Out on the Rim

Rating:
Summary: Ross Thomas characters at their very best
Review: A spellbinding book that I could not drop until it was finished. The characters (Artie Wu, Durant, Otherguy Overby, ... ) are so alive - I expect them to step right out of the pages. The plot is marvelous and the story is written beautifully.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed In The End....
Review: Agreed, excellent character development and story telling with many twists and turns, but in my opinion the book just fizzles in the end. Booth Stallings is the main character throughout most of the book; however, in the last few chapters his importance and intelligence just fades away. He's supposed to be an extremely knowledgable, brilliant "terrorism" expert, but by the end of the book he's portrayed as an old fool. Maybe I missed some elusive underlying point, but I was very disappointed. Thomas's writing reminded me of the John Grisham novels I have read. Great, fast paced reads with highly identifiable characters, but alas....quick spurt endings with very little thought.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed In The End....
Review: Agreed, excellent character development and story telling with many twists and turns, but in my opinion the book just fizzles in the end. Booth Stallings is the main character throughout most of the book; however, in the last few chapters his importance and intelligence just fades away. He's supposed to be an extremely knowledgable, brilliant "terrorism" expert, but by the end of the book he's portrayed as an old fool. Maybe I missed some elusive underlying point, but I was very disappointed. Thomas's writing reminded me of the John Grisham novels I have read. Great, fast paced reads with highly identifiable characters, but alas....quick spurt endings with very little thought.

Rating:
Summary: The Ability To Survive
Review: OUT ON THE RIM features two senior citizens. One is in the process of recovering from a stroke while carrying on a revolution and the other is re-entering the world of work after being between jobs less than twelve hours.

Thomas comes up with an entertaining plot full of double and triple crosses set in the early years of the Aquino government while the Marcos forces still loom as a large threat. The story centers around an attempt by the Marcos gang to destabilize the Aquino government by funding a rebel group led by Alejandro Espiritu. Enter Booth Stallings, Espiritu's World war II buddy and presently a down-and-out sixty-year-old academic just fired from his job with a foundation as an expert on terrorism. He is hired indirectly by the Marcos regime as an intermediary.

On his way to the Philippines, Stallings joins forces with a collection of experienced international con men. Artie Wu is a forty-four year old giant who is a pretender to the emperor's throne in China. He is accompanied by his long-time business partner, Quincy Durant. In a cast full of desperadoes and other untrustworthy people, Otherguy Overby manages to stand out. His nickname speaks for itself. It's always the other guy's fault. Georgia Blue is a statuesque beauty who doubles as both a body guard and a strong-willed, brilliant and independent operative. As a team, their most remarkable quality may be their ability to survive.

As the plot unfolds we begin to appreciate the latent talents of Stallings. He also starts to believe in his own abilities and realizes at the end he has found a new career for his dotage in company with Overby, Wu, Durant and Georgia Blue.

Rating:
Summary: A witty, tongue-in-cheek romp.
Review: Out on the Rim starts out delightfully enough. The year is 1986, the place Washington, D.C. Sixty year old counterterrorism expert Booth Stallings is hired by persons unknown to deliver a $5 million bribe to a troublesome Filipino rebel leader.
But Stallings does not see himself as a mere delivery boy. He'd much rather get his hands permanently on the 5 million. Knowing he'll need some help and after consulting with his lawyer son-in-law, he takes on as partners Artie Wu and Quincy Durant. Two lifelong friends who know their way around both the Far East and other people's money.
By the time he gets to Manila, Stallings finds that he has four partners, not two. You see, a con man named Otherguy Overby and an ex-Secret Service agent named Georgia Blue have cleverly insinuated themselves into the mix.
Out on the Rim is an entertaining and complex tale of intrigue. There's plenty of double crossing and lots of unexpected alliances turn up. In fact, about two thirds of the way through, the complications start to get a bit out of hand. And that is the book's main flaw.
Written with wit and urbane humor, Out on the Rim is deliciously engaging. But the number of twists and turns could have been 50% less without detracting at all from the fun.