The Safety Expert

by Doug Richardson

Ben Keller lives life by one simple rule. Safety first. Ben is keenly aware of life’s hidden dangers. Ben never smokes. Ben always uses the crosswalk. Ben always drives within the speed limit. He has to because safety is his business. From his home in Simi Valley, California, one of the safest cities in the United States, Ben works hard at living a perfectly normal, perfectly uneventful, perfectly safe life.

And life is good until the past reaches into the present. In the dark of the night, a man crosses a lonely intersection and is struck by a car, setting events in motion that will unravel the finely stitched strands of Ben’s cocoon, from a recently retired porn actress who is desperate to be a mother to the butch cop determined to shield her young son from the whisperings of the queen bee moms at his private school to the addict who is clawing to hold onto the sobriety that cages the violence within him.

A long dismissed demon has resurfaced, presenting Ben with a most unsafe dilemma: preserve the haven he has carefully built for himself or confront the evildoer who decimated his carefree young life all those years ago.

Ben is in danger. Ben’s world is unsafe. Ben’s life will be changed forever. Again.

Genres: Thriller

354 pages, Paperback

First published December 4, 2011

About the author

Doug’s third grade teacher, Mrs. Dalrymple, wrote that “Doug has difficulty with authority and following instructions.”

Doug Richardson cut his teeth writing movies like DIE HARD 2, BAD BOYS, and HOSTAGE. But scratch the surface and discover he thinks there’s a killer inside all of us. His Lucky Dey books exist between the gutter and the glitter of a morally suspect landscape he calls Luckyland—aka Los Angeles—the city of Doug’s birth and where he lives with his wife, two children, four big mutts, and the dead body he’s still semi-convinced is buried in his San Fernando Valley back yard.

Want to know more?

Doug…

…once tail-hooked onto aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz with a Bond Girl.

…dove for sunken treasure off the coast of Cuba (before travelling to Cuba was cool).

…miraculously hit scratch at age 50 after a lifetime of playing golf.

…was born and raised in politics, which is why he understands it… and thoroughly loathes it.

…routinely embarrasses his children by crying at the movies.

…finds pleasure in scotch. Blended or single malt. Rocks. Even better with a cigar.

…talked his way into Ronald Reagan’s office to get a fistful of jellybeans at age ten.

…believes he needn’t turn in his “man card” because he loves musical theater.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would you do if your past comes knocking on your safely rebuilt life's door? Would you be able to relive the traumatic events again, after trying so hard to let go of the grief and move forward? What if reliving the past may cost you your safety, which is how you live your life, can you deal with the consequences no matter the cost? These are the questions that Ben Keller had to deal with in his life as The Safety Expert.

Ben Keller is living a good life in Simi Valley, California: he has a loving wife and three beautiful step-daughters, he has a successful safety consultant business, he couldn't ask for anything more. Then one day he receives in the mail a cd recording of a deathbed confession from a prison inmate in Indiana, a man he doesn't know, who reveals the identity of the man who killed his first wife and twin daughters twelve years ago in a home invasion. Ben's world as he knows it is now turned upside down, all the therapy and working through his grief and moving forward in his life has been stymied by the traumatic events of the past. Ben's carefully balanced and safe life is threatened when he makes the decision to investigate and go after the accused murderer. The decision to investigate has costly consequences for Ben, his family, and the people he enlists to help him get justice for his lost family. Will his investigation bring his family's murderer to justice, or will Ben's actions open up a pandora's box filled with murderous evil that will have deadly results?

The Safety Expert is a fast-paced suspense thriller that will have the reader sitting on the edge of their seat anticipating what will happen next. The storyline is well written, it has an intriguing and complex plot with many twist and turns, it takes the reader on a thrilling and very chilling roller coaster ride to the very anti-climatic and breath-holding ending. The characters are complex and fascinating, their individual stories coupled with the intertwining interactions with each other make the story that much more powerful and compelling. The author provides a very thorough description of the safety industry, he includes factoids and data that makes Ben's character and occupation very realistic. The wonderful description of the various settings in California: Simi Valley, San Fernando Valley and Burbank, were fascinating and full of travel guide information, it made me want to google them just to see the pictures of those areas. This story is full of thrills, chills and suspense, it provides the reader with an in depth look into the deep dark mind of people, and leaves you feeling like no one is really ever safe!

In true mystery thriller suspense form, The Safety Expert is a book that I would recommend to all fans of this genre. Doug Richardson is truly in the class of such authors like Harlan Coben, David Baldacci and Michael Connelly. I could easily see this book being turned into a made for television movie, or even a movie for the big screen! This is one book that won't leave suspense thriller fans disappointed!

