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Overview
Three-year-old Sarah Peterson was the only witness to the brutal murder of her father, a CIA agent who was shot at point-blank range in a deserted schoolyard near his Virginia home. Thirty-five years later, that little girl has become a high-level agent for the Secret Service -- so tough and accomplished that she is tapped by the President for the plum job of head of security for Jack Montgomery, the Secretary of State.When Sarah tapes the proceedings of a clandestine meeting involving her new boss and two businessmen with extensive -- and questionable -- ties to the Middle East, she accidentally uncovers their plot to kidnap the daughter of one of the world's wealthiest men. But why? The answer involves a plan to assassinate a Middle East despot, rogue agents, a $50 million ransom, and wrongdoing at the highest levels of government. It may also hold the key to the truth behind the death of Sarah's father.
Reluctantly, Sarah joins forces with the father of the kidnapped woman and finds herself in a dangerous game of high-stakes, high-tech espionage, and revenge where everyone is suspect and siding with the wrong player could prove fatal. Rock, Paper, Scissors will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last heart-pounding page.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Cloak and dagger thrills and counterterrorist gamesmanship fuel this lively but precariously plotted tale of a Secret Service agent with a tragic history, who is stuck in a dangerous dilemma when she learns too much about the man she is assigned to protect. As a young child, Sarah Peterson saw her CIA agent father shot dead. Now a top-echelon government agent herself, she is personally selected by the president to head security for Secretary of State Jack Montgomery. It turns out, however, that Montgomery is a cold and devious man, well versed in illegal operations. Now he has secretly orchestrated the abduction of billionaire industrialist Sam Baldwin's daughter in order to force Baldwin to drop his plans to assassinate Saddam Hussein, which would leave a vacuum of power in the Middle East. When Sarah finds out about both plots, her life, too, is in jeopardy. As she struggles to do the right thing, stay alive and rescue Baldwin's innocent daughter, she may also discover the truth behind her father's murder. Debut novelist Samuel's attempts to surprise result in some unconvincing plot twists, and he expends considerable energy establishing the wily ultra-sophistication of his conspirators and commandos, only to have them done in by amateurish mistakes. The narrative also seems to set up several showdowns--notably one between Sarah and the man behind her father's death--that never occur. Ultimately, the international espionage and highly imaginative scope of the main conspiracies fail to provide white-knuckled suspense. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
Samuel's debut novel begins with three-year-old Sarah Peterson witnessing the murder of her father, a CIA agent, and the memory of that intense event is the primary motivation for her later career as a Secret Service agent. When she is promoted to chief of security for Secretary of State Jack Montgomery, she's thrilled. Unfortunately, Jack doesn't want her in the job and excludes her from his activities. His attitude is not only frustrating but, as far as Sarah is concerned, dangerous, for in order to protect him, she needs to know his whereabouts. To that end, she secretly tapes his meeting with three other men and, as the reader will guess, gets more than she has bargained for: she has unwittingly involved herself in the possible assassination of a world leader and the kidnapping of a billionaire's daughter. The story suffers from namedropping and the heavy reliance on computer programs as plot devices. Though Sarah is a potentially interesting character, and the writing is strong, there's little suspense-the reader knows a handy computer will tell the bad guys what Sarah is up to at all times. Recommended for larger public libraries.-Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WIBook Details
Published
July 16, 2001
Publisher
New York : Simon & Schuster, c2000.
Pages
320
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780684823430