The author has co-authored six books with James Patterson (Judge and Jury, Jester, etc), and he has some of his own novels. He’s probably best known for “Eyes Wide Open.” Benjamin Raab was a gold trader who had a most lucrative business that allowed him and his family to live elite lives. He seemed to be a dedicated family man, until his life fell apart. Suddenly, the FBI confiscated the contents of his office and charged him with money laundering for a Columbian drug cartel. His family which included a devoted wife, two daughters, and a son, were dumbfounded. They knew the head of their household as nothing other than an upstanding, honest, and dedicated man. But, all was not as it seemed. At first, Raab was going to fight the charges, but then he caved in and made a plea bargain. In exchange for admitting his own wrong doing and testifying against the cartel’s leaders, he and his family were put in the federal witness protection program. They even got to keep enough of the family assets to continue to live a lifestyle not much different than what they had before. But, uprooting a family is not easy for teenagers. The oldest daughter, an academic star who was living with her med school boyfriend in NY City, refused to go along. That meant she and the family, whose identify was being changed, could no longer see each other. But, outside the witness protection program, she was easily found and targeted by the cartel which was not about to let Raab go unpunished, even if they could not find and kill him. Besides, the witness protection program had been penetrated, and the agent who was in charge of Raab was brutally murdered, obviously to extract information. There were lots of twists and turns in this plot, which is normally a good thing, but in this book, perhaps there were a bit too many serpentine plot changes. It was a fast read and the characters were believable, even if the dialogue got a bit trite and ridiculous at times. I’ll probably give Gross another chance.
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