Disclaimer: At the request of the author, a Kindle edition of the book was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest review and participation in the virtual book event.


Virtual Book Event: On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, author Doug Richardson participated in a virtual book event with an Author Guest Post on Jersey Girl Book Reviews. http://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot...

http://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot...

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Polished Storyteller

Doug Richardson has sterling credentials as both a screenwriter of note and a novelist. Perhaps it is the fact that he is able to create a verbal drama for the visual screen so well that makes reading his novels seem like taking a walk or a ride with his characters. THE SAFETY EXPERT is a film waiting to happen and we can only hope that Richardson will move forward with this story, creating a screenplay: so many of his characters seem already cast with some of today's best actors.

The Safety Expert of the title is one Ben Keller who is indeed a safety expert living in Simi Valley and working in Burbank, California. His life is ordered obsessively just as his safety business is run (the character of this tattooed and pierced secretary Josie is a fine creation!): it is as though he needs to keep his present world controllable so that he can cope with semi-buried memories of a house invader who murder his wife and twin girls some years ago, the perpetrator has never been caught. All of this changes when Ben receives a message form an inmate in prison who drops the name of the perpetrator in Ben's lap, he puts Josie on her undivided attention technique to scanning the world for every man with the new name of Stu Ramos. Tricks and turns occur as with Josie's aid Ben finds the possible invader in one Stew Raymo, a contractor with a history of alcoholism (10 years dry) and a jealous tacky wife who focuses on her need for a baby. As the story unfolds with many twist and turns we discover that both the lead men - Ben and Stew - have histories best left buried and their separate lives become tangential as they work through the dangers neither of them wishes to acknowledge.

If there is a flaw in this particular novel it is Richardson's seeming obsession with over-describing scenes: his need to prove that he understands all the lingo and current computer technology talk drags the story down at times - or better stated, TMI. That is a minor flaw and remains in the dust as the sweep of the story is compelling. The story is complicated and a slow reading time is likely to make the reader more satisfied with the experience this gifted novelist offers.

Grady Harp

[C. Vescio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great example of how a person's mental stability degrades after a seed of doubt is planted. This book played out much like a Shakespearean tragedy in my head- only with a bit of a happier ending.

The characters are all average Joe's... going about their lives in a normal boring fashion in the Los Angeles area. A risk assessor, his assistant, a contractor, his ex-porn star wife, a paralyzed private detective, a housewife and a single-mother-cop: people I could compare to my own friends and family.

When a bit of information is sent to the main character, Ben (The Safety Expert)- it begins a chain reaction of suspenseful intrigue until the book ends.

Great concept, really. Take a man who's life revolves around being 100% safe and let him destroy that world piece by piece because he's handed an "possible" resolution for the unsolved murder of his family YEARS prior... making everyone even remotely involved also deteriorate.

Mild spoiler:
This book made me feel for the characters- even Stew, the "bad guy" who seemed to be on a solid streak of sorting his life out and leaving his dark side far behind him... no, turns out- just a horrible jerk off thickly masking his abusiveness and violence. I feel like the author was playing with that debated topic "can people change?" Or will it take one bad turn in a person's life to crack that mask and bring back all those past demons, destroying all progress. Stew was tragic- even more so than Ben who's life he destroyed years prior (by murdering Ben's family).

The intertwining story that brings these characters together was masterfully written by Richardson. It kept my focus the entire read- and even when I couldn't read I was thinking about the story and anxious to see what would happen next. This was the first book I had talked- out loud- to in a long time. My husband had to ask if I was alright at one point: "Who are you calling a spineless c**k sucker?"

I wouldn't say I loved the way everything ended but that doesn't mean it wasn't played out and written well. I gave this book five stars because it made me think, it made me grit my teeth and hold my breath. Mostly because I know these perfectly flawed characters- they are people I've dealt with in my own life... maybe not on such a grand fuck-it-all scale but close. Bravo, Mr. Richardson... loved it.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the premise of this novel intrigued me I must admit I was swayed to accept this novel for review by the author's impressive list of screenplay writing credits. In the Safety Expert, Doug Richardson explores what risks a man will take when his past comes back to haunt him.

Though for me The Saftey Expert started slowly, the pace begins to pick up around a quarter of the way in. Richardson's experience in screenwriting is evident in his ability to create scenes and characters that are easy to visualise, even though I felt the author provided too much detail at times. The writing is of a high standard with natural dialogue and his characterisation is excellent.

