Product Description

With this new thriller, New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag delivers her own message to suspense fans everywhere: Don't turn off the lights, and keep reading if you dare. From the gritty streets of Los Angeles to its most protected enclaves of prestige and power to the ruthless glamour of Hollywood, a killer stalks his prey. A killer so merciless no one in his way is safe--not even the innocent.

At the end of a long day battling street traffic, bike messenger Jace Damon has one last drop to make. But en route to delivering a package for one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, he's nearly run down by a car, chased through back alleys, and shot at. Only the instincts acquired while growing up on the streets of L.A. allow him to escape with his life--and with the package someone wants badly enough to kill for.

Jace returns to Lenny Lowell's office only to find the cops there, the lawyer dead, and Jace himself considered the prime suspect in the savage murder. Suddenly he's on the run from both the cops and a killer, and the key to saving himself and his ten-year-old brother is the envelope he still has--which holds a message no one wants delivered: the truth.

In a city fueled by money, celebrity, and sensationalism, the murder of a bottom-feeding mouthpiece like Lenny Lowell won't make the headlines. So when detectives from the LAPD's elite robbery/homicide division show up, homicide detective Kev Parker wants to know why. Parker is on the downhill slide of a once-promising career, and he doesn't want to be reminded that he used to be one of the hotshots, working cases that made instant celebrities of everyone involved. Like the case of fading retty-boy actor Rob Cole, accused of the brutal murder of his wife, Tricia Crowne-Cole, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the city, L.A.'s latest "crime of the century."

Robbery/Homicide has no reason to be looking at a dead small-time scumbag lawyer or chasing a bike messenger...unless there's something in it for them. Maybe Lenny Lowell had a connection to something big enough to be killed for. Parker begins a search for answers that will lead him to a killer--or the end of his career. Because if there's one lesson he's learned over the years, it's that in a town built on fantasy and fame, delivering the truth can be deadly.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #606431 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-06
• Released on: 2004-07-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Hoag's success (Dark Horse; Guilty as Sin), evidenced once again in this engaging new thriller, is the triumph of substance over style. In a genre overrun with self-conscious jargon, brooding descriptions and fragments masquerading as sentences, her clean, measured prose—full, balanced sentences delivered at a steady pace—doesn't so much create an ominous mood as draw the reader into the worlds of her characters. Here, before they know it, readers are invested in the dilemma of Los Angeles bike messenger Jace (J.C.) Damon, on the run after picking up a package from high-powered attorney Lenny Lowell, who is subsequently murdered. Orphaned Jace lives under society's radar in Chinatown, with his 10-year-old brother, Tyler; his surrogate family includes sassy dispatcher Eta Fitzgerald and the Chen clan, the boy's closest neighbors. Similarly, the police in pursuit are an unconventional, if dysfunctional, family: long-suffering lead detective Kev Parker; his annoying and ambitious new partner, Renee Ruiz; squabbling second-string detectives Jimmy Chew and Bradley Kyle; and coroner Diane Nicholson, who is also Kev's lover. The wild card in the game is Lowell's daughter, Abby, volatile and full of secrets, which Hoag reveals at appropriate intervals. A link to Hollywood provides a burst of fresh energy in the later chapters of this character-driven, solidly constructed thriller.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Nineteen-year-old Jace Damon has had a hard life. His mother died when he was just 13, and since then he has been struggling to raise his younger brother, all while staying beneath the radar of Child Protective Services. With the help of an understanding Chinese benefactress, Madam Chan, the two have been living in L.A.'s Chinatown, where Jace works as a bike messenger. One dark and rainy night, Jace agrees to do a last delivery. He picks up a package from a shady lawyer, but when he gets to the delivery address, he finds an empty lot; suddenly, someone attacks him and tries to grab the package. The bike messenger takes off, but the attacker pursues him, nearly runs him over with a car, and takes a couple of shots at him. Injured and frightened, Jace returns to Lowell's office only to find the place swarming with cops and the attorney murdered. The plot thickens as Jace attempts to elude both homicide detective Ken Parker, who wants some answers, and a menacing, shadowy figure, who is trying to get that package. Although this novel is a little heavy on the stereotypes, with its preponderance of macho, chauvinistic male cops and lusty, fiery female cops, Hoag's loyal readers and fans of police procedural suspense novels will definitely love it. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Tami Hoag is one of those writers whose thrillers don't have to keep telling you they're exciting; they just drag you along, willingly. Marvellous characters, an intelligent plot, with humour. Highly recommended." GUARDIAN, 4 December "A thriller writer who doesn't shirk on the twists and turns, Hoag is unswervingly competent and entertaining. Smart banter abounds. But despite all the hard-boiled business, Hoag has a woman's touch... here's a thriller with something for everyone." - Andrea Henry DAILY MIRROR, 19 November "If you like your thillers to be of the white knuckle variety - prepare yourself for a tense time. Tami Hoag has excelled herself with the fast-paced and cleverly chilling Kill The Messenger. A fabulous thriller that has surprises right to the end." PETERBOROUGH EVENING TELEGRAPH, 20 November "Hoag is a terrific crime writer and this is one of her best." - Mark Timlin THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 2 January 2005 "A thriller that doesn't have to keep telling you that it's exciting, but just drags you along for the ride." HIGH & I (Highbury & Islington), 17 December 04

