Rating: 
Summary: 20 put-down books later a Winner Emerges
Review: After I finished Judith Ivory's "Untie My Heart," I started (and stopped) reading 20 other works of fiction. I made it no further than page 50 in any of them. It wasn't until this book that I was able to read a novel from start to finish. The overwhelming reason I gave up on all those books was that they all sounded the same. The plotlines had been done to death. This is a spy novel written by a female CIA agent. It features a female heroine. She is married to an agent herself but there is a big difference between them. She is an analyst (scours data) while he is out on the streets after people, very bad people. She thinks she's been a widow the past few years because he was blown up by terrorists on a plane. However, there is an attack on the American Vice President in present day Germany and she (and the whole CIA) see her husband is one of the terrorists on the helicopter. The terrorists take the Vice President hostage and from there we are off and running. This is a very well crafted story that doesn't let up for an instant. The only other book it reminds me of is John LeCarre's "Little Drummer Girl." Le Carre's book is more literary and better developed in terms of characterization. However, this novel is better than the Le Carre in terms of pace and suspense. Alfred Hitchcock, were he alive, would be interested in the movie rights, I'm sure. Read both. You can't miss.
Rating: 
Summary: Mathews is on the money!
Review: Francine Mathews worked as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, as her writing demonstrates in this taut, intriguing novel of biological warfare and terrorism in eastern and central Europe.The Cutout portrays a heroine who believes she has lost her loving husband in a plane explosion, only to be thoroughly shaken by the fact that he is alive and is a member of the extremist group who was instrumental in the explosion. The characters in The Cutout show their credible, human fallibilities and are presented, at times, as stunningly painful and tragic portraits. For those who think the world does not possess weapons of mass murder with terrorists poised and ready to use them, this work of fiction is a good introduction to the dark side of the twenty-first century. I highly recommend this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A New Master of Intrigue...Francine Mathews!
Review: I bought this book about 10 hours ago and despite the Oscars on t.v., I started reading it and could not put it down. I read through the 400 pages in about six hours!! This is one of the best air port fiction on international intrigue in recent memory. Forget techno babble of Tom Clancy, and contrived dribbles of other ersatz "thriller" writers out there today, let's hope that Francine Mathews comes out with sequel after sequel! And forget too Jack Ryan, there is a new fictional hero at the CIA: Caroline Carmichael!! The gist of the plot: still grieving the loss of her husband, a CIA operative who perished in a plan crash some three years ago, Caroline Carmichael, an analyst for the CIA is called into work on the kidnapping of the Vice President of the U.S. Carmichael then learns that her dead husband is alive and behind the kidnapping. What follows then is a mixture of creative and intriguing fictional narrative, lessons in political history of Central Europe, and studies of three dimensional characters that make you feel that every thing that the writer writes of is REAL and that you are RIGHT there as the actions happen. This is the kind of air port fiction that only a well researched writer with an ear for dialogue, knowledge of history and politics, and emotional sensitivity for relationships that exist between a man and a woman, a child and a parent, a teacher and a student can write about. In the past, when I wanted action and intrigue in a novel, I had to sacrifice good writing and emotional depth, but with Mathews, I sacrified nothing but time that it took to read the book. If you love well written political thrillers, if you want a fresh voice with a new outlook and and an intelligent voice, get this book and watch it climb the ladder to a number one best seller which this book will soon become!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Read!
