Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Top Ten
Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Ryne Douglas Pearson
Class/Genre: Mystery
Putnam, Oct 1999, $22.95, 320 pp.
Because of FBI Special Agent Ariel Grace’s excellent reputation, her supervisor Jack Trale, Chief of the Atlanta field office, allows her to deliver Mills DeVane to him. So confident in her abilities, Jack sets up a press conference. A chagrined Ariel fails to convey Mills and an irate Jack transfers Ariel to Task Force 10. Her new boss welcomes her because he needs agents to catch # 10 on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, serial killer Michelangelo who uses his victims as a canvas.
The superego Michelangelo is livid with the FBI for leaving him at the bottom of their list. He feels he has earned the # 1 slot and takes out his frustrations by hacking a postal clerk to pieces. Ariel finds a clue that leads her to believe that # 10 plans to kill the other nine individuals sharing the list with him. She participates in a special task force meeting that includes her former supervisor. Jack informs her that Mills is an undercover agent with a vital mission that requires his full protection at any cost. However, Michelangelo, Ariel, and Mills appear ready to defy physics and occupy the same space when the inevitable collision occurs.
Readers will recognize that TOP TEN is one of the top ten thrillers of the year. Ryne Douglas Pearson, author of SIMPLE SIMON, has written a one-sitting reading experience that keeps the audience compulsively hooked to learn what happens next. The author provides a brilliant depiction of what it feels like for a law enforcement official to go so deep undercover that he becomes a perpetrator committing the same crimes as the people he infiltrated. FBI buffs and thriller fans will gain much pleasure from this exciting tale.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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