Overfall
David H. Dun (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
2003 Pinnacle Books
ISBN: 078601542X Paperback - Amazon's price: $6.99
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A man with a past rescues a drowning woman in Canada's Inside Passage.
David Dun has done it again! In his third thrilling adventure, we meet his latest hero, Sam Wintripp--who is trying to forget his last investigation which got his grown son killed. He also thinks he has retired from a turbulent life as a bodyguard & computer whiz.
Sailing his yacht up the Inside Passage, east of Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his dog, Harry, at his side, Sam's planning on a quiet berth, a shower & a rest. He is also meditating on a particularly dangerous wave & cataract channeled between two towering cliffs. That's when he sees a woman running along the cliff edge. As he watches, a man emerges from the forest after her. When the woman tumbles down into the maelstrom ahead, the man turns back into the trees, & Sam is left to decide if he can navigate the treacherous water in hopes of rescuing the woman clinging to the rocks.
David H. Dun's heroes are complex men with Native American heritages, usually through their mothers' side, with fathers who have trained their sons well. The hallmarks of a Dun hero is they have hidden pasts & superb survival skills. You just know Sam is going to be an expert sailor & that the woman will be saved. How that happens makes for giddy reading!
Then, true to form, once they have hurtled through the pass into idyllic safety, they will spar like feral critters, unwilling to trust, filled with anger with deep resources of power just below the surface. Both carry huge & hidden agendas.
What could have been a charming night aboard a beautiful yacht in a lovely bay explodes into flames & destruction. They end up in the freezing autumn water, clawing their way to land, & a frantic crepuscular sprint to a cabin where they hope to find safety until dawn.
It's easy to know who he's just rescued. Her face is on the front of every magazine. Anna Wade is a top-notch Hollywood actress, & she's searching for her brilliant, psychotic brother & his wayward daughter. What she's got hidden in her fanny-pack is why she's on the run.
Overfall gallops from Canada's west coast to New York, off to Hollywood & clear across the Pacific Ocean, as Sam & Anna, reluctantly trusting as they learn more about each other, dodging invasive surveillance technologies & old-fashioned curiosity. She's got an iron will & is used to getting her way--he's got an iron-clad past & is used to getting his way.
Complete with betrayals & promises, hate & love & some devious twists & turns, Overfall rushes along as the corruption of power comes to a boil & the passion to do good battles strange sciences, massive computers, mind control & lethal chemicals.
David Dun's descriptions of natural phenomena are always riveting, his people are both mysterious & banal, his research impeccable & his plots, while heavy on the science, are always taut & enticing.
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