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Alex Delillo #1
Run The Risk
LAPD homicide detective and single mother Alex Delillo knows the risks of the job. But when a series of explosions is detonated by a serial bomber and Alex’s teenage daughter is kidnapped, she discovers the catastrophic stakes as well. The bomber’s next plan: to unleash his incendiary powers on live TV. No one can stop him—because no one can find him. What he’s igniting in Alex is more than a contest of wills and a race against time. It’s white-hot rage. And a mother’s revenge.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
5 people are currently reading
269 people want to read
About the author
Scott Frost
26 books45 followersScott Frost is an American screen writer and novelist. He is the son of actor Warren Frost and the brother of Mark Frost and actress Lindsay Frost. He worked with his brother and David Lynch on the Twin Peaks television series, writing two episodes. Among others, he has also written episodes of Babylon 5 and Andromeda. In the early 1990s, he wrote the script for the mystery/thriller TV movie Past Tense with Miguel Tejada-Flores. He again worked with his brother on the 2001 series All Souls.
Series:
* Alex Delillo Mystery
Series contributed to:
* Babylon 5: Other Voices
Series:
* Alex Delillo Mystery
Series contributed to:
* Babylon 5: Other Voices
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
March 30, 2014
What a ride.
So let me get this straight. I had never heard of this book until my friend lent it to me. He said that it was really good and I wanted to give it a try.
I have never read crime/cop/murder mystery books before. I watch cop TV shows, but I've never read one. And let me say one thing: I really enjoyed this book!
The book starts of a little slow, giving background information and a sense of ambiguity that the characters feel. As the story goes on, the characters unravel clues and different answers...
Now, what I really like about this book is the perspective it is written from. The protagonist, Alex, is a cop and a single mother. She speaks about her struggle balancing between her work and her relationship with her daughter. This was really fascinating. Her conflict was very realistic and she really wanted to change many things but couldn't.
Then her character grows. WOW! Her character growth was amazing. The things she does for her daughter, wow.
The other thing I really liked about the book is the villain. Nothing is as it seems. He's creepy, scary, and unpredicatable. I really liked his mind-game strategies and the twist about him. Kudos, Mr. Frost.
Then comes the conclusion. It was really great seeing that bad things can happen to good people. You get to see a sense of danger everywhere, anytime. You're never sure what will happen.
I really enjoyed reading this book, despite it being slow in the beginning, which was putting me off. However, I am really glad I pursued with reading it; I think this could be my introduction to crime fiction.
Read it if you want to try new things and if you like crime fiction. It will all play like a movie in your head.
So let me get this straight. I had never heard of this book until my friend lent it to me. He said that it was really good and I wanted to give it a try.
I have never read crime/cop/murder mystery books before. I watch cop TV shows, but I've never read one. And let me say one thing: I really enjoyed this book!
The book starts of a little slow, giving background information and a sense of ambiguity that the characters feel. As the story goes on, the characters unravel clues and different answers...
Now, what I really like about this book is the perspective it is written from. The protagonist, Alex, is a cop and a single mother. She speaks about her struggle balancing between her work and her relationship with her daughter. This was really fascinating. Her conflict was very realistic and she really wanted to change many things but couldn't.
Then her character grows. WOW! Her character growth was amazing. The things she does for her daughter, wow.
The other thing I really liked about the book is the villain. Nothing is as it seems. He's creepy, scary, and unpredicatable. I really liked his mind-game strategies and the twist about him. Kudos, Mr. Frost.
Then comes the conclusion. It was really great seeing that bad things can happen to good people. You get to see a sense of danger everywhere, anytime. You're never sure what will happen.
I really enjoyed reading this book, despite it being slow in the beginning, which was putting me off. However, I am really glad I pursued with reading it; I think this could be my introduction to crime fiction.
Read it if you want to try new things and if you like crime fiction. It will all play like a movie in your head.
January 19, 2014
A new author for me. I really enjoyed the audio book! I enjoyed the story and was immediately drawn in from the first few pages. I will definitely be reading the authors other books.
March 29, 2009
The author was also a screenwriter for Twin Peaks and a few other TV shows.
I really enjoyed the mystery, and the reader of the Audio Book.
I would recommend this book and the author, he has become a new favorite!
I really enjoyed the mystery, and the reader of the Audio Book.
