Rating: 
Summary: Less than stellar
Review: This is nowhere near Ridley Pearson's best work. Neither Peter Tyler nor Nell Priest were characters that I was able to warm up to. The plot became more improbable with each page. If this is your first Pearson, don't give up hope. Go back and find any book with Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews. Then you will understand why people wait for these books!
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing effort from great author
Review: Just finished Parallel Lies and feel cheated - I am a huge fan of Ridley Pearson, having read the entire Lou Boldt series. This book just does not reflect the creativity, energy, plot and character development found in Pearson's other works - seems like it was perhaps an older manuscript buffed up and published. The story plods along, never gels, and the ending is another throw-away, poorly thought out and ill-conceived. I have had similar disappointments with Deaver and Patterson's recent attempts. What happens to these guys? If you like trains you may like this -otherwise leave this one in the station.
Rating:
Summary: Not Up To Par
Review: As a huge Pearson fan, I wait with bated breath for his latest book. This was average at best. I didn't mind that Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews were on hiatus, but the main characters were tough to warm up to and therefore connect with. I felt sorry for the protagonist which is never a good-read for me, but a personal preference. I'm hoping Ridley either brings back Boldt and Matthews or invents more inviting new characters and a less sympathetic villian.
Rating: 
Summary: Bitterly Disappointing...
Review: I have enjoyed Pearson's other novels, primarily the Lou boldt series set in Seattle, but this diversion is a dead end. The plot is improbable, and the details impossible. All of the characters are poorly drawn with highly implausable motivations.Let's see: how about a downtrodden white guy, a beautiful black woman with no life of her own (and Pearson doesn't provide a clue!), and let's make the bad guy a Hispanic, who has been terribly wronged by a rich white guy and his successful though shallow corporation. This poorly plotted and predictable novel will cause me to forego any future novels by this author!
Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: I've enjoyed Pearson's Lou Boldt novels, and bought this one with great expectations. What a letdown! The characters are stereotypes without depth or passion, the villain is implausible (he's supposed to be a ruthless monomaniac, but pauses for a wistful fling with a waitress he knew years ago). To top it off, no one appears to have proofread the book -- on a single page, for example, Pearson describes a call girl walking "with a somewhat shaky gate" and a "Mercedes coup" paused at a traffic light. These flaws were so annoying that I couldn't even get to page 100 before tossing the book aside. My guess is that Pearson wrote this manuscript when he was a kid and dusted it off for publication now that his name is well-known. Certainly he can do (and has done) MUCH better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: A Rollercoaster Ride From Pearson
Review: I have read almost all of Ridley Pearson's novels and enjoy most of them. I am partial to his stand alone novels and find "Hard Fall" and "Blood on the Albatross" my favorites. When I found out that Pearson was doing another non-Boldt novel I had to pick this up as soon as it came out. What I got was another face paced rollercoster ride. Again Pearson gives another new good guy to root for and a bevy of not so nice guys to boo. The novel revolves around a series of train derailments, caused by terrorist Umberto Alverez. All the derailments involve the same the railroad company, that Alverez is trying to get revenge against. Enter Peter Tyler who is trying to get a second chance on life by getting a job at the NTSB, after losing his job as a Washington detective in a police abuse charge. Slowly Tyler puts the pieces together and finds out what Alvarez's true motive is and the massive cover-up by the railroad company. The story ends up on the F.A.S.T train and new bullet like train traveling from New York to Washington at 180 mph speeds. Pearson's style is quick and packs a punch. The last 60 pages aboard the F.A.S.T. bullet train make for great ending and will fly by. The side strories of a love interest for Tyler and Alvarez both fit in nicely to the story. This is a must read for and Pearson fan old or new. It is not as good as say "Hard Fall" but has the same feel in a lot of ways.
Rating:
Summary: New people, new subject, good book
Review: I've read all of Ridley's books and I would rank this among the best. (Some of the other reviewers must not get that Ridley's characters are only developed with the depth that the story and sub-stories need. That is why most of his writing is hard to put down, he doesn't drown it with excessive text. We know so much about Boldt and Mathew's because there are so many novels with them in it.) In this novel Ridley starts with a theme and a few characters and develops a story in which you're never too sure who to really root for and what the out come should be. I like the fact that this is a stand alone novel and does not have to follow the formula he has developed for the Boldt series.
Rating:
Summary: A Suspenseful, White-Knuckled Ride!
Review: "He took each minute separately, and though a compulsive planner, he had learned to adapt and adjust his plans to suit the moment. He rarely knew what the next hour would bring. The only constant is change--his personal mantra. He did not spend a lot of time worrying; he left that for others. Instead, he focused almost single-mindedly on bringing Northern Union to its knees."--From chap. 12 Umberto Alvarez is a widower. His wife and their four-year-old twins were killed by a train that demolished their van at a railroad crossing in Genoa, Illinois. There was negligence involved and a cover-up by the Northern Union Railroad. Stricken with grief, anger, and a need for revenge, Alvarez vows to destroy Northern Union. Peter Tyler, a dedicated policeman who has lost his shield because of the stupidities of "political correctness" and reverse discrimination, and Nell Priest, a beautiful and intelligent African American investigator, cross paths early in the novel. In this suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase, they both are on the trail of the unknown saboteur who is wreaking havoc by derailing Northern Union freight trains. Alvarez has one last sabotage in mind: the destruction of NUR's bullet train, an ultra-sleek technological marvel called the F-A-S-T Track Express, which, traveling at the speed of 180 mph, will make the run from New York City to Washington, D.C. in two and a half hours. Sending out conflicting signals, the novel leaves us with mixed emotions. We begin to pull for the saboteur, empathizing with him because of the injustice he has suffered. The danger, however, is that anarchy, taking the law into one's own hands, is a treacherous path to tread; two wrongs do not make a right. A nail-biting, white-knuckled ride, PARALLEL LIES will make an excellent action film. Its plot bristles with multiple possibilities, making one wonder down which track the author will take us, and how he will resolve the tale.
Rating:
Summary: Is It Over Yet; Why Can't I read faster
Review: Terribly disappointing. Wish I could stop reading a book once I start it, because this would be one that would qualify. Story seemed convulted, boring, and way too technical that made it implausible. It was very hard to picture the final train scene. I did like the ending though (maybe because I couldn't wait to get there). Nowhere near as good as "Middle of Nowhere"
Rating:
Summary: Parallel Lies by Ridley Pearson
Review: Ridley has done it again! He has successfully managed to make me not want to put a book down until I have read it all. Although I am a die hard Boldt/Matthews fan, Ridley creates a new, less likely, hero & heroine in both Tyler & Priest. The action and deception last through the entire storyline and creates an unusual, yet interesting, ending. I began routing for Alverez as I could feel his sense of vigilante justice against the ruthless Corporate world. At first I was a little disappointed in the ending but, after reviewing the book in my mind, I realized I wouldn't want it to end any other way. I anxiously await for Ridley to write again soon!
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