Review: I just finished this book, and while it's slow to get started, I found it hard to put down after a while. Kudos to Francine Mathews for creating a female VP, a female CIA director, and a female heroine. I love to read action type novels with strong female characters, and there are too few of them out there. I hope Mathews continues to present us with more of the type of characters in this book. Smart, strong, and sure of themselves, these women rival the Jack Ryans and Dirk Pitts of popular literature. I'd love to read the continuing adventures of Caroline Carmichael, and I'd like to know more about her motivations for her life choices. Mathews seemed not to give much away in the area of exposition, and this seemed to leave the field open for a sequel, or even a series. Okay, after raving about the characters, I did have a small problem with the amount of detail regarding CIA procedures. While it was very intriguing, after a while the acronyms were a little hard to remember. I would have liked a glossary in the back of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Twists and Turns
Review: I was sorry when Ms. Mathews gave up on her Merry Folger series, and I still am. This book is completely unrelated, but a fantastic read. A lot of the plot premise is hard to believe, but her portrayal of agents and terrorists alike are chilling and believable. Lots of plot twists ending with a really delicious turn. I wonder if she will write a sequel? I hope so.
Rating:
Summary: One of Mathews Best!
Review: I've read her Merry Folger series (Death in a Cold, Hard Light, Death in a Mood Indigo, Death in Rough Water, Death in the Off-Season) about a Nantucket detective and enjoyed them all. The Cutout is a clear departure from this series. The intrigue and suspense in The Cutout was palpable throughout and kept me thinking and wondering what would be next and so forth. Caroline Carmichael is a character with very human emotions (ie flawed) and excels in her work. The intertwining of intrigue with romance is interesting and adds dimension to the story. I highly recommend The Cutout. I also really enjoy Mathews' Jane Austen mystery series that she writes as Stephanie Barron.
Rating: 
Summary: OK but give it a rest!
Review: Interesting writing with a quirky viewpoint at times. I liked the book till she started throwing in negative comments on males. Every so many pages we are treated to more examples of female persecution,at least in her mind.Could have been a great read if she just dropped her political agenda.
Rating: 
Summary: "I love Paris in the Springtime" - But who are the folks?
Review: Michael Havelock watches his lover Jenna Karats murdered off the coast of Costa Brava. He is in agony. We learn so much about her as his lover, his friend, and his partner in the first couple of dozen pages. We learn about their likes, their time together, why he loved her and why she loved him - and she's dead. Thus begins Ludlum's "Parsifal Mosaic," the best spy novel/ romance I have ever read. I reread it again after Francine Matthews' "The Cutout," just to remind myself about lovers and murderers and the evil empire and the Darth Vaders and the KGB and the CIA and all the rest of the symbols of oppression that kept Jenna and Michael from being together. The problem with Cutout is that I learned so much about the cities of Berlin, Budapest, Prague and others that I thought I was reading the New York Times' Sunday Travel Section. But I didn't know much about Caroline and Eric. I mean she seemed to dig him, but who knows why? Did they sleep together, wake up, eat bagels and lox in bed and then sleep together some more? Did the go to the Louvre? Did they get lost on the Montreal subway system? Did he play baseball in high school? Did he dig Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton? Was he her one and only? Could she ever be with another person after he died? Had she waited the 2 1/2 years after his death for . . . what? See, some characters can be one dimensional, just not the lead ones. I think you have to have a tree upon which to hang the ornaments. I knew a little about her, a little less about him, and nothing about them. Did she love him? Why? He seemed like a real knucklehead. He seemed selfish, self centered, biased, out for himself, reclusive and secretive. And those were his good points. She was with him for ten years! Surely there was some basis for their relationship. Matthews just doesn't tell us what it is. Maybe she was into boredom and a near abusive (certainly emotionally) relationship. And for her, the nom de plume "Mad Dog." What was that all about? Sorry. I found it tedious. Obviously, there's a talent here for descriptions because the cities are either interesting or lovely or both. Too bad it wasn't a travelogue. I'll read Matthews again but this one was hollow.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, great ending
Review: This book not only kept you turining the pages, but the storyline was believable and very well-written. The book was filled with twists and turns and new information to make the mystery a little more fun. The author kept throwing in great details that never made a single page worth skimming!
Rating:
Summary: Great book, great ending
Review: This book not only kept you turining the pages, but the storyline was believable and very well-written. The book was filled with twists and turns and new information to make the mystery a little more fun. The author kept throwing in great details that never made a single page worth skimming!
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