From Publishers Weekly
Hoag's success (Dark Horse; Guilty as Sin), evidenced once again in this engaging new thriller, is the triumph of substance over style. In a genre overrun with self-conscious jargon, brooding descriptions and fragments masquerading as sentences, her clean, measured prose—full, balanced sentences delivered at a steady pace—doesn't so much create an ominous mood as draw the reader into the worlds of her characters. Here, before they know it, readers are invested in the dilemma of Los Angeles bike messenger Jace (J.C.) Damon, on the run after picking up a package from high-powered attorney Lenny Lowell, who is subsequently murdered. Orphaned Jace lives under society's radar in Chinatown, with his 10-year-old brother, Tyler; his surrogate family includes sassy dispatcher Eta Fitzgerald and the Chen clan, the boy's closest neighbors. Similarly, the police in pursuit are an unconventional, if dysfunctional, family: long-suffering lead detective Kev Parker; his annoying and ambitious new partner, Renee Ruiz; squabbling second-string detectives Jimmy Chew and Bradley Kyle; and coroner Diane Nicholson, who is also Kev's lover. The wild card in the game is Lowell's daughter, Abby, volatile and full of secrets, which Hoag reveals at appropriate intervals. A link to Hollywood provides a burst of fresh energy in the later chapters of this character-driven, solidly constructed thriller. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! Being an L.A. bike messenger can be risky on the best of days, but it doesn't normally mean being plunged into a struggle to stay alive. Nineteen-year-old orphan Jake, who lives on the fringe in Chinatown with his younger brother, is on the run after the murder of a lawyer from whom he picked up a package. Scott Brick never lets the suspense lag. The pace is smooth and fast; characterizations are crisp, sharp, and memorable. Brick is a master at drawing out tension and suspense. J.E.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Nineteen-year-old Jace Damon has had a hard life. His mother died when he was just 13, and since then he has been struggling to raise his younger brother, all while staying beneath the radar of Child Protective Services. With the help of an understanding Chinese benefactress, Madam Chan, the two have been living in L.A.'s Chinatown, where Jace works as a bike messenger. One dark and rainy night, Jace agrees to do a last delivery. He picks up a package from a shady lawyer, but when he gets to the delivery address, he finds an empty lot; suddenly, someone attacks him and tries to grab the package. The bike messenger takes off, but the attacker pursues him, nearly runs him over with a car, and takes a couple of shots at him. Injured and frightened, Jace returns to Lowell's office only to find the place swarming with cops and the attorney murdered. The plot thickens as Jace attempts to elude both homicide detective Ken Parker, who wants some answers, and a menacing, shadowy figure, who is trying to get that package. Although this novel is a little heavy on the stereotypes, with its preponderance of macho, chauvinistic male cops and lusty, fiery female cops, Hoag's loyal readers and fans of police procedural suspense novels will definitely love it. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"In a genre overrun with self-conscious jargon, brooding descriptions and fragments masquerading as sentences, her clean, measured prose–full, balanced sentences delivered at a steady pace–doesn’t so much create an ominous mood as draw the reader into the worlds of her characters."
--Publishers Weekly

"Brisk ... Scandal-prone detective Kev Parker ... gives KILL THE MESSENGER its juice and keeps readers hooked."
--San Francisco Chronicle Books


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Great news for suspense fans: Tami Hoag's Kill the Messenger is a fast-paced tale, full of twists and turns and unexpected dangers. This time out, the acclaimed New York Times￯﾿ﾽbestselling author uses her home turf of Los Angeles as the dramatic backdrop for a riveting tale of a bicycle messenger who picks up a package that marks him for death.

One miserable night, when weather and traffic have made him late enough to be the only messenger his delivery service still has in the field, Jace Damon is sent out on one last job. The weather's lousy, the tip's likely to be the same, and it's been a really long, crappy day￯﾿ﾽbut Jace never expected a routine delivery gig for his low-end lawyer client, Lenny Lowell, to lead to a deadly trap.

His first thought, after he manages to break free, is to return the package to Lenny's office. But that proves impossible. Lenny's been brutally murdered, and all the celebrity that eluded the sleazeball attorney in life has arrived in spades post-mortem. Jace is in a real bind: He's stuck with an envelope full of negatives someone is willing to kill for; he's on the run from a killer; and it won't be hard for cops or crooks to track him down through the messenger service he works for. To boot, his prints are all over the dead man's office.

Although it looks like Jace has elevated isolation and living off the books to an art form, he's not quite the loner misfit he seems. He lives the way he does to support his beloved, brainy brother -- ten-year-old Tyler -- and to protect him from falling into the hands of the faceless bureaucrats at social services. Fearful of losing Tyler, Jace knows he can't trust the cops not to make the easy arrest and put him away for a good long time.

