Review: Parallel Lies

Umberto Alvarez has lost almost everything dear to him. His wife and two children were killed as a railroad crossing guard failed. At least this is what Bert believes, the railroad company is contesting this, placing the blame on Bert's wife. Bert starts a legal battle to get them to acknowledge their guilt, but then his lawyer is murdered with Bert as the suspect. On the run he resorts to sabotage to convince the railroad company to come clean.

When a boxcar is found doused in blood Peter Tyler is sent out as a representative for the National Transport and Safety Board, NTSB. Peter Tyler was a homicide cop for eleven years before a case of self defence is turned into a race crime and he's fired. His girlfriend leaves him, he has legal feels to pay and he's about to lose his house. He needs to prove his worth on this case in order to secure a new job with the NTSB.

As Tyler arrives at the rail yard he finds that both he and the representative from the headquarters of Northern Union Security, Nell Priest, have been called out before the police. He knows that for him the talk of ensuring that the real Railroad Killer has indeed been locked up is only a cover for looking into a possible connection to the six derailments Northern Union has experienced over the last 18 months. But what is Nell Priest's agenda? It becomes more and more clear that she is trying to stay ahead of him, beating him to possible witnesses, and that she has information she isn't sharing.

The amount of blood in the boxcar shows that two people are injured, one of which dying or dead. Peter Tyler needs to find them both and before Northern Union Security does. If this has anything to do with the previous derailments, and going on the pattern of those, he doesn't have much time if he wants to prevent a major train accident.

To me this reads more like a suspense novel than a traditional crime novel. The story is told from the perspective of Umberto Alvarez and Peter Tyler, the hunted and the hunter. You feel sympathy with both characters and how they race time to accomplish their goals. You debate with yourself whether or not Alvarez is justified in doing what he is doing. And as Tyler is victimised himself he, and the reader, soon sees capturing Alvarez necessary only to be able to get to the real bad guys.

I'm a great fan of Ridley Pearson. One reason I like him so much is how he normally portrays female characters and why and how relationships develop between people. I have to say he disappointed me on this account in "Parallel Lies". Nell Priest is the most important female character and she is described as a thirty something, super model beautiful woman who never the less apparently finds Peter Tyler irresistible. He doesn't trust her, and is given plenty of reasons not to, but he still falls for and gets involved with her.

He's sarcastic and correcting, she chides him. Perhaps it's just me but I don't get this relationship. It smells of "How to get a movie deal": Throw in some gorgeous women and have them take their clothes off. Pearson gets Priest out of her clothes by getting her in bed with Tyler. Another equally gorgeous female character is disrobed in a more inventive way.

This aside, "Parallel Lies" is not a bad read, if you take it for what it is. It's well written and the suspense will keep you turning the pages to the very end once you've started. It forces you to contemplate the length people will go to just for the job or their stock options. As well as trying to judge what kind of crimes can be forgiven based on the perpetrator's justification for committing them.

Please don't let this scare you off Ridley Pearson. I keep "Angel Maker" on my 'top crime novels' list.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Katarina - RAM Sweden

Book Review: Parallel Lies