train alone in the cool of the desert night. He stopped at car number 39002 of the Amtrak Su-perliner Southwest Chief, waiting as a mustachioed conductor helped an elderly man with bottle-thick glasses up the steps. Then he boarded the train himself. Inside, in the dim light, the conductor wished him good morning and punched his ticket, pointing him past sleeping passengers toward his seat two-thirds of the way down the car. Twenty seconds later he put his small carry-on bag into the overhead rack and sat down in the aisle seat beside an attractive young woman in sweatshirt and tight jeans curled up against the window, asleep. Barron glanced at her, then settled back, his eyes more or less on the car door through which he had entered. A half minute later he saw Marty Valparaiso come on board, give the conductor his ticket, and take a seat just inside the front door. Several moments passed, and he heard a blast of train whistle. The conductor closed the door, and the Chief began to move. In no time the lights of the desert city gave way to the pitch-black of open land. Barron heard the whine of diesel engines as the train picked up speed. He tried to picture what it might look like from above, the kind of aerial shot you might see in a movie--of a giant, half-mile-long, twenty-seven-car snake, gliding west through the predawn desert darkness toward Los Angeles. Copyright (c) 2004 by Allan Folsom Excerpted from The Exile by Allan Folsom All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.