From Publishers Weekly
A workaholic attorney is forced to examine his priorities when his wife disappears amid a spree of serial killings in the Pacific Northwest. Grippando's fifth thriller (The Pardon; Found Money) springs energetically from the gate, creating tension and pace before a few unbelievable plot twists cause it to lose traction. Attorney Gus Wheatley, general partner of one of Seattle's biggest and most prestigious law firms, is interrupted from his busy schedule by a call from his daughter's dance instructor: his wife, Beth, failed to pick up six-year-old Morgan after class. At first merely annoyed, he next assumes his wife is having an affair (they have been experiencing marital problems) but soon calls police when he realizes Beth has disappeared without a trace. Ambitious FBI agent Andrea "Andie" Henning believes Beth may have fallen victim to a serial killer. In the days following her disappearance, Gus is stunned to learn that his wife suffered from bulimia and kleptomania, conditions pointing to extremely low self-esteem. Her emotional condition and other cluesDstrange phone calls, a tip from a prison inmateDeventually tempt investigators with another theory: Beth may have joined a local cult that includes murder among its group activities. The most successful component of this story is Gus Wheatley's growing awareness of his emotional separation from his family. Former trial lawyer Grippando displays expertise in police and legal procedures, but the connection between the killings and the cult strains credulity. Several key characters are not drawn convincingly, and the finale is more of an ambush than a surprise. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this latest from Grippando (Found Money), the marriage of high-powered attorney Gus Wheatley and his insecure wife, BethDalready unfamiliar terrain to both partnersDis invaded by a serial-killer. Beth seems to have it all: the perfect home and a precious young daughter. Yet she vanishes one afternoon without taking a single piece of her life, including her child, who is left waiting all evening at private school. Rookie FBI agent Andie Henning has recently ditched her loser of a fianc at the altar and welcomes the opportunity to work on what turns out to be a high-profile serial-killer case. Gus's world continues self-destructing, as his daughter, sister, and colleagues judge and reject him, the killer piles up Beth lookalike victims, and eerie telephone clues indicate that she may be alive and in the killer's clutches. In the meantime, Gus learns some rather sad and unsavory things about the wife he thought he knew. Another riveting tale of suspense from Grippando.-DSusan A. Zappia, Paradise Valley Community Coll., Phoenix Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Gus Wheatley's wife, Beth, is missing, and their daughter, Morgan, wants her mother back as this thriller takes on the question of cults and their fatal attraction to followers. As Gus seeks his wife, private detectives, the FBI, and police search for a serial killer and join in the hunt for Beth Wheatley. Ron McLarty performs this creepy thriller with consummate skill and unerring characterizations. Grippando creates emotionless killers, and McLarty brings these monsters to life. Evil and death abound as McLarty brings every mind-twisting detail to the listener. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
Grippando's latest lawyer-in-distress yarn asks what happened to the missing wife of a successful attorney, and comes up with an answer beyond your wildest dreams. Gus Wheatley's wife Beth didn't pick up their preteen daughter Morgan from her big-ticket school for the best reason in the world: Beth had vanished--without packing her bags, taking her car, or touching her bank account. The Seattle cops, joined by the FBI, fear that she's the latest victim of a serial killer whose first two victims were graying 51-year-old divorcées who both drove Ford pickups, and whose third victim looked an awful lot like Beth. And as Gus, held at arm's length by the partners whose firm he'd been managing before Beth's vanishing act brought up the abuse complaint she'd briefly entered against him years earlier, takes his first close look in years at the stranger who'd shared his bed, what he finds is unnerving. Beth had suffered from bouts of bulimia and shoplifting she kept from her husband, though she confided every last detail to his sister Carla. What other secrets had she been hiding? And what to make of clues that suggest she's still alive and maybe even conspiring with the still-active killer? Unhappy with the inconclusive reports of FBI profiler Victoria Santos (The Informant, 1996), Gus decides to offer a fat reward for information about Beth's whereabouts, and the convict who claims the bounty dangles a single clue that links Beth to a nefarious cult, whose appearance sends all credibility from whooshing from the tale like air from a punctured balloon. FBI agent Andrea Henning's climactic infiltration of the sect answers every question about Beth's disappearance and the trail of murder surrounding it except one: who could possibly believe this stuff? An ingeniously entertaining mess for readers who won't mind the way the case soars off the rails, or who just plain don't like cults. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


January Magazine
"An intriguing mystery ... a shocking and utterlyunpredictable ending ... engrossing on severallevels ... the perfect beach read."


Booklist
"A smart, straightforward, and -- yes, the pun is unavoidable-gripping thriller,"


BookPage.com
"A real gripper from the eerie opening to thecatastrophic denouement."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From the bestselling author of The Abduction and Found Moneycomes another pulse-pounding thriller.

Gus Wheatley thinks he's found success. Money, power, prestige—they all come with the territory for the youngest lawyer ever to grab the helm of Seattle's most prominent law firm. Nothing can interfere with his meteoric rise to the top—until his wife vanishes. .

Beth dropped off their six-year-old daughter at the youth center one afternoon, and no one has seen her since. Her disappearance comes just as FBI profilers are called in to examine a bizarre emerging pattern of brutal serial murders that rocks Seattle. The FBI dubs them "bookend killings, " as the killer seems to be striking his victims in pairs: first two men, then two women. The victims are unrelated, yet within each pairing, one mirrors the other in chilling detail. .

But this is just the beginning of the nightmare for Gus. Soon Seattle police fashion a theory that leaves two horrifying possibilities: Either Beth is the killer's latest victim ... or she is his willing accomplice. .

As the gruesome murders continue, and with Beth's whereabouts still unknown, Gus starts to investigate. He cannot accept the idea that Beth would ever ally herself with a cold-blooded killer, but only now that she's gone does Gus realize just how far apart they've grown. Slowly, Gus begins to unravel the shocking truth about the woman he thought he knew. Beth may be alive. She may or may not be innocent. She may have come up against something far more evil than just a serial killer. And for Gus and his family, that evil is far too close to home. .

An intense tale of success and betrayal, and a frightening look into the darker side of the human psyche, Under Cover of Darkness is James Grippando at his best.

FROM THE CRITICS

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

"Better than any John Grisham novel," this "well-written and gripping" thriller features a missing wife who may be a serial killer's victim - or his accomplice. "A real page-turner." "A must for summer reading, with twists and turns galore."

Miami Herald

Powerful... undeniably a page turner.

BookPage

...a gripping tale that crests with a surprise twist and a satifying climax.

Journal Library

Another riveting tale of suspense from Grippando.

Chicago Tribune