The Fourth Perimeter

Rating:
Summary: How could anyone see this book as a bore?
Review: Being a diehard West Virginia football fan, I'm tailored to not be too fond of the Syracuse Orangemen, but Tim Green is OK in my book! (Green was a former Orangemen football player) Some seem to see Kurt Ford as predictable and one-dimensional in this book, but I see those traits as DETERMINED and FOCUSED and I'm sure you will too while reading. I read this book in less than two days and I was enthralled by it. It is a true page turner and has movie written all over it (Jerry Bruckheimer stay away...we don't need explosions). All along you think you have it all figured out until Green throws a monkey wrench into it and it just makes you want to keep reading. First class job by Mr. Green!

Rating:
Summary: entertaining but not noteworthy by any means
Review: Green provides another far-fetched plot but, since it is a little different from his previous works, it is still relatively entertaining. The Fourth Perimeter starts off well enough but steadily loses steam through the conclusion. Again, predictability is not the best trait a book can have, yet quick diversions have their merits too.

Rating:
Summary: Page turner!
Review: I don't know. The concept of this story felt contrived and the rest of the book was trying to convince me that it wasn't. You could almost hear the author asking the 'What ifs' that gave him something to write about. "What if a former secret serviceman?", "What if the former secret serviceman wanted revenge against the President?", "Let's see, Ok, what if that former secret serviceman's son was...?" That's it. Write it down.

And it isn't a terrible story. It was fleshed out pretty well, but never enough meat to become fully convincing. I couldn't pinpoint what 'The Fourth Perimeter' lacked until I started reading, Paul McElroy's 'TRACON', which had everything this book was missing, the intimate details about the subject that allows a reader to truly experience the events of the story. Maybe if we could have had more inner workings of the secret service and a better portrayal of Kurt Ford's business operations as he divested himself of his security software company, I would have cared more. As it was, the focus is on Kurt Ford's barely contained lunacy while the author tries to hold our interest with justifications for Ford's actions. It didn't work for me.
Made me wonder if I could write a better story. Heads 2 stars, tails 3 stars. tails

Rating:
Summary: Shame on me!!
Review: I kept hoping it would get better - perhaps the characters would develop... perhaps there was a great twist in the plot. No such luck. The story is weak, the characters weaker and the "twist" was laughable!

If you really want to read it, get a copy from your local library and save your money for a really good book!

Rating:
Summary: Action Packed Book!
Review: Kurt Ford is a former Secret Service agent who has gone into the computor business and struck it rich actually obtaining billionaire status.Ford's son Collin also becomes a Secret Service agent.Collin is found dead and the police rule it a suicide.Ford knows better and soon finds out that the person
behind the murder is the President.Ford devises a plan to assassinate the President.He then discovers that there are other evil forces at work in this conspiracy.Ford's fiance Jill also plays a big part in this story.This book proved to be an excellent read. Buy this and read it. You will enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable easy read
Review: The Fourth Perimeter was disappointing to say the least. Mr. Green's writing style was also very surprising for a best selling author. In many places, sentences referenced the main character both by name and personal pronoun, even when the character was alone and the reader knew to whom the author was referring. I really started to laugh at some of the passages about Jill's friendship with Jeremiah, which I thought was an unnecessary side plot. There were many attempts to foster empathy from the reader for the main character, but they didn't work for me. Mr. Green tries to fill in background details about the characters and their motivation, but often times they seem more "Oh, by the way" references and seem out of place in the middle of action scenes. My overall impression was that the book read like an average movie script that goes straight to video...
For readers who like this genre, I would recommend Robert Ludlum's "The Janson Directive" over this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Unlikable characters
Review: There isn't much "rooting interest" in this book. The main character, Kurt Ford, is (A) simplistically drawn (he has only one thing he cares about), (B) morally suspect (his only response to grief and trauma is a desire to kill people), and, worst of all, (C) kind of stupid: He has unlimited resources, but it never occurs to him to use some of them to investigate a little further before hatching his elaborate revenge plot. Thus, despite supposedly being both a crack former Secret Service agent and a high-tech enterpreneurial genius, he all too easily becomes a patsy for the bad guys. Likewise his girlfriend, supposedly a strong-willed executive, is reduced to being mostly his "enabler." Finally, the underlying political issue supposedly driving events is hugely implausible: An internet tax may or may not be a good idea, but it's not the kind of history-making issue on which the fate of the Republic will depend. On the plus side, the plot moves along reasonably briskly (except for a long, basically irrelevant section about the wife's near-affair with another man), and there are a few good lines. But when the characters are people you wouldn't want to spend much time with in real life, it's hard to feel satisfied at having spent time with them in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea - bad execution
Review: This is a simplistic book in many ways. The "real" bad guy was evident within the first few chapters, the plotting seemed to race along with any regard for buildup or previous action but worse of all, the characters seemed totally unrealistic. The hero seemed to have no grief for his murdered son but kept on with appointments, plans, meetings, sex, etc as if nothing had happened.

The trick of killing anyone who could possibly contribute to the depth of the story (agents, policemen, bad girl) was pushed to the extreme. I am glad this was a book at the home we stayed at on the beach and I did not fork over any money.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea - bad execution
Review: This is a simplistic book in many ways. The "real" bad guy was evident within the first few chapters, the plotting seemed to race along with any regard for buildup or previous action but worse of all, the characters seemed totally unrealistic. The hero seemed to have no grief for his murdered son but kept on with appointments, plans, meetings, sex, etc as if nothing had happened.

The trick of killing anyone who could possibly contribute to the depth of the story (agents, policemen, bad girl) was pushed to the extreme. I am glad this was a book at the home we stayed at on the beach and I did not fork over any money.

Rating:
Summary: Page turner!
Review: This was truly a page turner in every sense of the word. Full of suspense, surprising twists and turns, and great character development, this book is definitely one to read if you like thrillers.