Rating: 
Summary: A CAN'T PUT DOWN MULTI-LAYERED STORY
Review: A frightening multi-layered story, The Program introduces a new protagonist for Stephen White - New Orleans District Attorney Kirsten Lord. After Kirsten's husband is murdered by a hired gun, she soon discovers that her own life and that of her nine-year-old daughter's is threatened. Feeling she has no other valid choice she seeks safety in Boulder, Colorado under the Witness Protection Program. However, once in the program she meets another who is being protected, Carl Luppo. He is a lone mob hit man very much, she suspects, like the man who killed her husband. Sensing her danger, Luppo befriends Kirsten; he appoints himself her guardian. But, he is he truly knight errant or persecutor? Kirsten's chaotic life is in stark contrast to the relative tranquility enjoyed by Alan Gregory, a psychological consultant to the Protection Program and his wife who are preparing for the birth of their first child. There's both darkness and light in this suspenseful tale as it reveals the internal workings of the Witness Protection Program and the emotional toll it takes on those who have sought safety. It's a taut, finely paced drama for thriller afficionados. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: A CAN'T PUT DOWN MULTI-LAYERED STORY
Review: A frightening multi-layered story, The Program introduces a new protagonist for Stephen White - New Orleans District Attorney Kirsten Lord. After Kirsten's husband is murdered by a hired gun, she soon discovers that her own life and that of her nine-year-old daughter's is threatened. Feeling she has no other valid choice she seeks safety in Boulder, Colorado under the Witness Protection Program. However, once in the program she meets another who is being protected, Carl Luppo. He is a lone mob hit man very much, she suspects, like the man who killed her husband. Sensing her danger, Luppo befriends Kirsten; he appoints himself her guardian. But, he is he truly knight errant or persecutor? Kirsten's chaotic life is in stark contrast to the relative tranquility enjoyed by Alan Gregory, a psychological consultant to the Protection Program and his wife who are preparing for the birth of their first child. There's both darkness and light in this suspenseful tale as it reveals the internal workings of the Witness Protection Program and the emotional toll it takes on those who have sought safety. It's a taut, finely paced drama for thriller afficionados. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Another clever and well-balanced mystery from White
Review: Alan Gregory is my favorite of the shrink detectives out there. I find his mental explorations refreshingly free from tabloid science, and while he certainly deals with the extremes in human nature it still stays in the believable range. _The Program_ is an excellent series entry and a little bit of a change via its alternating narrators. (Alternating narrators are almost universally done poorly in mystery novels-- this is the well-done exception to the rule.) Points off for some unnecessary plot convolution near the end, but overall great characters and worth the time to read.
Rating: 
Summary: This has got to be Alan at his all time DUMBEST!
Review: Characters in this book were interesting. Especially Carl!
The whole whale thread was very annoying and didn't mesh throughout the book. The best thing about S. White's books is he always has a fresh plotline and his writing is sharply drawn. He gives the characters humanity and humor and makes them leap off the pages. A good read but not his best.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Novel
Review: I have always held a certain interest of the Witness Protection Program, and this novel gave me another perspective on it. Cleverly crafted and hard to put down. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Not really an Alan Gregory novel!
Review: If you buy this book thinking that it is "an Alan Gregory novel" then you are in for a big disappointment. Not only does Alan Gregory play a very minor role in the book but this isn't the Alan Gregory we know from past novels. Not only does Stephen White make Alan's role a minor one but he writes the Gregory character like he doesn't even know him. For instance, Alan receives an emergency phone call from the protagonist who is in the Witness Security Program and his wife asks him if he should call Sam and have a patrol car sent by her apartment. Alan says "he'll think about it" and then just goes to bed. Is this the same man who has with Sam's help solved multiple murders? Until the very end of the book, if you aren't already familiar with Alan Gregory, then you absolutely won't like him. If Stephen White wanted to write a novel that wasn't an Alan Gregory mystery, then he should have done so. Jonathan Kellerman wrote "Billy Straight" that was a wonderful novel without Alex Delaware! All that aside, the story is a great read once you decide that IT IS NOT AN ALAN GREGORY MYSTERY!
Rating:
Summary: This has got to be Alan at his all time DUMBEST!