I would recommend this book and the author, he has become a new favorite!
February 11, 2013
What an absolutely cracking read. New author to me but I have at least one more on my TBR and will be looking for others.
May 11, 2018
It was an engaging story. I enjoyed it. I’d read another by him.
December 16, 2010
Lt. Alex Delillo, of the L.A. police dept. is investigating the killing of a local florist. When she and her partner go to the home of another employee at the florist, the door is rigged with explosives. Alex's partner is hospitalized and is lucky to be alive.
Prior to this, Alex had been at a beauty pagent that her daughter, Lacy, was competing in. Lacy created a near riot when she removed two cyllinders from beneath her gown and told the audience that they were killing the environment, just for a parade. The crowd panicked but Alex and other police calmed everyone down. Alex is furious with her daughter and wonders what happened to the teenage daughter she had just six months ago, the girl who was most comfortable in jeans and T-shirts.
When Alex's partner was injured, she began working with Det. Dylon Harrison, who was in the bomb squad. Harrison has a calming effect on Alex and on the victims that he meets.
Soon after, a body is found in a remote area. Officials i.d. the man as a soldier in the Mexican army and speculate that he may have brought explosive materials into the area.
Lacy goes missing and Alex and Harrison go to another florist company employee's home. Here they find a man strapped to a chair with bombs set to go off if he moves. Harrison difuses the bomb and the man tells them that Lacy has been kidnapped.
The novel is packed with action which is realistically done. The author has a good ability which is to draw the reader into the story as the reader becomes concerned with Alex and her daughter. We want to know how Alex will save Lacy and stop the mad bomber.
Recommended.
Prior to this, Alex had been at a beauty pagent that her daughter, Lacy, was competing in. Lacy created a near riot when she removed two cyllinders from beneath her gown and told the audience that they were killing the environment, just for a parade. The crowd panicked but Alex and other police calmed everyone down. Alex is furious with her daughter and wonders what happened to the teenage daughter she had just six months ago, the girl who was most comfortable in jeans and T-shirts.
When Alex's partner was injured, she began working with Det. Dylon Harrison, who was in the bomb squad. Harrison has a calming effect on Alex and on the victims that he meets.
Soon after, a body is found in a remote area. Officials i.d. the man as a soldier in the Mexican army and speculate that he may have brought explosive materials into the area.
Lacy goes missing and Alex and Harrison go to another florist company employee's home. Here they find a man strapped to a chair with bombs set to go off if he moves. Harrison difuses the bomb and the man tells them that Lacy has been kidnapped.
The novel is packed with action which is realistically done. The author has a good ability which is to draw the reader into the story as the reader becomes concerned with Alex and her daughter. We want to know how Alex will save Lacy and stop the mad bomber.
Recommended.
August 2, 2011
An OK thriller, not terribly different than thousands of others out there (though, admittedly, I wish I had the talent to put something like this together).
Serial killer kidnaps girl, mother-cop chases him down. Add in the knowledge that he's an explosives expert, and you can pretty much outline the story.
This may be the sexist in me, although I don't think so, but I find that books with a female protagonist are often heavy with discussions and descriptions of emotions and feelings and second-guessing. This suffers from that quibble; a more interesting one to me because the author is a man (or, since I must admit I haven't looked it up, a woman named "Scott"). This must be a terribly difficult line to walk. How do you write a strong female character that doesn't come across as being manly? How do you let the reader know she's a woman without eviscerating any strength the character might have in her. It can be done. I recently saw Silence of Lambs and Jodi Foster’s Clarice Starling is certainly such a character.
Even more curious: why don't we have these questions about male characters? Is it because a gun is a penis, so a detective running around with a gun in his hand is just what everyone expects? Or am I the only one that doesn't wonder?
Decent book. Won't kill you to read it.
Serial killer kidnaps girl, mother-cop chases him down. Add in the knowledge that he's an explosives expert, and you can pretty much outline the story.
This may be the sexist in me, although I don't think so, but I find that books with a female protagonist are often heavy with discussions and descriptions of emotions and feelings and second-guessing. This suffers from that quibble; a more interesting one to me because the author is a man (or, since I must admit I haven't looked it up, a woman named "Scott"). This must be a terribly difficult line to walk. How do you write a strong female character that doesn't come across as being manly? How do you let the reader know she's a woman without eviscerating any strength the character might have in her. It can be done. I recently saw Silence of Lambs and Jodi Foster’s Clarice Starling is certainly such a character.
