Panic — Jeff Abbott
Dutton
2005
Rating:


In "Panic," the latest novel from thriller author Jeff Abbott, documentary filmmaker Evan Casher has one hell of a week. A documentarian in the Errol Morris vein, Evan is in the midst of editing his latest film and dealing with a girlfriend, Carrie, who's freaked about by his declaration of love, when he receives a nervous call from his mother asking for him to come home. When Evan arrives at the house, he discovers his mother dead on the floor and he's nearly hanged by her two killers. Evan is saved by a mysterious bald man and Evan sets off to discover why his mother was murdered. The answer upends everything Evan thought he knew about his life, leading him to the revelation that his parents worked for a freelance spy organization led by the murderous Jargo.

This story is a virtual resume of the Hitchcock chase thriller updated for the "Alias" and "The Bourne Identity" generation. More than anything, this is a thriller in the truest sense of the word, a story of boundless imagination that contains more twists, turns and family problems than a season of J.J. Abrams' television spy game (there are even similarities to the "Project Christmas" storyline"). The narrative inventiveness is staggering and the puzzle is put together with ruthless efficiency. Evan slowly unravels the truth behind the lie of his life until, finally, he finds the man he truly is, and he's not, in metaphorical terms, his father's son. Ironically, it takes a documentary filmmaker to discover a world in which everything is fake: a world dealing in deadly espionage activities, a world of phony identities and shallow values.

The double and triple crosses and the multiple layers of espionage and deceit concealing the truth are a bit hefty, but there are few thrillers that are this genuinely exciting and intellectually satisfying. This is a story well worth reading.

Posted Thursday, September 29, 2005

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