Jericho's Fall

by Stephen L. Carter

Book Overview

A riveting spy thriller, Jericho's Fall is the spellbinding story of a young woman running for her life from shadowy government forces. In a secluded mountain retreat, Jericho Ainsley, former CIA... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307272621
• ISBN13: 9780307272621
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Denzel Washington should star in this Movie!

Our only complaint about Stephen L. Carter is that he does not turn out new books fast enough. We read The Emperor of Ocean Park in one sitting, same thing with New England White and Palace Council. All that Carter needs is Denzel Washington to star in the movie of one of his novels and things will be perfect. Carter uses his knowledge of politics and government to keep us on the edge of our seat in Jericho's Fall.

Stephen Carter is the best!

I have and adore his other books and was so excited to see this one in the Vine product issue - yet another contemporary classic from this outstanding writer; his writing is so mesmerizing and the story is a gripping read! I hope he continues to write a blockbuster every summer - catch up on his others if you haven't read them to tide you over if waiting for the next one as impatiently as I am!

An intelligent read!

This author writes intelligently... and that's the only reason I read his books! I don't usually read fiction, but I find his books hard to put down because of the sheer genius this gifted author has for words, phrases and interesting story lines! I am in awe of his intelligence! As to Jericho's Fall, I realize there has been a lot of negative reviews, but honestly, it's a good summer read... or a good book to curl up with in front of the fire in the dead of winter. I happen to like the way the story unfolds, I like the characters, and I especially like the way it's written. This is no cookie-cutter author... Carter is gifted beyond belief and I sincerely hope he writes more and more and more! Give it a try... I think you'll feel the same way I do. Congratulations to Mr. Carter on a job well done! I eagerly await his next book!

Hitchcock visits Twin Peaks

I found this psychological and atmospheric thriller absolutely page-turning as author Stephen Carter seemed to be channeling suspense master Alfred Hitchcock. The plot, which revolves around government secrets, illegal business deals, and mysterious CIA agents, is ultimately less important than the pitch-perfect atmosphere with its intoxicating blend of fear, paranoia, and suspense that keeps the protagonist and the audience guessing until the final chapter. Rarely have I encountered a novel so unpredictable that I wonder for a while whether there's any real dark government threat at all and whether the "plot" might just be a figment in the heroine's imagination. The setting helps the author achieve this rich atmosphere. His creation of a foggy little town in the Colorado mountains with its handful of quirky residents who seem to know more than they are saying is straight out of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, without ever feeling like a rip-off. Instead, it adds to the Hitchcockian suspense for an almost perfect thriller. And while the author might wrap things up a little roughly at the end, the energy level remains in place with the slight possibility of a sequel. But this novel is truly at its best in the dead center when no one is quite who they appear to be, there are shadows in between the swaying trees, and the heroine's problematic cell phone actually seems like a threat in the night. Absolutely recommended.

The Sharpest Manifestation of Carter's Talent to Date

JERICHO'S FALL by Stephen L. Carter is one of those rare novels best described as a page-turner that, in its telling, demands to be read and savored slowly. Carter writes books that are most easily classified as political thrillers yet cross fiction genres with brilliant impunity. His latest, if one insists on a classification, is more concerned with espionage --- that most political of activities --- but as with his other, stellar work, Carter incorporates elements normally associated with other genres, all the while telling its story in a voice that is irresistible from first page to last. As the novel begins, three women with hidden agendas and visible cross-animosities have gathered at a magnificent house in the Colorado mountains as Jericho Ainsley lives his final weeks. Jericho is most famously the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency; his guests are Rebecca DeForde and his two daughters, Audrey and Pamela. Audrey, an Episcopal nun, has an interesting background that is slowly revealed. Pamela is involved in filmmaking, a driven individual who makes no secret of her animosity and hostility toward Beck. It is Beck who is the most significant figure of the three of them. Jericho and Beck had been involved in a passionate and ultimately destructive affair some 13 years prior when Beck was 19 and a sophomore at Princeton. After leaving the CIA, Jericho had joined a private equity firm and then retired to take a position on the Princeton faculty. His presence as a professor brought the nattering naybobs out in droves, none more so than a bile-spitting student demonstrator named Lewiston Clark. The affair and resultant scandal when Jericho left his wife for Beck brought both parties down. Forgotten but not gone, Jericho retreated to Stone Heights, the mountain retreat in Colorado he purchased with the intent that he and Beck would live out their days. Beck left school, entered into a short but disastrous marriage, and has been supporting her young but precocious daughter by working for a department store chain in a job that Jericho dismissively describes as a "glorified cashier." As JERICHO'S FALL begins, Jericho, suffering from terminal cancer, has requested that Beck come to him, ostensibly so that they might bid each other farewell. And come she does --- even as a mysterious black helicopter buzzes Stone Heights, even as representatives of the chattering classes seek interviews, even as Clark, now a journalist, wants deceptive access to Jericho, ostensibly to write the great man's biography with bad intent but with an even darker purpose. The only person absent from the tableau is Sean, Jericho's estranged son, with whom Beck has established an odd if real friendship. Of greatest concern, however, are the people from Jericho's past life who hover just within the shadows. Jericho, either paranoid or supremely aware, feared nothing more or less than assassination. He had taken steps to ensure that, in the event of his demise, the se