Even more curious: why don't we have these questions about male characters? Is it because a gun is a penis, so a detective running around with a gun in his hand is just what everyone expects? Or am I the only one that doesn't wonder?
Decent book. Won't kill you to read it.
December 8, 2007
I couldn't finish this one, and that is rare for me. The storyline, about a terrorist bomber, is fine, but the protagonist, a single cop mom with a teenage daughter, was more than I could take. What a whiner! She gets hit by a swinging door, and carries on like she's dying. And she goes on and on about how hard it is being a cop and a single mom. OK, I got that the first time. She needs to talk to Lee Childs' Reacher about getting some toughness. And if that wasn't enough, I had problems with the writing too. One example is having two lines of dialogue, followed by a paragraph of exposition, explaining why they said what they said. Annoying. But what finally broke the camel's back was the bombardment with similes. For instance, within one 8-line paragraph, "the house had a lifeless quality, like something abandoned during a plague," "the blackness inside the windows felt like the dark eyes of a predator," and "dead climbing roses littered the foundation like discarded bones." Makes me wonder: is it possible to obtain similes at a volume discount?
Life is too short for reading bad books. Skip this one.
Life is too short for reading bad books. Skip this one.
May 29, 2015
Run the Risk by Scott Frost
Gave this book 4.75 out of 5 really enjoyed the story and the writing, its fast paced.
Lieutenant Alex Delillo is a single mother who fears her daughter Lucy is in the Rose Pageant. She wonders why.
As the winners are to be announced Lucy shows her why she entered.
Alex is the head of the homicide dept and she has a heavy work load,
A shop keeper is shot and the footage from the shop shows it as an execution style shooting, as they are investigating the shooting Alex's partner is almost killed in an explosion. She is shocked by the attack.
On the way home she sees a car pulling out from her home but relaxes when the driver starts delivering papers.
Whilst looking for the killer of the shop owner another bomb is found on the knee of a victim and her new partner Harrison defuses it with little effort.
But whilst she is distracted by the killing and the bombs he daughter Lucy is kidnapped.
What does the kidnapper want, money or what.
The story moves forward very fast, it is well written and cleverly put together.
The end unexpected.
Gave this book 4.75 out of 5 really enjoyed the story and the writing, its fast paced.
Lieutenant Alex Delillo is a single mother who fears her daughter Lucy is in the Rose Pageant. She wonders why.
As the winners are to be announced Lucy shows her why she entered.
Alex is the head of the homicide dept and she has a heavy work load,
A shop keeper is shot and the footage from the shop shows it as an execution style shooting, as they are investigating the shooting Alex's partner is almost killed in an explosion. She is shocked by the attack.
On the way home she sees a car pulling out from her home but relaxes when the driver starts delivering papers.
Whilst looking for the killer of the shop owner another bomb is found on the knee of a victim and her new partner Harrison defuses it with little effort.
But whilst she is distracted by the killing and the bombs he daughter Lucy is kidnapped.
What does the kidnapper want, money or what.
The story moves forward very fast, it is well written and cleverly put together.
The end unexpected.
September 7, 2017
Rating: 2 stars
Synopsis
Lieutenant Alex Delillo, a cop+mother, who also head of the Homicide Department, is in a nightmare of her own, when her only daughter is kidnapped by a psychopath. And it becomes scarier that the psychopath loves bombs. Alex must choose between saving her daughter's life or the lives of the public who will be attending the annual parade.
Likes
-- err nothing, I guess.
Dislikes
-- the storyline is too slow and boring for me. This book has taken me such a long time to finish. Why? I guess the writing bores me. It's not as exciting as other crime/thriller books are. It is also my first time reading a book from the author. I only liked the few chapters towards the end, as the story began to pick up pace (and pick up my interest too).
Synopsis
Lieutenant Alex Delillo, a cop+mother, who also head of the Homicide Department, is in a nightmare of her own, when her only daughter is kidnapped by a psychopath. And it becomes scarier that the psychopath loves bombs. Alex must choose between saving her daughter's life or the lives of the public who will be attending the annual parade.
Likes
-- err nothing, I guess.
