Parallel Lies (Nova Audio Books)

Rating:
Summary: Railroad caper
Review: Even though this story lacks Lou Boldt, I read it on Pearson's reputation for acute psychological insight. However, this is a mild-mannered thriller in a setting of eastern railroad operations, more in the nature of a caper than a crime. Only people who "deserve to die" for one reason or another do so, in contrast to the shocking Boldt stories. This is a cat-and-mouse story you can sit back and enjoy without the usual stomach-turning surprises. It has many moments of tension but little that is repulsive. Two obsessive and rather gray men are on opposite sides of the law and destined to collide in spiralling violence. Sacked detective Peter Tyler is handicapped not only by an ill-contained temper but claustrophobia as he tries to rebuild his career by solving a series of train derailments. Various police procedures help track the clues back to the perp, an outraged family man known to the reader. Unfortunately I'm made to understand neither how the security agent heroine, Nell, is Black, nor falls in love with Peter, nor turns against her employer in some key episodes.

Rating:
Summary: Parallel Lies
Review: I dont read very many books. In fact I could say none at all, but once I read Parallel Lies, I could not put the book down. The suspense in this book kept me reading. I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend this to everyone to read.

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: Back to Boldt, please...
Review: I have read most of Ridley Pearson's Boldt/Matthews novels and have thoroughly enjoyed them. They have good character development, realistic dialogue, and a compelling, interesting plot. Unfortunately, this non-Boldt novel has none of those. Though the plot is reasonably entertaining, the characters are among the most uninteresting I have ever encountered and, for the most part, are totally unbelievable. I don't think I've read a sillier love story in my life than the one between Tyler and Priest; it takes a lot to wade through some of the scenes wherein Tyler repeatedly is distracted by Priest's alleged beauty and wants nothing more than to grab her, caress her, and so on...Holy Bad Romance Novel!! Ridley Pearson is a good writer and he can do better than this. Like some other reviewers, I suspect that this may be an older piece of work that he pulled out of the attic and dusted off. It simply doesn't read like some of his more recent (and much better) efforts. I eagerly await the next Boldt/Matthews tale and I suggest that others who like Pearson's work do the same.

Rating:
Summary: This one missed the station
Review: I'm a Ridley Pearson fan, but this book had little going for it but momentum.

The plot is unbelievable, forced, but that's perhaps par for the course. The real problem, beyond a trite and stilted liaison between the two main protagonists, stems from a series of plot devices that just don't work. A laptop computer that travels with the antagonist as he rides the rails, and has both the battery life and ruggedness to keep running flawlessly, apparently with a wireless account that can't be tracked. A portable GPS that works from beneath a moving train. An investigator who doesn't dig into his target's personal background as step #1, and so then has to be surprised at the end. These and other gaps require the reader to stop taking the book seriously and instead just let it play like a grade c movie.

I also had trouble with one of the basic themes of the book--the main character's defense of his own past involvement in the beating death of a suspect, and endless moaning about the injustice of the court system for bringing him to trial....

It doesn't work. And the frequent rehashing of the same internal dialog finally becomes almost offensive.

By trying not to think too much, I could at least finish this book. But it is far from Pearson's generally high standard.

On the other hand, the plot built around criminal accounting by corporate execs is suddenly more timely than ever.

Rating:
Summary: Riding the rails with Parallel Lies by Ridley Pearson
Review: In this recent novel, Ridley Pearson deals with the American railroad system and a search for vengeance. Umberto Alvarez lost his family to death when a train crushed their car at a gated crossing. He knows the Northern Union Railroad is covering up the truth and he wants a public apology for the deaths they caused. Systematically, he has managed to derail freight trains of Northern Union's every six weeks or so as he works to the ultimate destruction of a test of a high-speed passenger carrying train.

Peter Tyler is the investigator for the National Transportation Board and has his own inner demons to deal with. After a long and distinguished police career, Peter met up with a child molester as the creep was bashing the bay's head against the wall. Something snapped deep inside him and Peter began to beat the molester's head against the wall, just like he had done to the baby. While understandable, Peter's actions became part of a media firestorm since the molester was black and Peter was white. In the aftermath, Peter with his reputation savaged in the media, lost his job, his career, his family and is days away from eviction. So, when tossed temporary work to investigate a current derailment, he leaps at the chance and he has to make it work.

The trail will lead him cross country as he discovers the clash between corporate greed, politics and the quest of one man to find vengeance from those who have wronged him. While these are fairly stock characters and Mr. Pearson does not plow new ground that has not been covered better in his other novels, this is still a fairly good read. The action is fast paced and the premise is all too plausible today. For more information on this book as well as his many other books visit his website at www.ridleypearson.com.

Rating:
Summary: fun ride
Review: Ridley Pearson, as always, gives us a fast ride. I had become a bit tired of Lou Boldt and Daphne's clenched teeth platonic relationship, and looked forward to some new characters. I looked in the wrong direction. The plot and the modern day railroad lore are excellent, if a bit too technical at times. The characters are preposterous.

Peter Tyler is a down and out ex-homicide cop with an anxiety disorder that presents as acute claustrophobia. He is fired, in disgrace and facing a civil suit for excessive force against a black child beater. Somehow these qualifications get him temporary employment with the National Transportation Board to investigate a possible homicide involving a major railroad line. In a side-by-side story line, Umberto Alverez is seeking revenge against the railroad company for what he sees as negligence and cover-up in the crossing deaths of his wife and twin daughters. The chase and the chased gradually draw closer and closer together until Tyler and Alverez have a symbiotic relationship.

Reading about the trains was excellent stuff, interesting (hobos aren't "hobos" anymore, they are "riders") and informative. The action was fast paced. But the character's actions and motivations were like a James Bond movie gone bad. A beautiful, ambitious female executive becomes an informer on her own company because she may or may not have an itch for a scruffy, delusional ex-cop. Another fast living cocktail waitress who had a crush on Umberto when she was twelve behaves like a combination of Joan of Arc and whistle blower to save Umberto from --- what? An intelligent, highly placed government administrator misuses government authority against the railroad company because--he is in a pout?

There is a lot to like about "Parallel Lies" if you can just shut your eyes to why anyone is doing anything. The author has clearly done a lot of research on railroads, and the writing is vivid and clear. The enjoyment outweighs the frustration, but not by much.

Rating:
Summary: Above average
Review: Some places in the story are slow to read, otherwise it was a good read overall. Makes you feel for the guy who did the derailments because the railroad company killed his family with a major cover-up. This story could be made into a good movie.

Rating:
Summary: a ridley-iculous tale of fast trains
Review: This book was written to attract the attention of Hollywood producers. It gives the story of a widower, seeking revenge on the evil train company who refuses to admit fault in the deaths of his wife and children. The story is fast paced and easy to read, though difficult to believe. Take it with a grain of salt.

Rating:
Summary: Must have been a first draft
Review: Very poorly written novel! Just in the first part of the book, he interogates a rider, yet Priest who was driving behind him in another car is nowhere! Sometimes the plot is written with the characters making so illogical decisions and events so improbable as to create near impossible situations. How a headlight dropping causes enough noise to be noticed, but subsequent scrabbling along a gravel railbed does not and why the villian does not pick up the headlamp are but a few examples.