Book Review: Out of Order

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Out of Order     Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Charles Benoit
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Poisoned Pen, Feb 2006, $24.95, 234 pp.

Though they see life differently and only know each other less than a year, loan processor Jason Talley and married couple Sriram and Vidya Sundaram have become friends. Sriram asks Jason to hide a red sari he is bringing as a present to his mother when he visits her in India; he has not told his beloved wife yet that he plans to return home without her for a few days. The next day Jason returns to their apartment complex in Corning, New York to find his two friends dead in what the cops believe was a suicide murder. On the spur of the moment, Jason decides to deliver the sari to Sriram’s mother; he sends an email to all those on Sriram’s list telling them he comes to pay homage.

Jason flies to India where he finds everyone else on the tour a geriatric except for Canadian Rachel Moore who won the trip with a lottery ticket. She bullies the reluctant Jason into leaving the formal tour to ride the trains to see the real India though she insists they skip the Taj Mahal. As they journey together, Sriram’s former India computer associates and his American based employer want the sari that they believe contains a “magical” program stitched on it.

OUT OF ORDER is a fabulous thriller starring an individual whose entire life has been planned to the nanosecond until he goes to India. Suddenly, the sane, safe, and secure lifestyle that Jason has lived for twenty-seven years vanishes especially when he meets the spontaneous Rachel. Fans will appreciate the beleaguered Jason struggling to determine friend from foe and the RELATIVE DANGER of each as everyone except Rachel seems to have an agenda involving the sari.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner