No Safe Place
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
No Safe Place centres on seven days in a closly contested Presidential primary, in which political violence, abortion politics and potential scandal all converge. Kerry Kilcannon is a young senator from New Jersey, the younger brother of a murdered presidential aspirant. Now Kerry, too, is seeking the presidency. But Kerry's past and present have begun to converge. Unknown to him, he is being stalked by Sean Burke, an anti-abortion fanatic intent on killing him before election day. And Nate Cutler, a political reporter for a national newsmagazine is trying to establish that two years before - while still married - Kilcannon had an affair with Lara Costello, another reporter covering Kilcannonm which resulted in an abortion. Through a narrative which weaves past and present, No Safe Place introduces the compelling character, Kerry Kilcannon, and raises questions about abortion politics, the gun culture in America, and the degree to which the press is - or should be - intent on exposing the private lives of political leaders. On the eve of the election, those forces converge in a sensational and shocking climax.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Patterson (The Final Judgment; Silent Witness; etc.) is a skilled fabricator of courtroom dramas who here ventures well beyond his usual subject matter with mixed but still highly entertaining results. His protagonist, Kerry Kilcannon, is a young, somewhat Kennedy-esque senator whose older brother was assassinated during his campaign for the presidential nomination. Reluctantly stepping into his shoes, Kerry becomes fired by idealism and decides to seek the presidency himself. There is a dark secret in his past, however, involving an affair with Lara, a beautiful reporter for the New York Times (yes, she was named after the heroine in Dr. Zhivago). Its disclosure could sink his carefully weighed position on abortion, and his candidacy to boot. Also in his past was a boy whom Kerry, as a young lawyer, saved from a murderous father and who now, paradoxically, wants to kill candidate Kerry on behalf of the pro-lifers. These strands are all woven together in a series of flashbacks in the course of a few days during the vital California primary, and Patterson, old pro that he is, milks the tension for all it's worth. The political detail is authentic, although Kerry's positions are the kind you always hope in vain a politician will take while his smooth opponent, the vapid incumbent veep, is a thoroughly believable contemporary villain. But Patterson is really only playing with political ideas, though he does so intelligently enough. The cliched romantic writing (lobster cooked on the beach on Martha's Vineyard, many sighs and silences) and the trite melodrama of the young assassin show where the heart of the narrative really lies--not that the glossy approach will deter a large readership. 400,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection; Random House audio and large print editions.
