Deadline Man

March 8, 2010
Talton (The Pain Nurse
) brings his journalism expertise to this fine mystery narrated by an unnamed columnist for a Seattle newspaper. Shortly after “the columnist” has a routine meeting with sometime source and heavy-hitting hedge fund manager Troy Hardesty at the man's downtown office, Troy falls 20 stories to his death on the street below. Back at the columnist's office, the paper's managers announce the company will be sold or closed in 60 days. Despite the uproar, the columnist is more concerned with juggling his three lovers than his future—until he's accosted by a streetwalker who shouts,“Eleven-eleven!” Later, sinister men claiming to be “federal officers” ask the columnist what Troy told him at their meeting. The columnist joins forces with Amber Burke, a cub reporter who wants to prove herself with a big story, in an effort to find out what's really going on. Well-rounded characters and a lightning-paced plot raise this well above the average global conspiracy story.

March 15, 2010
In Seattle, a beloved newspaper's death coincides with more mysterious sudden deaths.

Around the Seattle Free Press, he's more often referred to as the columnist, or Mr. Economics Columnist, than by his proper name. He likes that, delights in his importance, relishes the impact his work delivers. It's clear to him that he has the best job in the world on the best of all possible newspapers, and that he may well be the best possible person for it. Early on, for instance, he confides that an editor impressed by his"poise under pressure" dubbed him"the deadline man." As usual, pride comes before a fall, which commences with an apparently innocuous interview in the course of which a hedge-fund manager casually asks the columnist what he knows about eleven-eleven. The answer is zero, but not for long. In all its implications and deepening menace, with all its arcane connections to dark and dangerous conspiracies, eleven-eleven is about to become the controlling force in the columnist's life. He's stumbled on the kind of story great newspapers exist for—if only his own newspaper lives long enough to print it.

Talton (The Pain Nurse, 2009, etc.) serves up a well-crafted mystery that is also a heartfelt threnody for the journalism that was.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2010
A business columnist for the "Seattle Free Press" witnesses the death of a primary source. Then a young man is found dead with a tattoo 11/11 on his ankle. For the anonymous "Deadline Man," the world is changing, people are dying, and the newspaper is going out of business. VERDICT This terrific stand-alone by the author of "The Pain Nurse" and the David Mapstone series should appeal to readers who enjoyed Michael Connelly's "The Scarecrow". [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 1/09; large print edition available.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2010
A cabal of defense contractors with a diabolical plan to gain control of the govenment runs up against the power of the press in this nonstop thriller. When the respected business columnist of the Seattle Free Pressa man known for his ability to write under pressure and meet deadlines as he cranks out three columns a weekstumbles on a story about the local company Olympic International, people around him begin to die in murders framed to look like suicides or lovers quarrels (but could be something much more ominous). People are not what they seem here, from the new female police reporter who works with the columnist (and who remains nameless throughout the journalists first-person account), to the federal agents inquiring about a missing teenage girl, to the higher-ups at the newspaper, which is facing tough financial times. And throughout the four weeks during which the story takes place, the term eleven/eleven echoes ominously. Talton, author of The Pain Nurse (2009) and the David Mapstone series, combines a moving paean to the free press with a chillingly plausible thriller plot built around black ops. A knockout novel that leaves the reader with renewed appreciation for independent daily newspapers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)