Ben is an interesting protagonist, from a respectable, careful husband, father and businessmen he slowly becomes a man who takes increasingly larger risks, unsurprising given the circumstances of his past and the emotionally destabilising effect of his discovery. I found I was sympathetic to Ben's need to keep pushing at the situation and even hoped he would take his own revenge on Stew, the man who got away with taking so much from him.
Stew unravels much faster and much further than Ben, his hard fought for good behaviour and sobriety overcome by the fear, and perhaps guilt, that he refuses to acknowledge and instead expresses as rage. Feeling threatened, Stu reverts to familiar patterns of coping, namely indiscriminate violence and is only concerned with getting Ben, before Ben gets him.
The supporting characters in The Safety Expert are as intriguing as the main protagonists. Alex, Ben's wife, desperately wants her husband to bury his past while Pam, Stew's wife, has made peace with her colourful history and is concerned only for the future. Woody, Ben's investigator, is a four hundred pound paraplegic, and police officer Lydia Gonzales, known as Gonzo, is a single mother who somehow ends up in the middle of Alex and Ben's marriage when Ben asks her a simple favour.

Fitting somewhere between the genres of action and psychological thriller, I found The Safety Expert to be a well crafted and entertaining read, and I can imagine it playing out well on the big screen.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good thriller with plenty of situations where I found myself saying "What would I do?". Or another question Can you ever let go? Thank you Doug for great story with enough twists to keep me on edge.

[Yvonne G · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Edge Of The Seat Thrills .. Definitely One For The Movie Makers"

When `Pratt', a dying convict suddenly decides to have a pang of conscience, his well-meaning actions have a devastating effect on the future of so many, setting off an unstoppable chain reaction of events, which take so many lives into a downward spiral of self-destruction and misery.

Ben, is a model citizen; loving husband, and devoted step-father, existing in his `safe' life, where every action is made only after the considered risk has been analysed and accepted. It isn't until we discover the horrific demons which haunt Ben's past life, that we begin to realise just how fragile is the cocoon he has built up around himself and how easily it can shatter into a million pieces, leaving Ben vulnerable once again to his raw feelings and emotions of hatred, revenge and retribution.

When we are first introduced to Stew, it quickly becomes obvious that he has a whole different set of demons all his own, which he battles on a regular daily basis. His naturally violent tendencies and addictions, are only barely controlled, still bubbling away gently, just below the surface veneer of domesticity and respectability he has built up around himself. Repressed memories of his past horrific crimes, are re-played in his mind as always being the `other persons' fault, with himself having been provoked beyond all reason, to carry out the terrible acts of retribution and violence that he has inflicted on so many.

Detective Lydia (Gonzo) Gonzalez, is yet another in a long line of fiction detectives who is trying to juggle the pressures of family life, with the stress and demands of the job and probably achieving neither to their full potential. She makes the fundamental mistake of allowing her heart to rule her head and looses her cool on more than one occasion, only then does she realise that her actions have probably made an already bad situation, much, much worse. In trying to make reparation for her mistakes, her life as well as her career are on the line. Loosing one and narrowly saving the other, forces her to re-evaluate her life and what it really means to her.

The two main supporting players, as this terrible scenario unfolds, are Alex and Pam, Ben and Stew's respective wives. Although they outwardly appear to be at opposite ends of the social spectrum and are destined never to meet, they are not so different as you might think. Both are determined characters, who will defend their homes and loved ones with their own lives if necessary. Neither however, are strong enough to withstand the combined force of the hatred between their husbands and are powerless to influence the outcome and the effect it will inevitably have on all their futures.

All of the remaining supporting characters are well developed and defined, in a way which is both sympathetic to the overall storyline, yet which is also designed to highlight both their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Ben and Stew, complex and at times almost frightening characters, two men both fighting to keep buried dark memories from the past, controlling demons which, when the layers of the story are peeled back, find them both pushed beyond their limits, hunter and hunted both.

The fast paced storyline flows naturally from one phase to the next, on this horrific roller coaster ride, of high tension and exposed, raw emotions. The storyline is a carefully measured piece of writing, which is equally plot and character driven, creating a finely balanced narrative, which keeps its pace and action right until the very last page. The ending however, did come as something of a surprise and wasn't quite what I had expected, just one last twist in the tail of this venomous, deadly snake named `revenge'.

Given Doug's hitherto successful screenplay writing career, I think that `The Safety Expert' would definitely, easily lend itself to being adapted as a screenplay script for a film and even the title sounds fantastic as it is.

`The Safety Expert' had me in its grip and on the edge of my seat, from the very first page, to the very last word and even then I didn't want it to end!

