What happens when your "death" is greatly exaggerated?

books:


	• Dead Ringer Ken Douglas Bootleg Press, 2003 - 340 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

What happens when your "death" is greatly exaggerated?

Another recreational read that kept me up a bit later than normal... Dead Ringer by Ken Douglas. This was actually sent to me by another author who is friends with Douglas. Not knowing what to expect, I went in with few expectations. Turns out that Dead Ringer is a pretty good crime thriller with some major cases of mistaken identity going on.

Maggie grew up thinking she was the only surviving twin of an airplane crash that killed her mother and sister two weeks after her birth. She learns that's not exactly the case when she is reported as being "murdered" and dumped behind a bar on the beach. The murdered woman is a dead ringer for her, and Maggie figures out that it's her twin who really didn't die as earlier reported. The problem is that Maggie is still being stalked by her sister's killers, who apparently want her dead for some reason she doesn't quite understand. Since they screwed up with the first killing, they're under pressure to get it right the second time. Maggie is also pregnant from a one-night stand, and she doesn't want to lose her well-known husband who will know the child isn't his. Can she take the risk of telling him and driving him away, or will she get rid of the child and deal with that guilt for the rest of her life? Her "death" reveals a few facts she didn't know about her husband, so she decides to leave him and step into the role of her dead twin (since no one really knows she's the one that was actually killed). Maggie's twin has quite a bit of money as well as some strange emotional baggage that brings its own series of complications. Maggie needs to maintain the illusion long enough to find out why the killers want her dead, as well as what her sister was involved with that made her so much money.

Overall, the story was pretty good. Surprisingly, the main hitman is struggling with his own situation involving the murders, and really wants to put that life behind him. It doesn't change the fact that he's scummy, but there's still a bit of empathy there for him. I also enjoyed watching Maggie try to act like her sister she never met, and how to take over the mother role to an eight year old who knows something's a bit off, but likes the "new" version of mom much more than the old version. Things wrapped up well at the end, and I was glad that I had taken the time to dive into Dead Ringer...

for more information click here

Zips Along Like a Jet Propelled Steam Roller

Not long ago Maggie Nesbitt went to a party without her husband, where she met a young Irish lad and did something she shouldn't have. Now she's pregnant, news her newsman husband isn't going to appreciate. Maggie thinks about abortion, but knows she could never do that.

Then out of the blue she learns the twin sister she'd thought had died when they were infants, is still alive. Maggie tracks her down, but never gets to meet her as she is murdered and the body is mistaken for Maggie. Seeing a chance to keep her child, Maggie takes over her twin's identity. But her sister had a child of her own, an ex-husband who is a real piece of work and a best friend who is onto Maggie's charade in no time. And she had one very determined enemy, who is not very happy to see the woman he killed, risen like Lazerus, back from the dead.

To survive this killer, Maggie is going to have to enlist the aid of her new friends, while reaching back to her old life for help as well in this sharply written book that has it all, a crew of lively characters, snappy dialogue and a plot that zips along like a jet propelled steamroller.

for more information click here

Four and a Half Stars for DEAD RINGER

The suspense really hums along in Dead Ringer, but it would be a stretch to call this a mystery, since we know right from the get go who the bad guy is. However, this really is a thriller, full of three dimensional characters who seem to jump right off the page. I did enjoy this fun read, but I was led to believe it was a mystery and it wasn't. Still, I felt for Maggie, a woman in trouble who took over her dead twin's life, only to find herself out of the frying pan and into the fire.

And I thought perhaps the Gordon FBI character and his methods might have been a bit sloppy, however, he is a good sidekick for Maggie, who is a superb heroine. Horace Nighthyde, the bad guy, is a villain I actually liked, but the characters who really stand out for me are those two guys who live under the pier. Spooky, they are, but good this book is, even though there is no mystery here.

for more information click here

The plot rings a bell

A few months ago, I read a book called Diamond Sky by Ken Douglas and Jack Stewart. I was unimpressed with the book, but recently I had a chance to read one of Douglas's solo efforts, Dead Ringer. While a definitely flawed book, it also is better than Diamond Sky.

In Dead Ringer (subtitled "A New Millennium Thriller" for a reason that escapes me), Maggie Nesbitt is a young woman with problems. She is pregnant by a one-night stand that could threaten her marriage to a local newsman (who may be cheating on her as well). That, however, is rather minor compared to the murder of her long lost identical twin, Margo. Margo happened to witness a murder, and now assassin Horace Nighthyde has killed her to cover his tracks; unfortunately, he did it in a way that people think Maggie is dead instead.

Maggie decides to use her sister's death as an opportunity to disappear from her old life and assume Margo's. This new life comes complete with a fat bankbook and a loving child, but it also comes with Horace, who is out to correct what he thinks was a mistake. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game between the two, even as Maggie tries to make others believe she is Margo.

The biggest problem with this story is that it uses one of the most tired plot devices in suspense fiction, identical twins. Done well, even a cliché can be entertaining, but Douglas doesn't offer much that really adds new life to the twin-story. Furthermore, the idea of Maggie taking over Margo's life (at the spur-of-the-moment) is - despite Douglas's best efforts - not very plausible. Also, Horace is not the most threatening of villains; he's more inept than menacing.

On the other hand, Douglas does keep the pages turning. Some of the twists may be rather silly, but it is actually a reasonably fun-to-read thriller. It may be because Douglas isn't collaborating with another author, or maybe he's just improving (I'm not sure which of the two books came first), but this is a decent introduction to his writing.

for more information click here

Hard to Put Down

Every now and then you pick up a book and you can't stop reading, the story just seems to reach right out of the pages and grab you. This is one of those stories.

Maggie Nesbitt is pregnant, but her news anchor husband isn't the father of the baby. It seems Maggie had too much to drink at a party one night and did something she shouldn't have. But she doesn't want to give up the baby and this is a problem, because her husband doesn't want kids, doesn't want them so badly that he's gotten himself fixed and that puts Maggie in a fix.

Meanwhile, unknown to Maggie, the twin sister she thought had died in infancy is killed by a hired hitman, because she was the witness to a murder. When her sister's body is found, she's mistaken for Maggie. Now with the whole world thinking her dead, Maggie takes over her dead twin's identity.

But Maggie didn't know about that hired killer, who now thinks he botched the job, so Maggie's in big trouble and you'll be in big trouble too once you start this book, because you won't be able to put it down.

This is a fast-paced, hard-hitting thriller with complicated and believable characters, from Maggie herself right down to Horace Nighthyde, the bad guy killer and I liked it very much. If I had a gripe, and it's a tiny one, it would be the coincidence factor. I know the author had to stretch it a bit to make the story work. Other than that I'd have to say this book is a keeper and fine in every way. It's a thriller I know you'll enjoy.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Maggie Nesbitt is pregnant and depressed, because her husband isn't the father of her unborn child. She's thinking about abortion when she's attacked on the beach. She barely gets away, then gets the shock of her life the next morning when she sees that she has been killed on the news and that her nude body had been dumped in the trash behind a beachside bar. She finds out the body behind the bar is the twin sister she'd been told had died when she was two weeks old. She also learns her twin was divorced from a horrid man and that she had an eight-year-old daughter, Jasmine. Maggie, showing a bump on her head she got while getting away from her attackers, claims partial amnesia and steps into her dead twin's life. This way she can have her baby, give it a home, and save Jasmine from having to go and live with her father. But she doesn't know her twin saw someone do murder. And that someone thinks he killed the wrong woman.

for more information click here

hot