Kill Zone : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: kill zone by jim silver
Review: I place this story at the top in the suspense genre, it has the force of being well researched. Its historical context is accurate as computer technology during the 1980's was not as advanced. Civil Service employees including Police are not investigated upon presentation credentials unless reasonable doubt is evidenced at the beginning, or a serious crisis occurs requiring investigation takes place. So it is possible for a ghost to move from place to place. . The Sniper of the story is a dedicated killer,avenging his father's death,and throws law enforcement off because he spaces by years his killing of the men who killed his father. Authorities did not catch on to him until computer technology in the late 1990's ,an officer who tried to prosecute the sniper's father's killers,insurance investigators,and the F.B.I. became involved. Aaron Longbaugh was able to wreak havoc while using the cover of a Police SWAT TEAM member. He was like a ghost. This story is too realistic to be a fiction story. It is EErie. A bright and intelligent lady insurance specialist fell in love with him and never had a clue as to who he was. The suspense and action far outweighs the price of the book.

Rating:
Summary: kill zone by jim silver
Review: I place this story at the top in the suspense genre, it has the force of being well researched. Its historical context is accurate as computer technology during the 1980's was not as advanced. Civil Service employees including Police are not investigated upon presentation credentials unless reasonable doubt is evidenced at the beginning, or a serious crisis occurs requiring investigation takes place. So it is possible for a ghost to move from place to place. . The Sniper of the story is a dedicated killer,avenging his father's death,and throws law enforcement off because he spaces by years his killing of the men who killed his father. Authorities did not catch on to him until computer technology in the late 1990's ,an officer who tried to prosecute the sniper's father's killers,insurance investigators,and the F.B.I. became involved. Aaron Longbaugh was able to wreak havoc while using the cover of a Police SWAT TEAM member. He was like a ghost. This story is too realistic to be a fiction story. It is EErie. A bright and intelligent lady insurance specialist fell in love with him and never had a clue as to who he was. The suspense and action far outweighs the price of the book.

Rating:
Summary: An absorbing read
Review: In 1970, President Nixon announces the major withdrawal of American troops from Viet Nam. To the soldiers still fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia, it was a rallying call to come home and not serve on any more potentially deadly missions. However, the fighting still goes on and Major Ralph Longbaugh has to send one of squads into one of the most dangerous parts of Nam. Instead the soldiers kill Ralph, setting it up so that it would seem that he died at the hands of a Cong ambush.

A decade later, Ralph's son Aaron serves in the Army. Aaron believes that his father died in honorable combat, but soon learns how his father actually was murdered. A trained killer, over the next few years Aaron successfully goes after his father's assailants with a gleeful abandon. However, a wrongful death claim leads to an insurance investigation that begins an inquiry into Aaron's background.

KILL ZONE starts off as one of the great vengeance novels of the nineties. That is until Aaron reaches Ohio (slightly under half-way into the book) and the story line bogs down with the wrongful death investigation. Aaron is a complex character who will actually elicit reader empathy as he goes about his deadly business. Jim Silver's tale reads fast and exciting, leaving sub-genre fans both delighted with his story and frustrated over what could have been if he stayed on the narrow path of a serial killer seeking vengeance.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: What a waste of paper!
Review: This suspenseful book requires the reader to suspend belief and pretend that the focus character, a police sniper, could move from department to department and town to town doing a successful killing in each town, and no one notices and puts one and two and three together. Will anyone figure out that he is the killer??? It is about as plausible as the comic book premise that Superman can put on glasses and become Clark Kent and NO ONE NOTICES. The fact that the book is readable notwithstanding this flaw is testiment to the idea that watching a preditor stalk prey is interesting, and Silver describes the hunt well. The reader is shown the original fragging incident, and therefore knows that the squad is in fact guilty of killing its commander. But the premise of the book is that the original investigators get a confession from a drug using and dealing soldier who is hoping to cop a plea, and who implicates his buddies in the fragging. The confessor quickly kills himself (is killed?--the investigators don't know for sure). No physical evidence is found. The nine remaining members of the squad all have a consistent and plausible story of denial. The investigators are "sure" the squad did it, but their military police suprvisors conclude there isn't enough evidence even to file charges, much less bring things to trial. The investigators are sore about this. Ten years later one of the investigators gets a chance to tell the son of the killed commander that he thinks the squad killed his father and that justice wasn't done. The son immediately acepts the investigator's story and begins stalking and killing the people fingered by the investigator. Imagine this! A soldier/policeman kills people on the say so of a cop who got his information from a druggie bargaining for a plea. Silver writes as if there is clear justification for the "revenge", but the reader is first going to have to get over a nagging problem: what kind of madman hears a unsubstantiated ten year old accusation, and then starts a killing spree? And what kind of author thinks evidence and proof this slender creates justification for this as a novel of "revenge" not a novel of a psychopath looking for an excuse to stalk and kill men.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Story But With Poor Editing Problem
Review: This was a good action book. Major Longbaugh was killed by his squad in Vietnam at the end of the war. The attack was disguised as a vietcong ambush. Two army investigators attempt to prosecute the guilty members of the squad but are unable to because of a lack of evidence. A few years l;ater one of the investigating officers run into the son of the assasinated major. The investigator tells the son how his father really died. The son, trained as a sniper takes up the call of vengance. You get a good insight into the world of a sniper. You also are able ti see the tactics that the son uses to track down the killers of his father. This makes some very good reading. You are able to take an exciting journey with the son as he seeks vengance. This is a must read book. You will not be dissapointed.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Story But With Poor Editing Problem
Review: Very interesting story from a very talented writer. The only problem of this book is the Editing. I just could not believe that the professor guy in the same name had died twice and died quite differently. But still, highly recommended if you like 'White Star,' 'Point of Impact/Black Light/Time to Hunt.'