Rating: 
Summary: Weak thriller
Review: To read the plot summary on the back of this book, you'd think you were going to read an exciting political thriller. But, as the old saying goes, you should not judge a book by its cover. This is a tepid action novel that may be a fast read, but has little else to recommend it.Kurt Ford is an ex-Secret Service agent who is now a billionaire entrepeneur. His son, a Secret Service agent himself, is killed in an act that is apparently suicide but quickly is revealed to be murder. When Ford learns the President himself apparently ordered the killing, he decides that the only appropriate revenge is assassination. It sounds intriguing enough, but there are flaws aplenty. For one thing, there is actually not all that much action. The middle two hundred pages focus primarily on Ford's assassination plotting, with little else really going on. Ford himself isn't all that bright, accepting the premise that the President is guilty after relatively little investigation. In fact, there are no interesting characters in the whole book; the villains are bland, the President is a relatively apolitical standard politician, and Ford himself is hardly worth turning the pages. The plotting is equally subpar. The prologue, which lets the reader know that the son is definitely a murder victim, should have been eliminated to add a little mystery to the story. But Green apparently assumes the worst in the reader: besides the prologue problem, it takes the reader very little time to know exactly who the bad guy is, and Green doesn't allow a single plot twist that can't be seen a mile away. Even the epilogue rattles under the weight of cliches. I have no idea if this work is typical of Green or not; I doubt very much I'll take a chance with another of his books. If you like a good political thriller, look elsewhere; you won't find it here.
Rating: 
Summary: The hours just slipped away
Review: We listened to this book on tape while on a long trip. We do this regularly and this was one of the most enjoyable books on tape we've ever had.
Rating:
Summary: This book was BAD reading!
Review: What a bore! Green's writing was too simplistic, the plot was too predictable, and the characters were one-dimensional. Because of these faults, I found it really hard to remain interested in following what the main character, Kurt Ford, was planning in avenging his son's death, even if this meant to kill the President of the U.S.
If you want to read a good intriguing book with a strong story plot and character development, try the classics from Daniel Silva (The Unlikely Spy) or Ken Follett (The Eye of the Needle).
Rating:
Summary: Tim Green continues to bear watching --- and reading
Review: What flashes through your mind when you hear the term "Secret Service?" I'm sure you don't think of the unobtrusive way that the waiter refills your water glass at your favorite upper-crust restaurant. No, the Secret Service handles a lot of different things, but the biggie is the protection of the President of the United States. The immediate image that pops up is a bunch of big guys in nice suits and serious sunglasses, all of them flanking POTUS and looking grimly in different directions. It's not an act; no one wants another Dallas on their watch. The agents clustered around POTUS constitute the Fourth Perimeter; there is no fifth. Four is as close as it gets and no one is supposed to breach that. So what happens when a former Secret Service agent, someone who has been there and knows all the precautions and all the preparations, decides to kill the President? One answer is provided in THE FOURTH PERIMETER, the latest novel by Tim Green. Kurt Ford is the ex-Secret Service agent who is driven to breach the Fourth Perimeter. His motivation is nothing less than heated, single-minded revenge. Ford, a retired agent turned successful technology entrepreneur, rules a perfect world with more money than he could ever reasonably spend, an intelligent and beautiful wife-to-be who is successful in her own right and an adult son who is building his own successful career in the Secret Service. Ford's perfect world is shattered, however, when his son is found dead in bed, a victim of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The official explanation is that young Ford committed suicide, but his father refuses to believe that and begins a relentless hunt for justice for his son. When he is told by an unimpeachable source that his son was murdered at the behest of the President, Ford's only focus is on bringing the most powerful man in the world to rough and personal justice. He begins to meticulously plan his revenge, ... Green continues to hone his craft well, bringing together elements of suspense and thorough research to create readable and enjoyable novels with tales that are grounded in the real world. He will continue to bear watching --- and reading. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: Exciting political thriller
Review: When his beloved wife died, Kurt felt much of his life was interred with his cherished spouse. Though he was away from home a lot as expected with his job as a Secret Service agent, with the help of his sister Grace, Kurt raises his son Collin. Now years later, Kurt has left the agency to become a successful CEO while Collin is the family's Secret Service Agent.
In Skaneateles Lake, New York just as Kurt proposes marriage to his beloved Jill, Grace calls to tell him that Collin is dead. The Alexandria, Virginia police believe Collin committed suicide using a gun through his mouth to blow away his brains. Kurt refuses to accept the official explanation as he does not believe Collin would take such an action. He begins to investigate and soon learns about an enigmatic meeting with the President in which several of the attendees are now dead. Kurt intricately knows the layers protecting the President including THE FOURTH PERIMETER of secret service agents. He plans to use this knowledge to assassinate the man whom Kurt believes had his son murdered though he knows it will still take a Hail Mary to succeed.
Though not offering any new offensive thrust, Tim Green provides fans of political thrillers with an exciting tale due to the likable hurting hero. Fans will root for Kurt to score because his pain as a beloved father of the victim feels genuine and his need to sack his son's killer will garner much empathy. The story line follows the sub-genre game plan, but Kurt turns THE FOURTH PERIMETER into an engaging tale. Harriet Klausner
| 
