The Day After Tomorrow - Allan Folsom

While cruising other people's book review pages on the Web, I found a review for this that intrigued me. So I popped over to the local library page and reserved the book on line. When the library notified me it was in and I picked it up, I had forgotten about it or the contents. I knew that someone somewhere had recommended it.

I picked up this thriller a couple days later and started reading; I was sucked in immediately. Paul Osborn is an orthopaedic doctor from California who had been in Geneva presenting a paper at an orthopaedic world convention. There he met Vera. After the convention, he followed her to her home in Paris.

The book opens with him sitting in a Parisian cafe when he spies a face he had not seen in almost 30 years. It is the face of the man who had killed his father when he was 10 years old. Immediately all his old feelings returned and he attacked the man. The waiters jump Osborn and the man gets away.

Detective Paddy McVey was known worldwide as being the best in his field. That is why, when seven headless bodies showed up across Europe, Interpol had him brought to England and France to investigate the bizarre murders. Each one of the bodies had the heads surgically removed very precisely by a medical expert.

Before returning to France, Osborn and Vera had spent a brief weekend in London. Osborn was then arrested for assault in Paris in the restaurant incident. McVey questions him. There is a possible connection between Osborn and some evidence in London (a bodyless head). McVey knows Osborn is hiding something.

Osborn decides to locate the man who killed his father and kill him. Osborn hires a private detective who is able to locate Karanak. So Osborn formulates his plan. What he doesn't realize is that Karanak is a professional. He is up against more than he realizes.

This barely introduces the book. This is a thriller of international intrigue and worldwide takeover. The characters are well defined. Clues are thrown out, but so are many misdirections. Innocent people die because they are in the wrong place. Others get pulled into the intrigue without being aware of what is happening. It's a page turner. Usually when I rate a book this high (A) I usually plan to read it again. I don't think I can this one. It will stay with me a long time.