Review: In The Program, Alan Gregory has only a bit part this time but never has he been more lame. The main character, Peyton, is in the Witness Protection program because she has people wanting her and her daughter dead. Now they're missing, her house is in shambles, blood is present on the scene and Alan is once again whining about how he can't breech confidence unless he knows she's in imminent danger. Duh, Alan, what did the nice marshall just tell you about her house? He says that the front window is busted out, her bedroom furniture is all over the place and there is blood. Too bad, Alan the Righteous is still not talking! And I kid you not this is what Alan says: "Let's both of us pray that she met a guy and that her daugher's at a friend's house at a sleepover. I kid you not. Would someone please shoot Alan and put him out of his misery? Actually about the only character in this book that has enough sense to come in out of a hard pouring rain is the hit man, Carl. What a preposterous story. Weird too, the birth of their long awaited baby is barely a footnote. I would have thought it would be given more space than a bare mention. Definitely not Mr. White's best.
Rating: 
Summary: speedy, lumpy, and does its job
Review: Kirsten Lord's husband was gunned down in front of her outside of a New Orleans eatery, the murder fullfilling a promise made by a druglord whom she helped convict. Or, well, it's part of the fullfilled promise. It's one of those open-ended promises: for every precious thing I lose, you will lose two.
The resulting tale follows Kirsten through the world of the Witness Security Program, around obstacles such as shady US Marshalls, aging mobsters, and people and events in the past that refuse to die...or might die when they shouldn't. It's a story that is complex and compelling enough to be a nicely workable thriller. Literary enough and slick enough so that your bookmark, should you use one, won't stay in one place for too long.
For readers familiar with Mr. White's stories, however, the appearance of his most familiar character, Dr. Alan Gregory, will prove to be little more than an annoying footnote. In any event, White, it seems, has included his recurring character in this case for little other reason than to showcase his natural and lifelong experience with the psychologist's profession. It is mostly to the novel's detriment.
Likewise, although generally the text moves easily and unfettered by pretension or low-brow asthetics, it does clunk in some spots. White's normally consistent prose jars with a few oddly placed metaphors and ill-chosen words (boobs and poop?). And in an attempt to make foray into his central character's heart and soul, he constructed an extended and ultimately annoying whale metaphor that is more awkward and unnecessary than it is illuminating or endearing.
Still, highlights remain, such as the character of Carl Luppo, a retired hit man and one of Kirsten's only true friends, and the few action scenes that don't prove to be false leads or fake scares. And although the plot isn't spread evenly (it lumps in places) the storytelling is competent enough to keep the page numbers advancing.
Rating:
Summary: a different twist on the protection program
Review: My sister-in-law loaned me a book written by Stephen White and I was hooked. I really like his books and this was no exception. It is a little different in that, instead of a criminal going into the protection program, a DA is placed in it to help protect her and her daughter from the man she placed in prison and who had her husband killed right in front of her eyes.
Are the legal authorities really protecting her?
She goes to a psychologist to help her get over the shock of her ordeal and unknown to those protecting her, she makes the acquaintance of another person in the program, only he is an enforcer or hit man.
The psychologist and his wife, a DA herself, are major players in this book also. It is a book you don't want to put down until you have finished reading it.
Rating:
Summary: A great read though a small departure from his series
Review: Sentenced drug dealer Ernesto Castro warns New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Kirstin Lord that for every thing he loses, she will lose twice. A few weeks later, Kirstin goes to meet her spouse Robert at the Galatoire restaurant, but sees the hitman wearing the Saints cap assassinate her husband. Though grieving her loss, Kirstin realizes that Castro said "twice" and worries that her eight-year old daughter Amy will be next. Ironically, Kirstin, a vocal critic of the witness protection program hiding killers from justice, enters the Federal witness security program. She becomes Peyton Francis and Amy becomes Landon, and they relocate to Boulder. Needing psychological help to cope with the upheaval and tragedies of her life she begins to see Dr. Alan Gregory, whose other WITSEC patient is former hitman Carl Luppo, a killer of at least 15-20 people. Carl realizes that something is not right with Peyton's disguise and takes the two females under his personal protection whether it is from Castro or someone more sinister. THE PROGRAM is an exciting thriller that provides an insightful look into the pros and cons of the witness protection program. Kirstin and Carl are intriguing characters hiding for different reasons. The return of Dr. Gregory is always a reason to rejoice, but in all honesty his role is a secondary catalyst to the fast-paced main plot starring Kirstin. Still, he plays a pivotal role and his sessions with his two patients seem very real, making the story line feel genuine. Best-selling author Stephen White may have written his best novel to date with this tremendous taut tale. Harriet Klausner
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