DAMAGE CONTROL

review by

Tina Gasperson

DAMAGE CONTROL

by Robert Dugoni

(Warner Books)

Reader Appeal: Adults

Genre: Fiction / Suspense

Reading Damage Control is sort of like watching a season of 24: you're having so much fun you sometimes forget to stop and wonder how any human being could survive so much drama in such a short time period. In Robert Dugoni's murder mystery/thriller, protagonist Dana Hill gets hit with a breast cancer diagnosis, loses her twin brother (who is bludgeoned to death by a burglar), and finds out her husband is cheating on her, all in the space of seven days.

The plot is like strands of a rope that eventually twist together as one, but Dugoni writes good, clean, easy-to-read prose and doesn't over complicate the read with too much character development. For some stories, that's a bad thing, but in this case it just makes the reading more fun.

In the opening pages of this book, aging doctor Frank Pilgrim is murdered by an unknown assailant while working late at the office, and Hill gets the bad news: cancer. From there, every chapter keeps twisting the rope tighter, first one strand, then another. Little clues sprinkled here and there, are virtually undetectable until you know the rest of the story – this is artful foreshadowing.

Although this is not categorized as a religious thriller, Dugoni still allows his heroine to ponder her disease, the death of her beloved brother, and the mortality of humanity. Hill hints at a faith in God, but wonders if she can go to Him with her troubles, since they haven't spoken in so long. In her desperation, she prays, "I could use some help down here." And perhaps in this story, God decided to honor that hint of faith, as events come to a thrilling conclusion, the real motives of the killer are exposed, and Hill is surprised with what she could only call a "miracle."

Even so, Damage Control is an adult story, with some sexual themes, adultery, language, and plenty of blood. But for the mature reader, it's also an entertaining thrill ride into Dugoni's clever imagination.

FAMILYFANS RATING: B