The Program

Rating:
Summary: Worst Ever from Stephen White
Review: I have read all of Stephe White's books. I have thoroughly enjoyed each of them......except The Program. The Program was slow moving, boring, and did not have nearly enough attention on the main and usual characters: Alan, Sam Purdy, Lauren, etc. I couldn't even finish it it was so boring, and usually I can't put down a White novel until I'm finished.

Rating:
Summary: Better and better
Review: I like Stephen White's books (and have read them all) for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that he's not afraid to shift the focus away from psychologist Alan Gregory and his now-wife, prosecutor Lauren Crowder. To compare him to Jonathan Kellerman (as Doubleday does on the flap copy-something Doubleday just loves to do, as if comparison is a huge selling point rather than a risk of turning readers away) is to do White a great disservice. White never, as Kellerman always does, inflicts himself on the material. (One can almost hear Kellerman exclaiming from the pages, "Aren't I clever?" Well, no, actually.) Aside from brief mentions now and then of discredited syndromes (like repressed/recovered memories) he doesn't actually travel down the potentially hazardous road of bad therapy. Instead, he allows the characters to remain in character. And fine characters they are, too! In The Program, not only is the story original and clever, but also he's created in retired hitman, witness-protected, Carl Luppo, one of the most original and well-conceived people I've read about recently.

What I also like about White is his plotting skill. Each book seems to get just that much tighter, that much leaner, that much more labyrinthine. And the different "voices" in this book have genuine authenticity, particularly the exchanges between what, for want of a better term might be called, the "contract arranger" and his sundry hitmen/women. No overly technical whiz-bang stuff, just meat-and-potatoes serious business.

Kirsten Lord's (the prosecutor in witness protection) whale motif is a tad peculiar, but since the woman never for a moment goes out of character, who's to say it isn't valid? Certainly her concern for her daughter, and her grief over the murder of her husband, ring very true. Maybe people start thinking about whales when they're threatened with the loss of everything they value.

Finally, any writer who can endow two dogs with such character that the readers can actually see them, is a writer to be reckoned with. I highly recommend all White's books. They're never less than very good. The man really does get better and better and, in large part, I think it's as a result of his willingness sometimes to let his two central characters play secondary roles.

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff. A 'should' read.
Review: I thought I was embarking upon a Burger King of a novel and instead I found myself at a Five Star restaurant. Well, Four Stars. The characters are both interesting and magnetic. Moral conflicts arise that remain unresolved, always a believable result. Kirsten Lord doesn't have all the answers, but she has enough of them to recognize that if she doesn't address something in her past where she "went along to get along," whether she survives the Witness Security Program or not won't make a difference because she would have become 'a witness' [was this intentional? Brilliant if it was] to her own moral decay.

Carl Luppo is one of the best supporting characters I have ever read. Like Kirsten, I'm not sure I like him but I would certainly like him on my side. Carl would always have my back.

The daughter is a loving, intelligent, pain in the you know what, just like real 9-year olds.

Wonderful moral confusion, observable growth and fascinating characters. Good dialogue. Very good book.

Rating:
Summary: 4 &1/2 stars -- rounded up
Review: I've hit an age where my sleeping routine is precious so it means something when I stay up hours past my bedtime to finish a book. That's what happened last night. It was less than 12 hours from library checkout to completion. In fairness, I'm already a huge fan of Stephen White's Alan Gregory series. Still, number nine is a dandy and will hopefully bring him the upper eschelon sales he richly deserves. The double-edged sword of that wish is that this may not be the best book for a first time reader of the series. I strongly recommend reading this series in order as the underlying subplots concerning Alan and Lauren (girlfriend/wife) and others evolve in each book.

The editorial reviews do a nice job of summarizing the plot. This isn't the first time that White has backseated Gregory for another central character (see Higher Authority). Once again, it's a courageous move that works. Kristen/Katherine/Peyton is a strong character and Carl Luppo, retired assassin, is nothing short of fascinating.

The half-star reduction is for the relatively serious tone of the book. One of the reasons I love the Alan Gregory series is the underlying humor, most of which is poked directly at us Coloradans. There's a hint of it when Luppo, in trying to dress anonymously Colorado style, puts on a Rockies windbreaker and a Broncos baseball cap. Talk about clashing. Still, there used to be many more of these moments.

Bottom-line: Existing fans will enjoy this book immensely. New fans will still have a good read and will, hopefully, buy lots of the earlier books and make Stephen White the household name he deserves to be.

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: 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: Fast and Furious
Review: It was an excellent novel with many things going on at the same time. It was filled with action and suspense and even dissapointment for the characters. I couldn't put it down. I would even wonder what was going to happen when I was doing other things during the day. I had to get back to the story. Buy it, you'll love it.

Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Fix for a Jonathan Kellerman Junkie
Review: It's no surprise that Jonathan Kellerman sings the praises of this book on the dust jacket. Like Kellerman's "Alex Delaware" series, Mr. White has a knack for conveying psychological insights into his characters, and presenting them in a fresh, non-stereotypical way. And like Mr. Kellerman (or Mr. Grisham, for that matter), the plotting is masterful. It's trite but true: I couldn't put this one down! Of course, this was my first Stephen White book so I didn't realize that the Alan Gregory character had appeared in other books. Therefore, I was not disappointed that he was merely a supporting player in this suspenseful book. All I know is that I read very few popular novelists, and when I find one I love, I can't help but sing his praises. And if you are a die-hard Kellerman junkie like me, wait till you get your hands on Stephen White's THE PROGRAM!

Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down!
Review: Kirsten Lord (Peyton Francis) is on the run with her nine year old daughter from a man she put behind bars. A threat was uttered to her while he was being taken away to jail, 'For every precoius I lose you will lose two'. The first, her husband was gunned down in front of her eyes, waiting to meet her for lunch. The second, she fears may be her only child, nine year old Amy. She packs herself and daughter up and goes on the run, only to have a kidnapping attempt on her daughter fail, which sends her to the Witness Protection Program.

As the assistant DA on New Orleans, she was outspoken with her views on the 'program'. She did not feel it was doing the proper job helping the right people, instead hiding criminals who belonged in jail. When she enters the program, there is no trust, so she constantly prepares herself to run again without their help.

She soon learns that not only the man she jailed is after her, people who work for the program don't want her in the program, and she may also have someone else looking for her with yet another agenda.

The first couple of chapters, the intro, move a little slow but after you get through those it moves non-stop from there. I had to make myself stop reading several times at night when the clock struck 1 AM. The book will not let you down even if you are fans of Alan and Lauren Gregory, they take a back seat in this one but it's still good.

Don't pass this one up!