Amnesia victim Carol Golden has to help find a boyfriend she doesn't remember who is trying to cause the "downfall of the Western World."
In the third Carol Golden novel, Carol is abducted from Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she lives with her grandmother and is thrown into an adventure that will take her to all seven continents. It involves a former boyfriend she doesn’t remember (because of her amnesia), who is trying to bring about the “downfall of the Western World” according to people in power. While Carol is hunting for the bad guys she has to sort out the truth and figure out who they really are. But she isn’t prepared for the shocking answer.
Professional Reviews
Gloria Feit
Within the first few pages of this third in the Carol Golden novels, we are swept immediately into the world of terror into which the protagonist finds herself, as she is kidnapped and flown partway across the world from her hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The reasons behind her kidnapping are unfathomable to her, other than the thought that it could be related to the wealth she had come into from her parents' estate. Her captors appear to be a could-be model and a sexual harasser.
This is hardly the first time Carol (whose real name, Cynthia Sakai, she had only recently discovered) had survived an attempt on her life. She had had most of her memory destroyed after being attacked and left, unconscious, in a dumpster nearly a year ago. Still recovering from amnesia, she has only recovered bits and pieces of the first twenty-five years of her life before the attack. Her captors release her soon after they all arrive in London, when she becomes involved in their mission to track down a man with whom she was in a relationship when she was in college, in fact a professor who was even then considered a radical. She is told that he is trying to bring about the "downfall of the Western World," which would seem to be hyperbole until they explain that his weapons are financial as opposed to militaristic and involve various complex financial manipulations which would affect the world banking system, all too real and sounding very close to exactly what the U.S. (among other countries) is and has been going through in recent years..
To say the plot is international in scope would be a vast understatement, taking our protagonist as it does from England to Switzerland, Egypt, Tahiti, New Zealand and on and on, covering all seven continents. (The brief descriptions of the world capitals and their most famous sites are beautifully done, I might add.) There is quite a bit of action and suspense here, and the plot doesn't sound like a recipe that would lend itself to humor, but don't let that fool you (although it is rather sly). If this work of fiction causes its readers some unease, that may have been at least part of the author's intention. Be that as it may, it is a page-turner, and definitely recommended.
Parenthetically, the title derives from an old Chinese proverb: "A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind."
Betty Gelean
Alan Cook often combines a bona-fide murder mystery and adventure story with reality...a well documented and thought out presentation of deceit and revelation of conspiracy. This book is no different, in fact as it delves into international financial institutions and governmental bailouts, I would say he has done a great deal of research on the subject.
This is the 3rd book in the series. If you have not been following the adventures of Carol Golden, she is still trying to recover memories she has forgotten having suffered amnesia. Now, after a quick "abduction" while buying chocolates for her grandmother, she finds herself again facing the man who helped her regain what memories she has. Now she is about to go undercover with these two agents (her abductors and now team-mates) to locate, and possibly kill, a man she has been told was her lover in college. A man she has no recollection of. A worldwide seven-continent chase ensues, making this one of the most interesting chase books I've read.
Her former mentor has said that the man they are looking for is trying to bring down the Western World; she has been told this man is financially ruining the countries by security transactions causing banks to lose billions and possibly causing banks to fail. Cook's books usually contain the use of logic and/or mathematics puzzles and games, as played out by Carol in solving mysteries and personally, I enjoy these. In this case she is able to break an important code. But all is not as it seems. Is she on the right side or the wrong side? Has she been duped? I really enjoyed this book with its suspense, characters, some humor and most of all its glimpse of the world.
Michael P. Hartnett
In Dangerous Wind by Alan Cook, investigator Carol Golden is kidnapped and ends up on a whirlwind journey that takes her across the seven continents and into some prickly, yet highly entertaining, predicaments. Carol, who also goes by the names Cynthia and Iako, has quite the checkered past, further complicated by amnesia, a fierce independence and a low tolerance for nonsense. While she is a beauty, the heroine’s street sense and intelligence are what really distinguish her as a character. By the way, the code-breaking scenes are terrific. Carol is thrown into many bewildering situations where she has to make judgments on old lovers, newly encountered spies, and even assassins. Those supporting characters are well drawn – many given surprisingly sympathetic and nuanced portrayals – and Cook masterfully shifts perspectives from Carol’s first person narrative to the third person interludes that not only propel the action forward, but builds suspense.
Simply put, Dangerous Wind is a tremendously enjoyable read. One of the great pleasures of this novel is the wonderful globetrotting, described in loving detail. The list of locales has numerous Grand Tour destinations and include many surprises (as I read, I kept a running tally, but felt I would be spoiling some of the fun by revealing). What is so impressive about all of these plot movements is that they seem to be orchestrated not by Cook but by the charismatic, yet morally ambiguous, antihero of the novel, Eric Nordahl. The layers of relationships give the novel gravity even as it drives toward a rousing and satisfying climax. The ancillary commentaries about financial institutions and governmental controls ground the novel. Dangerous Wind is a smart, entertaining read, and it receives my highest recommendation.
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