Kill the Messenger
by Tami Hoag
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tami HoagEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02-28
ISBN: 0553583581
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Kill the Messenger
Book Review: Good murder, mystery and suspense. A bad guy is having trouble catching and killing a bicycle messenger (the hero).
Summary: 4 Stars
STORY BRIEF:
Jace is a bike messenger, about 19 years old. He has been taking care of his younger brother Tyler for six years, ever since his mother died. Jace and Tyler live in a room with the Chen family in Chinatown. They fear the police and social services because they don't want to be separated into foster homes. At the end of a long day, Jace has one last messenger run. He picks up an envelope from sleazy attorney Lenny. When he gets to the delivery location, someone tries to run him over and shoot him, but Jace gets away. Jace then learns that Lenny was killed shortly after Jace saw him. The murder weapon was an item Jace had touched. Jace is on the run and hiding from the murderer and the police. Parker is the detective on the case. Parker is suspicious when politically connected detectives from another jurisdiction want to take over the case.
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Jace is the star. It feels like a roller coaster ride watching Jace speed through traffic on his bike, survive crashes, outrun the bad guys and stay alive due to amazing survival instincts. He reminds me of a rodent scurrying around back alleys and buildings that no one can catch. This was a good story, excellent writing. I didn't want to stop reading it. It has a happy ending. I'm a lover of romance novels and rarely read straight mysteries, which is what this is, but I enjoyed it. My only complaint was wanting more details at the end about what happened to certain people, see Spoilers below.
I don't want to be misleading, so I want to point out that the Jace story (roller coaster ride) takes up less than half of the time. The other half of the time is with Parker the detective, investigating and slowly unraveling the mystery, which was more like a typical investigation story. The best parts of the book were about Jace and his brother Tyler.
There were some intelligent and thought provoking comments that I marked and continued to think about after the story. Pages 49 and 75 talk about keeping one's private life secret. Knowledge is power and others will spin it around and use it against you. Page 93: she enjoyed being angry. Anger was the fuel for her energy making her feel bigger and stronger. Page 146: why men kill and why women kill.
DATA:
Story length: 419 pages. Swearing language: strong. No sexual language or content. Setting: current day Los Angeles, California. Copyright: 2004. Genre: mystery suspense.
CAUTION MINOR SPOILERS:
I wanted more details at the end of the book. I was confused and wanted to know what Parker was going to do. He was suspended for 30 days and yet he said he quit. I also wanted to see some justice and pain for the DA and Kyle. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to them. The author was vague. Also, I was unclear about Kyle shooting a woman earlier, it may have been accidental. I wanted to know more.
Summary of Kill the Messenger
With this new thriller, The New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag delivers her own message to suspense fans everywhere: Don't turn off the lights, and keep reading if you dare. From the gritty streets of Los Angeles to its most protected enclaves of prestige and power to the ruthless glamour of Hollywood, a killer stalks his prey. A killer so merciless no one in his way is safe?not even the innocent.At the end of a long day battling street traffic, bike messenger Jace Damon has one last drop to make. But en route to delivering a package for one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, he's nearly run down by a car, chased through back alleys, and shot at. Only the instincts acquired while growing up on the streets of L.A. allow him to escape with his life?and with the package someone wants badly enough to kill for.
Jace returns to Lenny Lowell's office only to find the cops there, the lawyer dead, and Jace himself considered the prime suspect in the savage murder. Suddenly he's on the run from both the cops and a killer, and the key to saving himself and his ten-year-old brother is the envelope he still has?which holds a message no one wants delivered: the truth.
In a city fueled by money, celebrity, and sensationalism, the murder of a bottom-feeding mouthpiece like Lenny Lowell won't make the headlines. So when detectives from the LAPD's elite robbery/homicide division show up, homicide detective Kev Parker wants to know why. Parker is on the downhill slide of a once-promising career, and he doesn't want to be reminded that he used to be one of the hotshots, working cases that made instant celebrities of everyone involved. Like the case of fading retty-boy actor Rob Cole, accused of the brutal murder of his wife, Tricia Crowne-Cole, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the city, L.A.'s latest "crime of the century."
Robbery/Homicide has no reason to be looking at a dead small-time scumbag lawyer or chasing a bike messenger...unless there's something in it for them. Maybe Lenny Lowell had a connection to something big enough to be killed for. Parker begins a search for answers that will lead him to a killer?or the end of his career. Because if there's one lesson he's learned over the years, it's that in a town built on fantasy and fame, delivering the truth can be deadly.
From the Hardcover edition.
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