Cut and Run

Amazon.com
While Ridley Pearson's Lou Boldt series seems to have run out of steam lately, his new stand-alone thriller shows this perennial best-selling author at the top of his form. It begins with a taut prologue introducing federal marshal Roland Larson and his protected witrness, Hope Stevens, whose testimony will send the Romero crime family to jail if she ever makes it to court. When Hope walks away from the witness protection program, she takes Larson's heart with her; he hesitates just long enough to regret it; and spends the next six years searching for her. Then she surfaces again in connection with the disappearance of another protected witness, a computer expert who holds the safety of everyone in the program in the top secret software program he developed. Noone wants access to that program more than the Romero family, and Hope Stevens is the first and most important target of their wrath. As a member of the elite Fugitive Apprehension Task Force, Larson races the clock to find the man whose knowledge threatens the life of the woman he still loves…and the child he never knew he had. A heart-pounding thriller that's impossible to put down, this is Pearson's best to date. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
Crime fiction king Pearson's (The Body of David Hayes) latest fast-paced thriller finds a smitten U.S. marshal and a vengeful killer chasing after the same elusive woman in witness protection. Hope Stevens, a technical consultant for the Justice Department, helped indict the deadly Romero white-collar crime family in a million-dollar fraud investigation. For six years, she's been in the witness protection program, waiting to testify. Now, the Romeros have infiltrated the program's participant list, and she's in grave danger. Roland Larson, a U.S. marshal in St. Louis who met Hope just before she was admitted to the program, still pines for her and is determined to find her. But close behind him is Paolo, a throat-slasher commissioned by Romero and a scarification fetishist, whittling his way through Hope's acquaintances to get to her. Accidental exposures keep Hope on the run as the vigilant Paolo and heart-heavy Roland grow increasingly desperate. Hope and Roland's heated reunion is marred by the kidnapping of Hope's previously well-concealed five-year-old daughter, Penny, a surprise to everyone, especially "new" father Roland. Separately, gutsy mother and daughter try to outsmart Paolo, then chase electronic messages to Florida and onward to the finale in Washington and Seattle, where protection program names are being auctioned off to mob goons. As seasoned heroes and a league of gangland villains lock horns for the busy wrapup, even fans accustomed to Pearson's heart-pounding pacing will find themselves short of breath. Agent, Al Zuckerman. 10-city author tour. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Pearson's Lou Boldt series brilliantly jumps between subtle interpersonal dynamics and high-voltage suspense, with the resulting shifts in narrative drive somehow never stripping the gears. In his stand-alone thrillers, however, there is hardly any gear shifting; the pedal crunches the metal from start to finish. So it is here, in a classic chase novel that pits a federal agent with the Fugitive Apprehension Task Force (FATV) against a psychotic, razor-wielding killer and his Mob bosses. When the Romero crime family abducts a computer genius and forces him to decrypt the government's witness-protection database, Roland Larson knows that Hope Stevens--prepared to testify against the family--is at risk. Larson's assignment is to find the computer nerd, but his real concern is Hope--their against-the-rules love affair while she was being relocated in the witness-protection plan ended badly, and he has been pining for her ever since. But will he find her before the Romero's henchman does? Throw in Hope's daughter--Is Larson the father?--and all the pieces are in place for a nerve-jangling locomotive ride that just keeps gaining speed. Pure action fans will prefer Pearson in his full-throttle, stand-alone mode--Parallel Lies (2001) and Hard Fall (1991) are other examples--but the wide range of his talent is better displayed in the Boldt novels, where the varying tempo and complex underpinning produce a more deeply satisfying brand of crime fiction. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Pearson . . . is a superb craftsman."

People
"Pearson excels at writing novels that grip the imagination."

Book Description
The most harrowing and deeply emotional thriller to date from bestselling author RIdley Pearson. A spellbinding thriller pitting a U.S. federal marshal against the mob's most resourceful killer -- in a race to save the woman he loves. Six years ago witness protection agent Roland Larson did the unthinkable: he fell in love with Hope Stevens, a protected witness whose testimony had put away prominent members of the Romero crime family. They planned to "cut and run" together, escaping from both the government and the mob, but in the end only Hope ran-taking with her the daughter Larson never knew they had. Larson thought he would never see them again-but when the Romeros steal the master witness protection list from the Justice Department, Larson is put back on Hope's trail. In a series of terrifying encounters, Larson matches wits with a brutally ingenious henchman who has kidnapped Hope and Larson's daughter in his ruthless quest to destroy Hope. For Larson, the stakes couldn't be higher -- how can he continue to protect Hope, save the daughter he has never met, and prevent the mob from auctioning off the witness protection list, putting the lives of thousands of innocent people in jeopardy? Taut and edge-of-the-seat compelling, Cut and Run is a unique thriller that skillfully blends romance and suspense -- Ridley Pearson at his heart-pounding best.

About the Author
Ridley Pearson is the co-author of the bestselling Peter and the Starcatchers. His novels have sold over six million copies and have been translated into twenty languages. The bestselling author of fourteen novels, including The Body of David Hayes and The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, he is the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in detective fiction at Oxford University. He divides his time between Sun Valley, Idaho, and St. Louis, Missouri.


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A throat slasher and a U.S. Marshall duel for possession of a woman who knows much too much about the government's witness protection program. Paolo, the merciless throat slasher and self-mutilator in this latest from tension master Pearson (The Body of David Hayes, 2004, etc.), is in the employ of the super-evil Romero gang, very bad guys who have somehow come to control the government programmer who encrypted every bit of information about every last federally protected witness. Among the thousands of witnesses now threatened with exposure is Hope Stevens, the woman with the goods on the Romeros and the great vanished love of U.S. Marshall Roland Larson's life. The door that slammed shut five years ago on any future for the two when Hope entered the witness protection program without him is now ajar, and Larson is dead keen to find her, save her and take up where they left off. But there's a complication. Larson learns that Hope, who left the protection program to vanish even deeper into the heartland, now has someone else in her life. Following the slightest of clues, Paolo and Larson chase Hope from city to city, just missing her and each other, until Paolo is clever enough to snatch the plucky five-year-old daughter Hope has hidden from the world. When Larson at last finds Hope, she's frantic with fear for the child, and Larson has his hands full keeping her safe and out of the hunt for Paolo, the missing programmer, and the Romero gang who are getting ready to auction off their wealth of information to their revenge-crazed underworld associates. Newly exposed witnesses begin to drop as the Romeros demonstrate the goods. Cell phone and e-mail trails lead the couple from Florida allthe way to Pearson's favorite Pacific Northwest, where Paolo, now maimed by oven cleaner but still holding Penny, is headed to the auction, still under orders to murder Hope Stevens. Awfully fast and agreeably scary. Author tour


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