Simon & Schuster, March 2002, 25.00, 418 pp.
ISBN 0684842647
The Handyman is one of the top four assassins in the world. He recently was hired to kill the first female President of the United States, who insists that the world recognize Taiwan's sovereignty. The Handyman plans to use a North Korean orphan (number 1818) as the instrument of the President's destruction at a Thanksgiving party where the attendees include one hundred and thirty children suffering from AIDS.
Sloane Ryder is a fierce believer in justice as evidence by the fact that she blew the whistle on her boss whom performed insider-trading fraud with a choice firm on the mainland. She is recruited to work in M6-11 a covert group within the General Accounting Office. She inadvertently finds a traitor who has ties to somebody high up in the government as well as with the Handyman. As she and others begin to investigate this seditious conspiracy, Sloane and the assassins are on a collision course with destiny.
BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT is an exciting political thrillers with more twists, turns and hairpin S curves than the most exhilarating roller coaster. After the events of September 11, Phillip Shelby's latest potboiler seems very conceivable as the tale relies on technologies that already exist. This makes for a very plausible plot.
Harriet Klausner
This report prepared by Harriet Klausner
