Robert Gregory Browne, Kiss Her Goodbye

Kiss Her Goodbye

Robert Gregory Browne

St. Martin's, Feb 2007, $23.95

ISBN 0312358393

Chicago-based Alex Gunderson heads the anti-government Socialist Amerikan Reconstruction Army (SARA named for his beloved pregnant wife). He and his followers fund their subversive operations by robberies or selling guns. The Gundersons and others assault the Northland First & Trust Bank; however ATF Special Agent Jack Donovan thwarts the robbery. In a shootout, Sara is hit and falls into a coma, but Alex escapes.

Outraged while his cherished spouse lies comatose in a hospital, Alex blames Jack; he decides an eye for an eye with Jack's estranged 15-year-old daughter Jessie as the victim. Already angry at her father for not being there for her or her mom while he did his duty for his country, Jessie is visiting Jack for the first time since her mother divorced him. Alex kidnaps Jessie and buries her alive. He informs Jack that his daughter will live until her oxygen runs out. Racing against time, Jack and his lover desperately seek clues to save the life of his teenage daughter, but a glory hound cop kills Alex before he reveals the burial plot.

Though quite exciting, this adrenalin pumping thriller contains stereotypical characters that in many ways compare the two sides of the same coin (Jack and Alex). What is totally fascinating is that Alex understands the importance of family while Jack does not comprehend this until Jessie is in peril; other values are commonly shared by the two adversaries. The supernatural tidbits seem out of the body of the plot though they relieve the tension of a faster than light storyline.

Harriet Klausner