Dislikes
-- the storyline is too slow and boring for me. This book has taken me such a long time to finish. Why? I guess the writing bores me. It's not as exciting as other crime/thriller books are. It is also my first time reading a book from the author. I only liked the few chapters towards the end, as the story began to pick up pace (and pick up my interest too).
August 29, 2013
Alex Delillo is a police detective in southern Cal. who has to find her kidnapped daughter while working a murder case. The action occurs in the days before the Tournament of Roses parade, and of course all the paths intertwine. Delillo considers herself a failed mother but a good cop, and her inner dialogue rings true. The action in the book is non-stop, but I was disappointed by figuring out a key plot point about 50 pages before the detectives did.
March 28, 2013
I loved this story from the beginning to the end. It was emotional, testing a mother's love for her daughter while the mother (also a cop) pitted herself against a wannabe terrorist. The ticking bomb throughout the story led urgency, and I had trouble putting my iPod down. My only slight niggle is that the terrorist got away in the end.
I look forward to book 2 in this series.
I look forward to book 2 in this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 14, 2015
Beautifully-written, with excellent scene-setting and good characters. Ultimately, though, it devolved into implausibility and a twist on the action-movie finish. The twist saves it, but in the end I was disappointed. No spoilers here, and I still consider it worth reading, but a little self-control would have made it much better. I do look forward to Frost's future efforts.
November 8, 2010
As one of the other reviews said,subtlety is not this guys forte. As we teach in writing - show, don't tell - but he tried to tell every detail of what people looked like or felt like - and his overuse of the simile really started to get on my nerves.
July 31, 2014
The plot became repetitive and unbelievable. The book started off better than it ended. I suspect that Scott Frost, like many novelists writing a detective series, may fix those problems as the series goes on.
February 5, 2009
This was a great thriller. Starts out about a terrorist and winds up being about a serial killer. Great action. I loved Det. Alex Delillo, she was a great character.
May 27, 2009
I should have heeded the warning inside the back flap: "Scott Frost is a screenwriter..." It would have made me realise why it's utterly repetitive and about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
August 28, 2009
Very Good; Continuing character: Alex Delillo (first in series); homicide detective's daughter is kidnapped by serial bomber who is looking to make a statement during the Rose Bowl parade
April 19, 2010
Strange.
Read
December 5, 2012good, but ending too involved
March 11, 2013
Good thriller and i'll read another in the series for sure. The bad guy ticked me off--very manipulative and a player of mind-games.
Want to read
December 4, 2013Ich habe ein Buch bei BookCrossing.com registriert!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12362649
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12362649
March 14, 2014
Not a bad book but fairly pedestrian. It kept me interested but it is a book that I will soon forget.
April 17, 2014
Great book, fast paced, kept me listening.
March 28, 2017
Loved the characters! Interesting read, and a series I definitely plan on continuing with.
November 5, 2014
Couldn't put it down.
November 25, 2014
for me, too violent and drawn out.
Read
December 13, 2016policewoman in pasadena
May 16, 2019
This is a really excellent read that is fast paced and gripping from start to finish with good character development as well as story development although a couple of bits did have me wondering on what turned out to be the right lines. I really liked Alex as a character despite her frequent weaker moments which didn't always fit with some of the background set up for her and I loved Lacy, that is one young lady you would not want to cross and it was refreshing to have more than one strong female character in a story like this. The story itself flows well and avoids getting bogged down in slow moments or excessive detail. Definitely a read for the summer (don't expect to want to put it down!).
May 9, 2020
Whilst there's not an incredible amount of depth to the characters, and there is almost a touch too much lamenting of not being an ideal parent on the part of Lt Alex Delillo, the novel overcomes these short comings with it's fast paced and enthralling plot.
I hadn't heard of this author previously and actually picked up the first edition in the local book store's free bin, so going in I didn't exactly have any preconceived notions that it would be a killer read. In that respect I was pleasantly surprised having just knocked it over in a day, not wanting to put it down for long and wanting to see where the course of events was heading.
I would recommend for fans of crime thrillers.
I hadn't heard of this author previously and actually picked up the first edition in the local book store's free bin, so going in I didn't exactly have any preconceived notions that it would be a killer read. In that respect I was pleasantly surprised having just knocked it over in a day, not wanting to put it down for long and wanting to see where the course of events was heading.
I would recommend for fans of crime thrillers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews