Good murder, mystery and suspense. A bad guy is having trouble catching and killing a bicycle messenger (the hero).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.
One night bike messenger, Jace Damon gets called for a final run and his life is never the same again. Someone tried to kill him and now he's terrified and running. At 19, Jace is responsible for his orphaned brother, Tyler (10) and he doesn't know how to protect Tyler from this danger so he runs to draw the killer away. His dispatcher, Eta Fitzgerald is the funniest person in the story. Her one-liners will have you laughing out loud. I particularly liked this one when Kevin Parker was questioning her about Jace. "You're like a bad penny. Why don't you go spend yourself someplace else."This is Jace's story but it is also detective Kevin Parker's story. I found Parker to be an all around good guy who has had a run of bad luck. He's a real romeo who uses his charm to further his investigation but in a humorous good way. Parker is one of those guys with personal problems but they just made him seem real and added depth to his character. He's had a tough road but he wasn't bitter about it (well maybe a little) so he just put his big boy pants on and dealt with it...his way. The fact that he had to train Renee Ruiz just put the icing on his situation. She is one of those females you just want to slap silly. I didn't like or trust her from the very beginning. She was just to stupid to be a cop let alone a detective. I was surprised when the truth came out but not shocked. What really shocked me was that Parker was able to deal with her without slapping her.The only complaint I had was the shifting POV. I had a hard time figuring out who the heck was speaking. I've been looking to see if this is part of a series since I absolutely loved Parker's character and this book reads as if something came before but I can't find anything. I would so love to read more of Parker's adventures.
What do You think about Kill The Messenger (2006)?
Δε μου άρεσε πολύ. Για κάποιον καινούργιο ανάγνωστη ίσως να είναι καλό. Για μένα όμως που Μπελίζω εδώ και χρόνια κι ειδικά της Χόγκ έχω διαβάσει το Μαύρο άλογο που ήταν ό,τι καλύτερο δικό της και γενικά εδώ έχω απαιτήσεις. Ένας αγγελιαφόρος παίρνει ένα δέμα, κάποιος αποπειράται να τον δολοφονήσει, τι έχει το δέμα, ποιος εκβιάζει ποιον και γιατί; Και ο δολοφόνος να σκοτώνει τους πάντες στο πέρασμά του για να ανακαλύψει τον κούριερ. Πολύ καλή ανατροπή η αποκάλυψη του ιθύνοντος νου που συνεργάζεται με τον δολοφόνο και φέρνει τα πάνω κάτω στην ιστορία. Καλό σε κάποια σημεία αλλά η συγγραφέας έχει γράψει και καλύτερα. Στα ελληνικά από τις εκδόσεις Bell το 2006 (Τελευταία διαδρομή).
—Πάνος Τουρλής
Kill the Messenger - Tami HoagThis is the second Tami Hoag book I've read. The first -Deeper Than the Dead- was amazing. This one definitely didn't live up to the first one. However, it was still a great book.Jace is a bike messenger that gets called for one last run of the night. This run, however, changes his life forever.The person he's supposed to be delivering the package to tries to kill him before Jace can even dismount his bike. Jace manages to get away but won't go to the police because his mother (who's passed) had drilled into his head that authorities are bad. He's terrified that he'll get arrested and charged for the murder of the guy that wanted the package delivered and that his (Jace's) brother will be taken by CFS (Children and Family Services.)Jace, by accident, sill has the package he was supposed to deliver. After looking inside to find negatives and not knowing why he was wanted dead, he tapes the package to his stomach for safe keeping. The negatives turn out to be blackmail that are traced all the way up to Rob Cole. Rob Cole is a famous actor who's being tried for his wife's murder. (I believe she based some of Rob Cole off of Charlie Sheen.)Through a lot of stuff in only a few days time, it turns out that Diane Nicholsen (the detective that's working the cases' lover) fell in love with Cole only be humiliated by him and his wife. Something inside her flips and she hires Eddie Davis to kill Tricia Cole to get back at Rob Cole for hurting her. Davis confesses everything to his lawyer, Lenny Lowell. Lenny then helps Davis blackmail Diane. That's where the negatives and the delivery come in and in enters our hero Jace Damon.This all doesn't make much sense unless you read the book. It's very hard to summarize as it's a very complicated story with a lot of characters. For that I give Tami Hoag some big kudos because I never once got lost while reading.I give this book four out of five stars because I'm not left feeling the way I did after reading Deeper Than the Dead.
—Miranda
An interesting LA procedural. The ending wasn't entirely earned, but I'd have to reread to see if there was any foreshadowing I missed. An engaging young man is at the center of this story, an orphaned bicycle messenger who is supporting his younger brother by risking his life delivering packages on L.A.'s traffic-clogged streets. He is even more in danger when he stumbles on a murder and a blackmail scheme that has everyone after him: the police, the murderer, the murder victim's daughter. The lead detective is a refreshing change because he does not believe that the obvious suspect is the murderer, as happens in many procedurals. He is less refreshing in his obsession with designer clothing, apparently trying to overcome the stereotype of the rumpled, unkempt detective. Good L.A. ambiance for this displaced Angeleno.
—Laurie Tomchak