[Vivian Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book

This was a real cliffhanger. It was difficult to put it down. I'm looking forward to more like it from Doug Richardson .

[Sharon Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine living your life in a safe manner, being mister reliable and totally dependable, obeying all the rules and not taking any chances. When out of the blue you receive a cd through the post, from a dying convict telling you that he knows who killed your first wife and twin daughters, naming him and giving you his address. All this happens to Ben, it affects his life in a big way and his current wife suspects he is having an affair but the lady in question is a police officer who is helping Ben with his quest.


On receiving information Ben decides to visit the murderer undercover at his workplace, but after his visit the murderer, Stew, gets suspicious and starts his own investigation. This leads to Stew's downfall to drink and drugs and he starts murdering to get to our hero, Ben. Ben's marriage starts to crumble along with his business, his obsession to catch Stew takes over and he is no longer safe, reliable or dependable, which he now finds exciting.


Ben is not the only one with an obsession as Stew is intent on taking out Ben, which costs him his marriage and business. Who will win, Ben with the help of the police officer or Stew who is totally out of control on drugs and alcohol?


The author challenges the way and manner we all live our lives, are we happy knowing what is safe and predictable or do we want excitement. In the search for excitement or change will this upset the balance, causing doubt, secrets and dishonesty, which also leads to the road of ruin. In the portrayal of the characters we see this happening, how one mans obsession turns not only his life but the lives of the people who rely and trust them. The storyline and language is well versed and the plot is excellent, only slight negative is that I found some parts long winded, but this does not retract from being an excellent book.

[latybug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free download of this book from Story Cartel, thank you!
The story was rather slow at first, but it does pick up and become more entertaining as the novel progresses. It was interesting to read how quickly the past can come back and grab you, and change your carefully wrought emotional armor. I also appreciated how the author wrote about misconceptions - how one single encounter can be totally misconstrued by an outside observer, and completely incorrect rumors begin.
The novel didn't end exactly the way I wanted it to end, but I do think it qualifies as a happy ending.
The only thing I did not like was not from the story itself, but from the formatting. Several times throughout the book, the narrator changed in the middle of a page, and there was no indication to alert the reader of the change. Many times I would be reading and suddenly think that the last paragraph I just read didn't make sense. Upon rereading, I realized that the narrator had changed, and this was now a different scene. It would be helpful if the author could go back and put an extra space between the paragraphs, or a set of asterisks or something, to indicate that the narrator and scene was going to change. (This did occur in a couple of places, but not many.)
Other than the formatting issue, I did enjoy the book and I would recommend it to others. I would also read more by this author.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Rating 4.25 stars

An inmate’s deathbed confession turns Ben Keller’s life upside down. Fourteen years earlier a horrific act of violence shattered Ben, but slowly, over the years, he has remade himself. Ben knows all about safety and gets paid generously for his expertise. Now, however, he finds himself at a crossroads – risk everything or follow the safe, sane path.

This complex and riveting story had me literally biting my nails at times. The novel is suspenseful and entertaining; it unfolds ingeniously, slyly packing sucker punches in the places least expected. A few times, I thought the pacing became bogged down in slightly too much trivial information. There were times, also, when I cringed at some of Ben’s actions and choices – silently begging him to get a grip. But then I would chastise myself because, after all, severe stress can trigger uncharacteristic behaviors. As Ben’s life spirals out of control, those closest to him also discover truths about themselves. This is a book that will keep your mind racing until the final page.

Reviewed by Laurie-J for Night Owl Reviews

[Crystal Trent Ramey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Keller's family was murdered twelve years ago, though he has moved on and remarried, he tries to keep his life in control and safe. But when a dying inmate leaves a message for Ben, telling him who murdered his family, Ben's life begins to unravel. Ben begins to investigate Stew Raymo, and even goes undercover to his buisness, and Stew has started over, marrying an ex porn star and starting his own buisness, but he begins to get suspicious of Ben and starts his own investigation, now the games begin. Will Ben be able to save his marriage and buisness and get to Stew before Stew gets to him?

An Incredible read, this was an exciting, hair raising, page turning read. The characters are vivid and able to relate to, the dilemma that progresses through out the book will keep you on edge. I got lost in this book and would recommend it to everyone.

visit Doug Richardson's blog at www.dougrichardson.com

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The protagonist is safety conscious but fortunately not to the point of being OCD, so his safety obsession makes him interesting as a character but doesn't make you find him overly annoying. I liked the twists and character relationships.

[Zuzu Burford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put this book down. Great plot, characters, and suspense.