Upside Down: A Novel

I read this book before reading his other book with the same main character, Inside Out, and I think that was a big mistake. This book reads very much like a sequel, with allusions to the previous story and characters already limping from bullet wounds suffered before the start of the action. Winter Massey is a U.S. Marshal, someone who protects witnesses from killers of various sorts. He's apparently already been involved in a very bloody violent case that left him and his best friend, Hank, wounded, and they both are trying to take a break by going on vacation in New Orleans (pre-Katrina). In the middle of their preparations to go, a young female attorney, a relative of Hank's is killed in New Orleans. Seems she represented clients on Death Row, handling appeals for them, and she and a woman she met were killed by killers unknown. The crime was witnessed by her daughter, a 12-year-old with an instinct for survival. The kid runs with important documentation that could blow the lid off a major corruption scandal in the city, even the state, and with her mom's killers on her trail. Once he finds out what's going on, Winter must of course intervene, and stop the killers before they find her. There are several plot twists in this book, and I'll confess that a few of them left me more than a bit confused. The author moves with ease between various points of view, and frankly that can be confusing also. Other than those two complaints, though, this is a good book and I would recommend it.

Good action read. But do we really need more secret organization stuff? Strange to read about New Orleans while Katrina's winds howl.

In New Orleans, attorney Kimberly Porter specializes in death row cases because she doesn't believe in capital punishment. She is at her office with her daughter Faith Ann waiting for Amber Lee to arrive with evidence that will exonerate Horace Ford who will soon be executed. Amber shows up with photographs and negatives and they tape her story that crime lord and businessman Jerry Bennett faked evidence that would implicate Horace. Hit man Aturo Estrada, hired by Bennett, kills Kimberly and Amber, and takes the photographs. He doesn't know that Kimberly made duplicates that twelve years old Faith Ann has along with the tape and negative she hopes to give to her uncle Mark, a former U.S. marshal because she knows Bennett has the police in his pocket. Mark and his wife are run over, putting Millie in the morgue and him in the hospital. Captain Suggs, indebted to Bennett, makes it look like Faith Ann killed the two women. Faith dodges the hit man and corrupt police while trying to get the evidence into the proper authorities before anyone else is hurt. U.S. marshal Winter Massey Arrives in New Orleans to finf Faith Ann and brink Millie's killer to justice. Winter Massey returns for another hair-raising adventure in UPSIDE DOWN but the real heroine of this book is Faith Ann, a child who plays cat and mouse with police officers and killers while running for her life. She is still concerned about Horace and finding a way to get the evidence into the right hands. If people were like her the world would be a much better place. John Ramsey Miller does a brilliant job of showing that youngsters given a chance can be responsible caring people. Readers who like action in their thrillers will love this book. Harriet Klausner