Review by Booklist Review
Parks' latest novel addresses such universal issues as free will, predestination, and the justifiability of killing one person if that death will prevent thousands more. Brilliant lawyer Jenny Welker's latest case is a major class-action suit against power company giant CP & L, whose plant emissions are causing high rates of lung cancer. When Jenny's husband, Nate, is kidnapped, taken to a secluded mansion, told he must at all costs get Jenny to drop the CP & L case, and then released, he decides not to tell Jenny until he can figure out what's going on. He assumes CP & L is behind his kidnapping, but he soon learns that the culprit is a shadowy group called the Praesidium, headed by reclusive visionary Vanslow DeGange, who can purportedly predict the future and outlines to Nate the disastrous consequences if Jenny wins the CP & L case. DeGange is very persuasive and convinces the highly sceptical Nate that he must convince Jenny to back off the case. While the premise is somewhat implausible, the strong, taut suspense and the dramatic conclusion make this hard to put down.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this tense thriller from Parks (Interference), Richmond, Va., stay-at-home dad Nate Lovejoy is kidnapped. His abductor, Lorton Rogers, explains that Nate is the unwilling guest of Vanslow DeGange, who can foresee some of the future. This ability enables Vanslow to identify situations where murder is justified to protect multiple lives from the unforeseen consequences of an individual's actions. Lorton, who works for an organization that protects humanity by arranging that violence, says Nate must kill his wife, lawyer Jenny Welker, to prevent climate catastrophe. Jenny has been working on a class-action suit against a polluting power company whose emissions have made many sick. Vanslow predicts that her lawsuit will lead the defendant to invent an apparently clean-energy solution that would yield "the most devastating greenhouse gas ever created." Initially dismissive of Lorton's claims about Vanslow, Nate learns that they may be true. Parks makes suspension of disbelief to his premise accessible via solid prose and characterizations. Readers who enjoy jaw-dropping but credible plot twists will be enthralled. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency. (July)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In this latest stand-alone from Parks (Interference), Nate Lovejoy is happy to stay home with his two young daughters in Richmond, VA, while his wife Jenny tries to make partner at Richmond's largest law firm. On just another ordinary day, Nate is kidnapped by members of a secret society called the Praesidium and briefly held captive at the mansion of their leader, Vanslow DeGange. Praesidium claims that DeGange can see the future, and he's predicted that if Nate doesn't commit an unthinkable act in four days, a billion people will die. The mass casualty will be a direct result of Jenny's currently lawsuit against Virginia's biggest power company. Nate and Jenny manage to escape attempts on their lives, then realize that they must locate DeGange's compound in the remote Virginia countryside before they run out of time to change the future. VERDICT This fast-paced novel, narrated in alternating chapters by Nate and Jenny, has twists and turns that'll keep readers guessing. Recommended for readers who enjoyed Parks's other stand-alone works, as well as fans of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay.--Jean King, West Hempstead P.L., NY
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Would you kill your spouse if that were the only way to prevent a billion other deaths? For lawyer-turned-househusband Nate Lovejoy, this suddenly is no idle question. According to Lorton Rogers, the man who's kidnapped him, Vanslow DeGange, founder of the shadowy Praesidium, can see the future, and he can see that the lawsuit Jenny Welker's filing on behalf of 280 clients of Virginia's Commonwealth Power and Light alleging that its coal-fired Shockoe Generation Plant produced record amounts of lung cancer and COPD will have unintended consequences: Other energy companies that get sued will bring their plants into compliance by using technology that will unintentionally but catastrophically accelerate global warming. Nate won't be able to talk Jenny out of pressing the suit; she'll have to die to save all those other lives. Although Nate's nowhere near ready to pull the trigger once he's released from captivity, Parks stands ready to unleash a furious barrage of complications that will force his hand. Nate will hear Rogers threaten the couple's two small children. His attempts to gather more information about the Praesidium will backfire spectacularly. He'll realize that Rogers is tracking his every move. He'll press DeGange to make other predictions that come startlingly true. He'll learn that he's been reported to the police for domestic violence. He'll get evidence that Jenny is having an affair. All the while, the cabal responsible for killing John Kennedy and Martin Luther King for the greater good of the greater number will tighten its grip on him until…but that would be telling. A textbook one-sitting read whose fiendishly inventive details only intensify its remorseless momentum. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
