Derailed

For Charles Schine, it began as a quiet, ordinary day with a simple commute to work...until he meets the seductive, mysterious Lucinda Harris--an encounter that will irrevocably wreck his life.

From multitalented writer James Siegel comes a highly charged, suspenseful tale of murder, betrayal, and revenge.

Warner Books is proud to present Siegel's newest thriller, featuring rich characterizations and a scintillating plot that builds to an explosive climax sure to stun readers.

The wages of sin seem to include people coming after you with knives (Fatal Attraction), snow globes (Adultery), and, now, with Siegel's pulp-fiction cautionary tale, guns and blackmail. An ad executive boards the morning commuter train, filled with uneasy thoughts of his ailing daughter. His thoughts and, later, his life, get derailed by the presence of an alluring woman across from him with whom (after she pays his fare, a gratuity for which he will pay dearly) he strikes up a flirtation. Flirting leads inevitably, in Siegel's heavily overlaid prose, to an assignation in a seedy hotel. A man bursts into the room, pistol-whips the ad executive, and rapes the woman. From there, the beating descends to blackmail and the ad exec's plotted revenge. All of this is delivered in one-note, depressive style, with the writing veering from bland tough guy to poor man's poetic, as in "Lucinda was dressed for success--if success was making Charles's eyes water with adoration and arousal." Siegel's over-the-top tone and the flatness of his characters detract from the improbable yet intriguing plot. His first novel, Epitaph [BKL My 1 01], was nominated for a Shamus Award. His second should draw heavy reader demand. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Ad executive Charles Schine's descent into a nightmarish world of ex-cons, scam artists, and thugs couldn't have begun more idyllically. A brief encounter on a commuter train with a seductive woman named Lucinda Harris leads to an afternoon tryst in a shabby Manhattan hotel. But just as the two lovers are about to leave, a man named Vasquez bursts into the room, beats up Charles, repeatedly rapes Lucinda, and robs them both. Unable to go to the police, since both are married, they find themselves vulnerable to blackmail. Soon, Charles is forced to risk his job, his marriage, and the health of his diabetic daughter in a battle of wits with a man who seems always one step ahead of him. Written with psychological insight and exceptional skill by an author whose debut (Epitaph) was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First Novel, this is a riveting story in which the prose glides as effortlessly as Charles's descent into hell. The immensely satisfying plot is marked by multidimensional characters, a highly original structure, an ever more gripping duel, and authentic details that range from prison life to a diabetic's struggle for survival. Expect demand, as the publisher has planned a half-million-dollar advertising campaign. Enthusiastically recommended for all public libraries.
--Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

There's an extraordinary amount of hype attached to this thriller, from a rave letter in the galley by Warner head Laurence J. Kirshbaum to an announced ad/ promo campaign of $500,000 and enthusiastic blurbs from Christopher Reich and, notably, James Patterson. The buzz is warranted: this story of a middle-class professional whose life goes incredibly, criminally awry is one of the most exciting thrillers in years. And why is a blurb from James Patterson notable? Because Siegel (Epitaph) seems to have learned at his feet. Like Patterson, Siegel is an ad man (a creative director at BBDO; and he, like Patterson, has created TV spots for his book) who mixes first- and third-person narration and knows how to reduce a thriller to its essence. Protagonist Charles Schine is also a Manhattan ad man, married, with a diabetic teen daughter; troubles at home and at work lead him to fall in lust with a sexy younger woman he meets on his commuter train, and finally to a hotel assignation that goes terribly wrong when an armed man bursts in, beats Charles and rapes his date, then blackmails Charles for a staggering amount of money. Charles tries to fight the blackmail by hiring muscle, a disastrous move that gets him into potentially dire legal trouble, as does his agreeing to participate in a company scam in a desperate bid to make back some of the blackmail money-and all that just takes readers into the middle of this terrific yarn, which will blindside them again and again with shocking but plausible twists. With its clean prose, high-velocity plotting and just the right amount of emotional shading darkening its sharply drawn characters, this novel is the bomb.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.