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Standoff |
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S tandoff bySandra Brown Warner Books 217 pages, May 2000 ISBN 0446527017 Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart "This is Tiel McCoy, speaking to you from inside a convenience store in Rojo Flats, Texas, where a drama involving two Fort Worth teenagers has been unfolding for the last several hours. As already reported…" Sandra Brown’s new novel STANDOFF is guaranteed to keep you all night; try as you might, you won’t be able to put this one down until the last page is turned. Previously only available through select book clubs, this dynamite suspense novel is now accessible everywhere. Twenty-eight-year-old Tiel McCoy, ace TV reporter, is finally going to take a vacation. She doesn’t want to, but at the hounding of her news editor Gully, and the chance for a romantic week with her new boyfriend, Joseph Marcus, she capitulates and heads for New Mexico. She has barely left Dallas behind in her rearview mirror when the biggest story of the year is reported on her car radio. Sabra Dendy, daughter of multimillionaire Russell Dendy, has been kidnapped. The FBI, Texas Rangers and anyone with a law enforcement badge is on the lookout for the teenage girl. Gully has already got another reporter - Linda Harper - covering the story, when Tiel calls from a convenience store in an isolated area of New Mexico. Linda is Tiel’s rival and competition for the anchor position on "Nine Live" the newsmagazine the station is starting. Linda interviews Sabra’s friends and learns that Sabra has not been kidnapped. Sabra and her boyfriend, Ronnie Davison, have run away because Sabra’s father, the most powerful man in Texas who has just learned his daughter is eight months pregnant, threatens to have the baby put up for adoption and Ronnie jailed for rape. The young couple is headed to Mexico and to the safety of Ronnie’s father when they decide to rob the convenience store for some much-needed money. Honest by nature, Ronnie and Sabra only want to grab a few dollars. Ronnie makes all the customers and employees lie face down. Before he completes his mission, Sabra’s water breaks, sending her into hard labor. The two have already decided to stay together forever, no matter the cost and they refuse to allow a call for an ambulance. Unable to leave the store, Ronnie takes the entire occupants (Tiel, an elderly couple, two swarthy Mexican men, a local rancher, and the store clerk) hostage, waving his gun around until he can think of his next step. Sabra’s labor turns difficult as she begins to bleed profusely. The local rancher known as "Doc" looks familiar to Tiel, but she dismisses the thought as she thinks of the scoop she is witnessing. Doc examines the young girl only to find that the baby hasn’t turned. Sabra and the baby are both at risk, but Sabra refuses any medical treatment, scared of what her father will do to her baby and to her boyfriend. Sandra Brown follows the first rule of fiction writing (at least in my mind) by dropping the reader right into the middle of the action. The first few paragraphs are written a little awkwardly, but once the reader is past page one, there’s no stopping the action. STANDOFF is a novel of tense scenes that keeps right on building to the climatic standoff between Ronnie, his hostages, and every law enforcement officer within two hundred miles. The ending seemed a little too pat for me - too soft and easy for the tension Brown built throughout the book. There’s nothing wrong with happily-ever-after endings, but I had hoped for something different in this instance. |
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