The Siege - Stephen White
Along about April every year, things start heating up on the Ivy League campuses. Perhaps it's because the end of the school year is imminent; perhaps it’s the sap rising in hormonal student bodies. Whatever the case, Yale is no different – perhaps even more loony than others, since April is when the societies “tap” new members. Societies like Skull & Bones, Book & Snake, Scroll & Key may sound like the houses of Hogwarts; but they’re real: several Presidents have been members (as have a few cartoonists…). So when things at the “tomb” of Book & Snake start getting strange one April Friday, the campus cops write it off as tap-week festivities.
Things had already started, though: Ann Summers Calderón found the cryptic note in her purse during the week, the one that warned her that something was about to happen and that she was not to tell anyone. But she does: she tells Sam Purdy… That’s why Sam is there for the opening salvo. At the start, it looks like another student prank; a good one – one that might go down in history. The thing about “orange for my disappointment, blue for my contentment” just smacks so much of a prank, especially since blue is Bulldog holy colors and orange belongs to detested Princeton. It looks like a prank when the first student to appear on the steps of Book & Snake shows the little black box taped to his belly, the one with the cartoonish label saying “bomb.” It looks like a harmless prank right up until the moment the bomb blows the hapless teen to bits – and whoever's inside the near-impregnable tomb of Book & Snake still has seventeen more just like him inside…
Yale’s an elite school, and the “taps” are supposedly the elite of the Yalies – the ones inside Book & Snake include children of captains of industry, of a Supreme Court justice nominee, of the Secretary of Defense… and of Ann Summers Calderón. With “assets” like them in danger, the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team is in town on the double – along with a host of other alphabet agencies; not one of whom has the slightest idea who’s in there, how many are in there, and – most important – why they’re in there. Disgraced Boulder cop Sam Purdy is in town as Ann Calderón’s eyes and ears, and that’s how he meets Poe – Chrisopher Poe, the FBI antiterrorism version of Fox Mulder – and Dee, wunderkind CIA counterterrorism analyst. Good thing: ‘cause whoever’s inside that tomb and whatever’s on their minds, there’s plenty of terror to go around…
As he has shown in past novels – both his standalones and the Gregory series – White is in his element when it comes to crafting his characters. It’s a treat to see behind Purdy’s cop mask, for instance. But White’s best chops are reserved for his new characters, Dee and Poe – with that relationship that’s a twenty-first century version of Burstyn and Alda in “Same Time Next Year.” Then there’s the local New Haven PD hostage negotiator, thrown into the shark tank on a world stage – she's one gutsy woman. Even minor characters are rock-solid.
Longtime White fans might be disappointed to find his usual protagonist, Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory, relegated to a small cameo role in the epilogue; though Gregory’s frequent running buddy Sam Purdy does get to strut his stuff. This isn’t the first time White’s left Gregory on the sidelines, however; he also played a minor character in 2005’s Kill Me; which, frankly, is the only other White offering to come close to The Siege for suspense. As far as this reader’s concerned, Stephen White doesn’t need to write any more Alan Gregory novels: more like The Siege will be just fine.
Things had already started, though: Ann Summers Calderón found the cryptic note in her purse during the week, the one that warned her that something was about to happen and that she was not to tell anyone. But she does: she tells Sam Purdy… That’s why Sam is there for the opening salvo. At the start, it looks like another student prank; a good one – one that might go down in history. The thing about “orange for my disappointment, blue for my contentment” just smacks so much of a prank, especially since blue is Bulldog holy colors and orange belongs to detested Princeton. It looks like a prank when the first student to appear on the steps of Book & Snake shows the little black box taped to his belly, the one with the cartoonish label saying “bomb.” It looks like a harmless prank right up until the moment the bomb blows the hapless teen to bits – and whoever's inside the near-impregnable tomb of Book & Snake still has seventeen more just like him inside…
Yale’s an elite school, and the “taps” are supposedly the elite of the Yalies – the ones inside Book & Snake include children of captains of industry, of a Supreme Court justice nominee, of the Secretary of Defense… and of Ann Summers Calderón. With “assets” like them in danger, the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team is in town on the double – along with a host of other alphabet agencies; not one of whom has the slightest idea who’s in there, how many are in there, and – most important – why they’re in there. Disgraced Boulder cop Sam Purdy is in town as Ann Calderón’s eyes and ears, and that’s how he meets Poe – Chrisopher Poe, the FBI antiterrorism version of Fox Mulder – and Dee, wunderkind CIA counterterrorism analyst. Good thing: ‘cause whoever’s inside that tomb and whatever’s on their minds, there’s plenty of terror to go around…
| There are suspense novels, and there are suspenseful novels – and then there’s Stephen White’s The Siege. This, my friends, is a suspense thriller in the classic tradition, written by a man who knows how to trip all your psychological switches: White is, after all, a clinical psychologist. His tale opens on a sunny day marked only by the vaguest sense of uneasiness, but by the time it finishes two days later, you’re bordering on cardiac arrest from the tension. It is a book of which I happily say something I very rarely say: you’d better block out a long weekend to read The Siege in one sitting, because you will not want to put it down. It is that good. One reason it’s that good is that Stephen White has written a hostage novel in which the readers, like the horde of cops and FBI agents that surround the nearly impregnable building, have absolutely no idea what’s going on inside. That’s right – instead of shifting the viewpoint from inside to outside like most (if not all) novels and movies about hostages, White did not write a single scene – not a single word – from the viewpoint of the hostage takers: readers, like the hostage negotiator; like the HRT; like Sam, Dee, and Poe; have no earthly idea what’s going on in there – or why it's happening. See what I mean about suspense? |
As he has shown in past novels – both his standalones and the Gregory series – White is in his element when it comes to crafting his characters. It’s a treat to see behind Purdy’s cop mask, for instance. But White’s best chops are reserved for his new characters, Dee and Poe – with that relationship that’s a twenty-first century version of Burstyn and Alda in “Same Time Next Year.” Then there’s the local New Haven PD hostage negotiator, thrown into the shark tank on a world stage – she's one gutsy woman. Even minor characters are rock-solid.
Longtime White fans might be disappointed to find his usual protagonist, Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory, relegated to a small cameo role in the epilogue; though Gregory’s frequent running buddy Sam Purdy does get to strut his stuff. This isn’t the first time White’s left Gregory on the sidelines, however; he also played a minor character in 2005’s Kill Me; which, frankly, is the only other White offering to come close to The Siege for suspense. As far as this reader’s concerned, Stephen White doesn’t need to write any more Alan Gregory novels: more like The Siege will be just fine.
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