Customer Reviews

10 Stars for this Excellent Thriller!
Being an avid Tami Hoag fan, I eagerly awaited her next effort after a two-year hiatus following DARK HORSE. Without a doubt, KILL THE MESSENGER was well worth the wait! From the scene-building, character-developing exposition stages of the novel, to its staggering climax, KILL THE MESSENGER is fast-paced, stimulating, and highly addictive. WARNING...Readers who have essential projects to perform, should not even BEGIN the novel until their projects' completion, because this spell-binding thriller will latch on with a serious death grip until the last page is turned!

A refreshing departure from Ms. Hoag's traditional formula of combining lust with intrigue, KILL THE MESSENGER still treats the reader to unbridled action and suspense; captivating and well-drawn characters; realistic and crisp dialogue; intelligently-crafted prose; and a lightning-paced plot--all set against a Los Angeles backdrop that is painted alternately with upper-class pseudo-glamour, middle-class nouveau-chic, working-class ennui, and lower-class desperation-within which crime, greed, cruelty, and courage are not bound by arbitrary social distinctions.

I anticipate a cinematic portrayal of Ms. Hoag's latest achievement in the very near future, because the adventures of Jace (the hapless, yet resourceful, bicycle messenger); Parker (the ambitious, intuitive, and self-enlightened police detective); Tyler (Jace's brainiac, yet charmingly innocent, 10-year-old brother); Abby (the beautiful and misunderstood daughter of the murdered and maligned decedent); and Andi Kelly (the only journalist who ever gave Parker a break during his long-ago fall from grace within the police department), should not be confined exclusively to the printed page. The novel's EXTREMELY satisfying conclusion (which I will not reveal here) said it all, and, hopefully, some enterprising movie producer will take notice.

Another solid suspense thriller by Hoag
I have read many of Tami Hoag's books, as I generally enjoy how she combines a solid suspense thriller with steamy romance scenes. I found Kill the Messenger to be a change of pace from her usual style, however, and initially, I found it difficult to get into the story. First of all, the book opens with a much younger main character than usual, Jace, a barely-legal boy from a chaotic background who is working as a bike messenger to try to give his much younger brother a more stable life. Jace becomes unwittingly involved in illegal activies, putting him on the run and providing an entrance for the book's other main character, Kev Parker, a police detective with something to prove. Immediately after these early introductions to Jace and Parker, I didn't have a good feel for either character's personality; both remained a mystery.

As the story continued, however, more well-defined personas for Jace and Parker began to emerge, and the only mystery became the one that Jace was caught up in and that Parker was trying to solve. The frequent shifts between the perspectives of several different characters caused me to become even further engrossed in the novel, and by the final pages, I was eager to reach the book's climax. Here, Hoag does not disappoint, throwing in an unexpected resolution as well as a few surprising aftershocks as well. Ultimately, I enjoyed this book, and although I missed the romance angle, I will continue seeking out Hoag's thrillers in the future.

Hoag delivers
Tami Hoag has long been one of my favorite authors. As a lifelong resident of LA, I can tell she's done her homework on this one. From Hope Street to Chinatown, she has captured the whole stinking, smoggy mess.

I must admit, the plot didn't thrill me at first but Jace, Kev, Tyler,et. al. drew me in with their quirky, fully realized "lives."

Overall an excellent police procedural, a worthy addition to Ms. Hoag's fine bibliography.