Synopses & Reviews
The author of the spine-tingling thrillers "Days of Drums" and "Last Rights" has written his most complex tale yet, that of an innocent caught in the vortex of international political intrigue. Powered by characters whose ambition and cunning make them intolerant of any threat to their conspiracies, "Gatekeeper" also features a labyrinthine stage -- from the chambers of the American embassy in Paris and the North African ghetto of Marseilles to the glittering avenues and back alleys of New York City. Hollis Fremont has recently arrived in Paris to begin her job as a "visa slave" at the American consulate. Her return to the City of Light forces her to revisit tragedy: the mysterious assassination of her parents by a sniper's bullets fifteen years earlier. Hollis, an unprepossessingly beautiful young woman, soon attracts the notice of Paul McGann, deputy chief of mission, whose ardent attention to Hollis is matched by his violent temper and calculating treatment of anyone who crosses his path. Hollis's involvement with McGann will accidentally reveal to her the elaborate and clandestine paragovernmental alliances colluding to create a new world order -- one in which certain high-level officials and unfortunate individuals, including Hollis herself, are set in the sights of a hired gun. This implacable killer is called the Handyman. His relentless, and anonymous, pursuit of Hollis sends her on an international flight. As she struggles to elude the Handyman and his colleagues, it becomes evident that she can trust no one, not even those whose confidences she holds most dear. From the opening scene in an assassin's hideout to the cataclysmic climax at the Statue of Liberty, "Gatekeeper" is electrifying. Like Mitch McDeere in "The Firm, " Hollis Fremont becomes snared in the carnage of a zero-sum game that is hopelessly beyond her control. In the face of murder, betrayal, and desperate ambition, her only weapon is her desire for vengeance and justice.
Synopsis
Readers who were left clamoring for more after Days of Drums and Last Rights will be electrified by Shelby's latest thriller -- a compelling tale set in Washington, D.C., and featuring an average woman who is unwittingly caught in the middle of a plot to kill a presidential candidate.
Hollis Fremont is the pivotal character in Shelby's latest heartstopper, and she is his best creation yet: an ordinary but gutsy woman relentlessly hounded by the threat of violence and death. As an innocent trapped in high-stakes affairs, Hollis is forced to rely on her keen instinct, intelligence, and dogged determination to prevail over monumental odds -- and to outsmart her mysterious and diabolical adversary. Stalked by an assassin known only as "the Handyman", Hollis soon realizes that she can no longer trust anyone -- not even the police or her longtime lover.
People magazine hailed Shelby's Days of Drums (Simon & Schuster, 1996) -- "With...mesmerizing storytelling, Shelby delivers a sizzling tale....Add to that one of the pluckiest and most believable heroines in thrillerdom, and readers have plenty of cause to march to this different drummer". Shelby's soaring reputation will be elevated with his latest breathlessly paced tale. Without question, Gatekeeper is his finest book yet.
About the Author
Philip Shelby is the author of Days of Drums and Last Rights. He lives in Los Angeles, California.