Father Night by Eric Van Lustbader, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Since the death of her father President Carson, Alli has become the surrogate daughter of Jack McClure, Special Agent in the Department of Defense. Both are victims of past traumas and present afflictions. Alli's Grave Disease, although keeping her small in stature and seemingly powerless, has been able to find strength and self-confidence. Jack has dyslexia, but he has learned throughout the years to picture letters in his mind thus giving him the ability to see images in three dimensions. He uses this talent in calculating people and situations. Jack is able to solve complex puzzles and crimes because of his unique way of looking at the evidence. Both will need their abilities more now than ever before in Father Night, the fourth mystery in this series by Eric Van Lustbader.

As the fifth anniversary of her kidnapping approaches, Alli is a target once again. The man who kidnapped her is dead, so who is behind this new threat to her? Meanwhile, Jack is in Russia trying to assist Annika Dementiev, granddaughter of the powerful Dyadya Gourdjiev, who is dying. Gourdjiev is in a power struggle with the leader of a vast underworld known only as the Syrian. Jack isn't sure who will prevail, but he is sure that in either case, it is cause for alarm.

Father Night has as its principal strengths the terrifically drawn characters of Alli Carson and Jack McClure. But the storyline here is very complicated. In addition to the two subplots involving these characters, there is a third one in which Secretary of Defense Dennis Paull is drawn into a web of lies, corruption and secret transactions that appear to be centered around Washington DC's Head of Detectives. The overall theme here is that things are rarely what they appear to be, which is a fine premise for a thriller; it's just that it's taken a little far in this one.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Father Night.

Acknowledgment: Authors on the Web provided a copy of Father Night for this review.

Blood Trust
Forge Books (Hardcover), May 2011
ISBN-13: 9780765329745; ISBN-10: 0765329743

Father Night

A Jack McClure Mystery by Eric Van Lustbader