A mystery plot with detailed detective tracking, while seeing both sides of the activist and tracker confrontation. This had the unusual aspect of being focused on railroad operations in a very detailed operational manner.Unfortunately, the worst culprit in the book, O'Malley, worked for the railroad as head of security. His character almost overextended believable reality in being able to plot manipulative control of the main characters. No one is ever as prescient as this guy was. And if he had the capability to manipulate at the level attributed to him, then he could have chosen many other more direct paths to eliminating a lawsuit adversary than is presented here with the manipulation of an old friend of his to hire an excellent fired detective. Of course the book hinged on the O'Malley manipulation, and the plot is a direct result of the author having chosen a relatively complex plot for both the railroad security, the NTSB detective, and the injured claimant against the railroad.For the most part the characters were believable, the pace was very good, and the plot was plausible. For the reader there was anticipation as the detective worked by tracking tangible details. The fact that it seemed as if he missed no detail for connection of information, and that the follow up information was provided on such a timely basis doesn't quite fit with similar events in reality, but the connectable flow of crime solving information and linking of events made this a pretty good read.
Peter Tyler was a DC cop, but due to what some called uncontrolled violence he was fired and at loose ends when a friend with the NTSB hires him as a contractor to investigate an apparent murder on a box car on a train belonging to the Northern Union Railroad. He arrives at the scene in the midwest to find the local cops working the scene and a representative of the Railroads Security Branch just arriving as well. There have been a number of derailings of trains belonging to Northern Union and on a parallel story line we follow Umberto Alverez a science and computer teacher whose wife and twin daughters were killed due to a malfunctioning crossing gate ( which Northern Union denies). The blame is shifted to his wife, his lawyer is murdered and he is the suspect. Umberto is out for revenge. As the stories progress and come together we discover some underhanded corporate dealings land the cover ups by the Northern Union and its security forces... A good fast read this one.ISBN - 9780786865642, Suspense, Pages - 684, Print Size - R, Rating - 4.6 All books reviewed are from the library or purchased by the reviewer.
