The Greater Good : A Thriller

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre handling of standard thriller components
Review: The author has more than enough promising ingredients to whip up a superior thriller - a heavy-duty international villain deploying a hit man to do in the VP of the U.S. in order to protect skullduggery at the highest levels of government, an innocent little journalist pursued by a couple platoons of ruthless killers trying to retrieve a video tape, and a devoted father seeking his long-lost daughter. But nothing that happens is all that novel or suspenseful. Everybody chases around until the killers manage to wipe each other out, allowing our heroine to deliver the video tape to some good guys who have the wherewithal to see that the corrupt pols get what they deserve. At least that's the implication, since just how this comes about is not revealed.

The good guys are very good and and the bad guys very bad, and no one is of particular interest beyond fulfilling his role in advancing the plot.

Rating:
Summary: excellent political crime thriller
Review: The president and the vice president of the United States knew what they had to do to get elected and they gladly paid the price. During their sixth year in office Vice President James Ettinger can no longer live with the guilt so he makes a video tape and sends it to a television news producer and then sends a cryptic letter of apology to his brother. Shortly after the video tape is mailed, James is killed by skilled assassin Olin St. John who makes a clean getaway.

The people behind the assassination don't know that the vice-president recorded his dirty dealings until the tape is in the mail. Using his fiancée Megan as a pawn, they force St. John to track down the tape and kill anyone who gets in his way. While Megan is held hostage, a worker at NBC watches the tape and knows she is being hunted. She must elude the killers until she can figure out how to get the tape into the right hands so the truth will come out about the presidential election.

In the case of THE GREATER GOOD, most of the plot is laid out in the first few chapters but that doesn't detract from reader enjoyment because one key point is left out to the end but long before that the whirlwind plot draws the audience into the storyline. This is William Casey Moreton's debut novel and it is an excellent political crime thriller on a par with the works of Tom Clancy, Tom Grisham, and Dan Brown. No telling what one may find in Wal-Mart as this author will definitely be one of tomorrow's superstars.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A superb and inspired storyteller
Review: There is a certain knack in writing a thriller. Primarily it has to do with the pacing of the story combined with sympathetic characters. The best writers know just how to stretch out the suspense to keep the pages flying and the reader's eyes glued to the page whatever the hour. In many ways, this talent is an innate gift. A gift that was generously bestowed on Casey Moreton as is evidenced in this- his very first novel.
The Vice President of the United States makes a videotape confession just prior to resigning. However, before he could make the announcement of his resignation, a sniper's bullet ends his life. The videotape, however, is already in the mail. Shadowy government agents are on the trail of the tape and wreak death and destruction in their wake. The assassin, St. John, wants out of the killing life as he has fallen in love with Megan. He wants nothing more than the five million dollars he is owed and to live a normal life. In the meantime, Joel Benjamin is about to kill himself in an airport until he sees the face of his long lost daughter, Megan. He tries to unsuccessfully to follow her. His life's mission now becomes finding her. Of course, all of these characters' paths must continuously interweave in a death's dance to the very end.
THE GREATER GOOD is a truly remarkable debut thriller. Casey Moreton is a superb and inspired storyteller and with so many mediocre books being published, this is a relatively rare feat. The characters are cleverly conceived and skillfully portrayed. Alternating point of view heightens suspense and adds additional fuel to the already brisk pacing. With a compelling story and a highly satisfying conclusion, this is one of the most entertaining books of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Reminds me of Ludlum at his earliest and best.
Review: This is a book to spend the night with. You won't want to put it down.