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There are two big secrets about myself that I'll never tell anyone. One is that _____
really gets me aroused. The other is that I never learned how to _____. Other than that,
I'm pretty much an open book (heh heh). I don't mind telling people, for instance, that
I've never ridden a train. Sure, I've hopped on board the little choo-choos at the zoo
that race you past the Mongolian Ape named Hoophlungdung or the buffalos as they're taking
steps to insure the perpetuation of their species, but I've never been on a real live
train ride, one that takes you at a couple hundred miles an hour across the prairie bathed
in moonlight toward a stretch of track that has come undone...no, I've never been on a
train ride.
PARALLEL LIES by Ridley Pearson is about trains. I mean, all about trains. One of the ways
I test good writing is by seeing if the author can make interesting a topic about which I
know almost nothing. Pearson does this quite admirably. Next time you're stopped at a
railroad crossing, you can distract yourself with all of the facts you learned about
freight and passenger trains, such as how they keep track of them in the yard, how they
know where they're going, and the like, by reading PARALLEL LIES.
One of the great things about this terrific read is that you can cheer for the bad guy,
who is really a good guy. Umberto Alvarez lost his beloved wife and two young children at
a railroad crossing and he holds Northern Union, the train company, responsible. Alvarez
accordingly embarks on a campaign to derail Northern Union trains. His grand finale: to
derail NU's test run of its bullet train --- unless the President of NU admits the
company's guilt and apologizes. And while the loss has unbalanced Alvarez, he is correct.
Northern Union is responsible. NU also knows, however, that Alvarez is behind the
derailments of its trains.
This fact is also discovered by Peter Tyler, an investigator for the National
Transportation Safety Board. Tyler is brought into contact with NU when a murder is
committed aboard one of NU's freight trains. Tyler discovers that the victim is one of
NU's security team, which has been hired to quickly, and quietly, stop Alvarez. Tyler soon
begins to discover some ironic parallels between his life and that of Alvarez. Tyler,
fired from the Washington, D. C. police force for use of unreasonable force in a
controversial case, is at loose ends and on the verge of losing everything; it is
important that he solve the case and stop Alvarez. Yet, when he realizes that Alvarez has
been wronged, his own sense of justice creates a conundrum for him. How can he arrest a
man so clearly wronged? And would it be justice, in the truest sense of the word?
Pearson has, over the course of his last few novels, rapidly increased his stature --- and
his readership --- in the suspense field, and PARALLEL LIES is a classic demonstration of
how he has been able to do this. PARALLEL LIES keeps Pearson's string intact and will
undoubtedly further expand his readership.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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