Detective Kev Parker doesn't much care why someone put a scumbag like Lenny Lowell away, but since it happened on his beat, he figures it's his case to close. So why do the boys from the Robbery-Homicide Division want to claim the crime scene for themselves? This is not the sort of high-profile case those hotshots usually work...as Kev knows well, having until recently been one of that elite group. Kev may have been downgraded to babysitting detective trainees and to working cases nobody else wants, but his investigative instincts are still top-notch. Everyone else may like the bike messenger for this crime -- but not Kev, who has found too many fragments of evidence that just don't fit.

Still, like everyone else on both sides of the law, Kev is looking for the messenger. Meanwhile Jace is struggling to neutralize the danger or to find allies who won't betray him. Time is running out. Danger haunts every turn of Jace's wheels. And, despite all his efforts, it's spreading to everyone he touches -- to Madame Chen, the Chinese matriarch who has sheltered his little family; to Eta, the dispatcher who took him under her wing; and to the dead man's daughter, Abby, who Jace figures is the rightful heir to the package -- and to the troubles that go along with it.

Somehow Jace needs to find a way to put on the brakes and to protect himself and his brother, as he plots a route through a deadly maze of blackmail, murder, and betrayal. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With this new thriller, New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag delivers her own message to suspense fans everywhere: Don't turn off the lights, and keep reading if you dare. From the gritty streets of Los Angeles to its most protected enclaves of prestige and power to the ruthless glamour of Hollywood, a killer stalks his prey. A killer so merciless no one in his way is safe--not even the innocent.

At the end of a long day battling street traffic, bike messenger Jace Damon has one last drop to make. But en route to delivering a package for one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, he's nearly run down by a car, chased through back alleys, and shot at. Only the instincts acquired while growing up on the streets of L.A. allow him to escape with his life--and with the package someone wants badly enough to kill for.

Jace returns to Lenny Lowell's office only to find the cops there, the lawyer dead, and Jace himself considered the prime suspect in the savage murder. Suddenly he's on the run from both the cops and a killer, and the key to saving himself and his ten-year-old brother is the envelope he still has--which holds a message no one wants delivered: the truth.

In a city fueled by money, celebrity, and sensationalism, the murder of a bottom-feeding mouthpiece like Lenny Lowell won't make the headlines. So when detectives from the LAPD's elite robbery/homicide division show up, homicide detective Kev Parker wants to know why. Parker is on the downhill slide of a once-promising career, and he doesn't want to be reminded that he used to be one of the hotshots, working cases that made instant celebrities of everyone involved. Like the case of fadingretty-boy actor Rob Cole, accused of the brutal murder of his wife, Tricia Crowne-Cole, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the city, L.A.'s latest "crime of the century."

Robbery/Homicide has no reason to be looking at a dead small-time scumbag lawyer or chasing a bike messenger...unless there's something in it for them. Maybe Lenny Lowell had a connection to something big enough to be killed for. Parker begins a search for answers that will lead him to a killer--or the end of his career. Because if there's one lesson he's learned over the years, it's that in a town built on fantasy and fame, delivering the truth can be deadly.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Hoag's success (Dark Horse; Guilty as Sin), evidenced once again in this engaging new thriller, is the triumph of substance over style. In a genre overrun with self-conscious jargon, brooding descriptions and fragments masquerading as sentences, her clean, measured prose-full, balanced sentences delivered at a steady pace-doesn't so much create an ominous mood as draw the reader into the worlds of her characters. Here, before they know it, readers are invested in the dilemma of Los Angeles bike messenger Jace (J.C.) Damon, on the run after picking up a package from high-powered attorney Lenny Lowell, who is subsequently murdered. Orphaned Jace lives under society's radar in Chinatown, with his 10-year-old brother, Tyler; his surrogate family includes sassy dispatcher Eta Fitzgerald and the Chen clan, the boy's closest neighbors. Similarly, the police in pursuit are an unconventional, if dysfunctional, family: long-suffering lead detective Kev Parker; his annoying and ambitious new partner, Renee Ruiz; squabbling second-string detectives Jimmy Chew and Bradley Kyle; and coroner Diane Nicholson, who is also Kev's lover. The wild card in the game is Lowell's daughter, Abby, volatile and full of secrets, which Hoag reveals at appropriate intervals. A link to Hollywood provides a burst of fresh energy in the later chapters of this character-driven, solidly constructed thriller. Agent, Andrea Cirillo. (July 6) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

An innocent bike messenger ends up being chased by both the good guys and the bad guys (but which are which?) after the murder of a lawyer for whom he was delivering a package. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! Being an L.A. bike messenger can be risky on the best of days, but it doesn't normally mean being plunged into a struggle to stay alive. Nineteen-year-old orphan Jake, who lives on the fringe in Chinatown with his younger brother, is on the run after the murder of a lawyer from whom he picked up a package. Scott Brick never lets the suspense lag. The pace is smooth and fast; characterizations are crisp, sharp, and memorable. Brick is a master at drawing out tension and suspense. J.E.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews