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In this, the fourth installment in the Sam Acquillo series, Sam’s past reaches out to pull him back into the world of big money and even bigger egos, where the term “corporate intrigue” is redundant and ambition the only virtue. It seems a woman vital to the private life of a very important person has gone missing in the Hamptons. And it looks like the best way to get her back is to extort the cooperation of Sam Acquillo. After finally achieving some measure of peace and contentment on Long Island, Sam is yet again an accidental player in other people’s dramas. It takes him into the world of private security goons, predatory financiers and lifestyles of young hedonists, some brave, some beautiful, all a bit lost. This time Sam has a few ambitions of his own that lead him into something all his battles in the ring and corporate boardrooms could never have prepared him for.From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklySam Acquillo, who left his job as head of the Technical Services and Support Division of Con Globe for the humdrum life of a skilled carpenter in the Hamptons, is still a magnet for trouble in Knopf's rewarding fourth mystery (after 2008's Head Wounds). George Donovan, Con Globe's chairman of the board, tries a carrot and stick approach to get Acquillo to find his missing girlfriend, Iku Kinjo, a brilliant and compelling consultant. Half of that ploy works, and Acquillo is drawn back into the deadly machinations of corporate intrigue, where the payoff may be wealth or death. Knopf blends familiar elements (cop ally; cop nemesis; bad ex-wife; beautiful, independent girlfriend) in unusually pleasing fashion and adds plenty of original touches as well. Aside from his surprising computer illiteracy, Acquillo is a savvy operator who loves problem solving and has the tenacity of a pit bull. His penchant for intriguing predicaments bodes well for a long and successful series. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library JournalStarred Review. In his fourth outing (after Head Wounds), corporate dropout-turned-carpenter/PI Sam Acquillo is forced to look for the missing girlfriend of his former boss, George Donovan. As Sam traces the successful young businesswoman to a house on Long Island shared with a bunch of Gen-Xers from Manhattan, he uncovers what looks like dirty business dealings. Knopf is very much a contemporary crime writer, revealing the dangers of the world of big deals, commercial espionage, and the barracudas hanging out for all they can get. For readers who enjoy hard-boiled mysteries in the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Robert Parker. [Knopf has contracted a two-book spinoff series with St. Martin's based on Acquillo's friend Jackie Swaitkowski.—Ed.] Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Pages of Hard Stop :
