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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780060530396
ISBN number: 0060530391
Label: HarperTorch
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 576
Printing Date: September 01, 2004
Publishing house: HarperTorch
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 697266
Studio: HarperTorch
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A riveting and explosive novel, The Kill Clause is a brilliantly inventive tour de force by a powerful new master of suspense.
Tim Rackley is a dangerous man of honor, a deputy U.S. marshal who is very good at his job—until everything he believes in is shattered by the brutal murder of his own daughter.
Betrayed by an imperfect judicial system, Rackley watches helplessly as the killer walks free on a legal technicality. Devastated, furious, and burning with a righteous need for vengeance, he is suddenly forced to explore his own deadly options—a quest that leads him into a shadowy no-man's-land between justice and the law . . . and into the welcoming fold of 'the Commission.'
A vigilante group made up of people like him—relentless streetwise operators who have each lost a loved one to violent crime—the Commission confronts the failings of a system that sets predators loose to hunt again, cleaning up society's 'mistakes' covertly, efficiently, and permanently. But as he is dragged deeper into a deadly morass of hidden agendas and murderous justice, Tim Rackley discovers that playing God is an excruciating and fearsome task. When his new secret life starts coming unwound at an alarming speed, he is suddenly caught in the most terrifying struggle he has ever faced—a desperate battle to save his marriage, his career, his life, his soul . . . and everything left that's worth fighting for.
Amazon.com Review:
The Kill Clause's opening pages will knot the stomach of even the most seasoned crime reader. U.S. Marshall Tim Rackley is expecting his daughter home for her seventh birthday party. Instead he finds a fellow cop at his door, bearing the news that little Ginny has been savagely dismembered, her remains recovered in a nearby creek. Only an hour or so later, reeling with shock and grief, Rackley learns that the perpetrator has been caught--and that some fellow cops have arranged a little one-on-one meeting for him at an isolated shack, complete with an untraceable gun. Rackley arrives, faces this monster, and...
But that would be giving too much away. Suffice it to say that this powerful opening launches a killer thriller, rich in both adrenaline-pumping action and thought-provoking issues of vigilantism, power, and the moral dilemmas of those sworn to uphold the law. Hurwitz's prose is muscular yet intelligent; he draws characters well, and he unrolls action scenes with amazing vividness (as well as treating us to lots of fascinating lore about lock picking, identity theft, and cell-phone technology). Occasionally his plot twists verge on the outlandish, and a few characters seem to exist only to speechify on a certain point of view. But these are minor flaws in this fine, intense, often un-put-downable tale. --Nicholas H. Allison
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Here's my review system--I score on four categories and average them together for the number of stars. The four categories are: character development (are the characters deep and complex, plot (is it interesting), voice (is the narration smooth and engaging) and cliche level (is it predictable.)
Character development: 5 stars--each character seemed real to me
Plot: 5 stars--it had turns I didn't see coming
voice: 5 stars-- the narration was very smooth
cliche level: 5 stars-- despite being about police a lot of the usual formula cliche crap was absent.
Refreshing and interesting throughout.
Rated by buyers -
I enjoyed this book, it was fast paced and engaging. The action scenes were top notch and Rack was a master of his tradecraft. What disappointed me was the Commission went through so much trouble to coerce Rack into working for them. Did they really need to manipulate things so much to get him to join? That required a suspension of disbelief and the fact that Rack got off on just misdemeanor charges after the whole fiasco was almost too good to be true.
I was really touched by how Ginny's death affected his and Dray's relationship.
Rated by buyers -
Just as good as I felt it would be. Hurwitz is a wonderful storyteller and I haven't found any of his books I don't like. He has a wider variety of plots than I very first thought, but the way he writes makes the books alive and the plots something to think about. He carries through the story and makes it impossible not to finish.
Rated by buyers 
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I read a lot of thrillers and I must say I was really disappointed with this novel.
The main flaw of THE KILL CLAUSE is the remarkably weak and bland characterization. The main character, Tim Rackley, is a square-jawed action hero with very little personality. The supporting characters in this novel are equally uninteresting and two-dimensional. If there's one thing I've learned about good thriller writing, it's this: if you don't care about the characters, you won't care about the story. Since I never cared about Tim Rackley and his problems, I was never truly engaged with THE KILL CLAUSE.
The storyline of this novel deals with vigilantism, and strongly resembles the plot lines of movies such as THE STAR CHAMBER and DEATH WISH. The moral message of this book is heavy-handed and not very original. There are too many stilted conversations where characters talk like ameteur psychologists and not real people. I also found the ending of this book (including the final twist) to be pretty predictable.
Hurwitz writes good, detailed action scenes, but I personally believe there are too many of them in this novel. This book is way too long, and could have easily been 150-200 pages shorter. Hurwitz is obviously a smart guy who does a lot of research, but I think he puts too much of it on the page. Lengthy descriptions about technology and weaponry are pretty boring unless they are directly relevant to the story.
Hurwitz is obviously an intelligent writer, but I think he needs to focus more on characterization and tighten his plots. He didn't do that here, so I can't recommend this book.
Rated by buyers -
US Marshal Tim Rackley and wife Andrea, lives are blown apart with news of their daughter's brutal murder. The torment they experience over the loss of their only child is escalated when the killer is set free on a technicality. The agony causes them to drift apart at a time they need each other the most and Tim is forced to cope with their loss and a decision he made to turn down an opportunity to deal with the killer when he was very first captured.
Frustrated, Tim is approached by a vigilante organization called "The Commission," a group of people who lost loved ones to violent crimes and whom the system failed. The Commission needs a leader, Tim needs justice and soon finds himself on the other side of the system he once so fervently upheld. The Commission's goal: to right a wrong and eliminate the system's mistakes. Tim's angst, to forgo everything he believes in to seek his own justice. The Commission's covert missions spiral out of control and Tim discovers deadly secrets so manipulative that he must use his precision and skill to fight for everything that matters to him, and re-evaluate his own quest for vengeance.
From the opening page the characters face the unthinkable and take you through the emotional turmoil of a loss in one of the most horrible ways imaginable. This is a supernova thriller filled with gripping emotions, explosive action, and meticulous detail. The author's research is evident without sacrificing the suspense. This is a well-plotted, character driven thrill ride. Highly recommended.
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