The Inner Sanctum

Rating:
Summary: excellent business thriller!
Review: From what I see of the reviews shown, that people either liked the book or didn't. Well, I really liked it. I have been reading a lot of political books lately, and this is indeed a book based on reality in many ways. A reality that many of us don't want to believe because we all hope that integrity and honesty is the basis that our businesses and the people in our government hold to, but, alas, money and the power that it can produce is far too hard for many to resist.

It is a political story about how an investment group, a crooked senator, military people and others manipulate to get defense contracts so that certain people can make a lot of money. We have seen a lot of this lately ourselves. I am sure there are a few details that someone who is more familiar with the procedures involved in acquiring defense contracts could disagree with, but as a novice myself, and as this is just a book of fiction, I found it to be fascinating.

David Mitchell, a young man who came up from a poor background, has been working at a job that he hopes will fulfill his dreams of becoming rich, even if he has to do a few things that aren't exactly kosher in the legal department. As he isn't a crook by nature, he is having doubts about his job. He has been manipulated by the people he is working for into using poor judgement in his actions and now it may be too late to get out.

Jessie Hayes' boss, in the IRS, dies suddenly of a mysterious heart attack, and she receives a delayed memo from him about a case he was working on-very secretive. She finds the file where he said he had hidden it and is almost killed in the process.

There is murder, mystery and thrills to the end of the book. I wasn't disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: excellent business thriller!
Review: From what I see of the reviews shown, that people either liked the book or didn't. Well, I really liked it. I have been reading a lot of political books lately, and this is indeed a book based on reality in many ways. A reality that many of us don't want to believe because we all hope that integrity and honesty is the basis that our businesses and the people in our government hold to, but, alas, money and the power that it can produce is far too hard for many to resist.

It is a political story about how an investment group, a crooked senator, military people and others manipulate to get defense contracts so that certain people can make a lot of money. We have seen a lot of this lately ourselves. I am sure there are a few details that someone who is more familiar with the procedures involved in acquiring defense contracts could disagree with, but as a novice myself, and as this is just a book of fiction, I found it to be fascinating.

David Mitchell, a young man who came up from a poor background, has been working at a job that he hopes will fulfill his dreams of becoming rich, even if he has to do a few things that aren't exactly kosher in the legal department. As he isn't a crook by nature, he is having doubts about his job. He has been manipulated by the people he is working for into using poor judgement in his actions and now it may be too late to get out.

Jessie Hayes' boss, in the IRS, dies suddenly of a mysterious heart attack, and she receives a delayed memo from him about a case he was working on-very secretive. She finds the file where he said he had hidden it and is almost killed in the process.

There is murder, mystery and thrills to the end of the book. I wasn't disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, if you don't expect too much.
Review: I read about 30 to 40 novels a year. Through the first five months of 2001, this is far and away the worst book I've read this year. Since it's also one of the worst books I've ever read, it is definitely in the running for my trash novel of the year award.

In "The Inner Sanctum", every character is incredibly stupid, as in of questionable intelligence. Also, with the exception of one guy who is killed at the very beginning of the book, every character is driven in part or in whole by greed; not just the desire to be wealthy, but out and out greed. Even the "hero" of the book, an IRS Agent (can you believe it) named Jesse Hayes, is a bit slow on the uptake and looking to make it big. She's also supposed to be about the best the IRS has to offer. Ah, if it were only the case, I would start claiming my dog as a dependent tomorrow.

Actually, this is one of those books that depend on the stupidity of the characters. If anyone were capable of an original idea, like taking evidence of political and financial malfeasance to the FBI, SEC, or the New York Times, the book would have ended in the second chapter. Instead, it plods along with one of the most contrived and poorly planned plots I've ever encountered. Most of the time I found myself pages ahead of the author in knowing what was going to happen next. Also, Frey has a problem with "action" sequences. He can't write them in any manner that either makes sense or can be followed. So, he depends on that old standby of hack writers everywhere, a professional killer who either keeps killing the wrong people or who loses his ability to shoot straight when he encounters his true target. (I did like the part where Jesse hides behind a tree while the killer is running all around her. That raised stupidity to an almost Homeric level.)

Actually, this book holds out some hope for one segment of the population, wannabe writers. Anyone out there with a really bad novel in the bottom drawer of their desk or on their hard drive should immediately send a copy to Signet books. If they'll publish this drivel, they're likely to publish anything.

Rating:
Summary: Hopefully this is Frey's only bad one!
Review: I've read a bunch of Frey books (The Vulture Fund, The Takeover, The Legacy) and have enjoyed each one of them. This book seems to be written during a period that Frey may have been tired!

Unlike other Frey books, this one slogs along at a very slow pace with incredibly boring characters. The whole thing revolves around a conspiracy to get a new Navy bomber built. The company vying for the contract is owned by a group of Washington politicians, some military bigwigs, and a bunch of investment brokers. The group meets in secret in a secured room (why the inner sanctum of course!) to discuss the progress of the project and to decide what to do with things or people that might jeopardize the project.

The main character, Jesse, is a woman whose boss was killed when he suspected that there was a conspiracy going on to rig the upcoming senatorial election. Jesse receives a posthumous email from her boss that tells her where she can find a folder with evidence about the conspiracy. Through some magic or some whim of the author, we are led to believe that the system can fire off the email without leaving an audit trail of where it went to just because it left the company and was later delivered from an external address back to the company. Doesn't the author know that most systems would have a copy of all incoming emails so it would be fairly simple to compare the outgoing message to all incomings to figure out the recipient.

Some problems I have with the book. First we have a methodic hit man who becomes a bumbling dolt when he has to go after Jesse. Secondly, we are expected to like one of the main characters, David. David is a stock trader who has very "dirty hands" and is highly involved in insider trading, performing [illegal] corporate transactions, possible money laundering, and hiding records of financial transactions. We are expected to like him. Thirdly, another main character, Todd, has been late in paying back the mob for his gambling debts. They seem to go way to easy on him.

If you read this book, try not to judge Frey on it. Just about everything else I read by Frey merits 4-5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Hopefully this is Frey's only bad one!
Review: I've read a bunch of Frey books (The Vulture Fund, The Takeover, The Legacy) and have enjoyed each one of them. This book seems to be written during a period that Frey may have been tired!

Unlike other Frey books, this one slogs along at a very slow pace with incredibly boring characters. The whole thing revolves around a conspiracy to get a new Navy bomber built. The company vying for the contract is owned by a group of Washington politicians, some military bigwigs, and a bunch of investment brokers. The group meets in secret in a secured room (why the inner sanctum of course!) to discuss the progress of the project and to decide what to do with things or people that might jeopardize the project.

The main character, Jesse, is a woman whose boss was killed when he suspected that there was a conspiracy going on to rig the upcoming senatorial election. Jesse receives a posthumous email from her boss that tells her where she can find a folder with evidence about the conspiracy. Through some magic or some whim of the author, we are led to believe that the system can fire off the email without leaving an audit trail of where it went to just because it left the company and was later delivered from an external address back to the company. Doesn't the author know that most systems would have a copy of all incoming emails so it would be fairly simple to compare the outgoing message to all incomings to figure out the recipient.

Some problems I have with the book. First we have a methodic hit man who becomes a bumbling dolt when he has to go after Jesse. Secondly, we are expected to like one of the main characters, David. David is a stock trader who has very "dirty hands" and is highly involved in insider trading, performing [illegal] corporate transactions, possible money laundering, and hiding records of financial transactions. We are expected to like him. Thirdly, another main character, Todd, has been late in paying back the mob for his gambling debts. They seem to go way to easy on him.

If you read this book, try not to judge Frey on it. Just about everything else I read by Frey merits 4-5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Good read, but not his best
Review: This is an enjoyable book, although not Frey's best. This book will take you through many twists and turns in a fast paced action thriller. It's definitely worth reading, but don't get your hopes up too high -- especially if you are expecting a thriller to match his book The Takeover.

Rating:
Summary: Good read, but not his best
Review: This is an enjoyable book, although not Frey's best. This book will take you through many twists and turns in a fast paced action thriller. It's definitely worth reading, but don't get your hopes up too high -- especially if you are expecting a thriller to match his book The Takeover.

Rating:
Summary: drivel
Review: This is the WORST plot I have read in years! I am quitting it today after 98 pages, and I'm writing this review. The story is about a heroic, wonderful black Democrat senator from Maryland whose Senate seat is being stolen be evil Republicans. The Democrats have no money, but they are fine and honest - the Republicans are filthy rich and they're having people killed to steal this election. What a crock! I'll never buy another Stephen Frey novel, and I wish I had my money back for this one!