13 Days
Non-series
L. A.
Starks
Brown Books (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-933285-45-1 (1933285451)
ISBN-13: 978-1-933285-45-0 (9781933285450)
Publication Date: May 2006
List Price: $15.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): hat could spike gasoline prices even higher?
Energy executive Lynn Dayton thinks her challenge is fixing the
troubled refinery her company has just acquired on the Houston Ship
Channel. But soon she must save it, and other oil refineries, from the
industrial havoc and deaths directed by a French saboteur,
simultaneously fighting off threats to her own life.
As Lynn deals with chemical leaks, disloyal employees, a new season of
hurricanes, and mounting casualties, Robert Guillard, a corrupted
idealist, plans to manipulate her through her vulnerable sister.
But Robert underestimates his prey.
Review: L. A.
Starks' first novel, 13 Days: The
Pythagoras Conspiracy, is a topical international thriller set
in large part at one of the many oil refinery complexes that border the
Houston Ship Channel.
Lynn Dayton, the oil industry executive at the center of 13 Days, is stretched so thin, both
professionally and personally, that she barely has time to deal with
all the issues at hand. And that is part of the problem with this book.
Starks has included so many subplots involving Lynn that they
ultimately dilute the effectiveness of this otherwise well written and
thought out suspense novel. Had she scaled back the scope of material
included, the end result would have been a much more focused, far more
suspenseful, book.
13 Days moves along at a
brisk pace and is generally intelligently written. The conspiracy plot
is just absurd enough to be totally believable, and it is refreshing
that Starks selected a group other than the stereotypical Middle
Eastern extremists or the US Government to be the puppet master pulling
the strings behind the conspiracy.
The book is prefaced by a list of key characters, some background
notes, a map of the refinery, and a (ahem) simplified refinery process
flow diagram. Many chapters are also preceded by definitions of terms
that help the reader better understand and appreciate the complexity of
the oil refining business, and, by inference, the difficulty Lynn faces
in identifying the problems at her refinery.
Special thanks to Breakthrough Promotions for providing an ARC of 13 Days for this review.
Review Copyright © 2006 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
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Novels by this author ...
13 Days
Brown Books (Trade Paperback), May 2006
ISBN-10: 1-933285-45-1 (1933285451)
ISBN-13: 978-1-933285-45-0 (9781933285450)
Omnimystery keywords for 13 Days ...
Location(s) referenced: Houston, Texas.
