| Plot Summary of Paloma |
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" Paloma Dove is a woman with three identities. Due to circumstances in her past, she lives a quiet, nefarious life in lower Manhattan. When the book opens, Paloma is at La Guardia airport fleeing from an assassin. In the previous twenty-four hours she had been shot at and her apartment firebombed. She considers surrender but the thought of her daughter, Maddie Abbott, a child she had to abandon, keeps Paloma's hope and desire to live paramount.
Retired FBI agent Max Laurent, a man who had known and loved a woman named Agnes Lopez, reads about a burned-out apartment in the New York Times and rushes to New York City. There he learns Agnes, now called Paloma, is running for her life. Feeling responsible for the twists Agnes's life has taken, he pursues her, ostensibly to help.
Paloma, homeless with no money or identification, reverts to several cons and flees for safety to Buffalo where she also must come to terms with her past. There, twenty-five years earlier, her life as Agnes Lopez had ended after she had testified in a police brutality case and was placed in the witness protection program subsequently becoming, Nancy Abbott. Before Paloma can discover who and why someone wants her dead, Max Laurent, a man she had loved, but learned to hate, reenters her life.
Joining forces, yet estranged from past emotional bruises, Max and Paloma gather clues and ask the critical question – which of three identities, Agnes Lopez (witness in a police brutality case), Nancy Abbott (Maddie's ‘deceased' mother), or Paloma Dove (world-class forgerer) is the assassin after? "
, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Paloma |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 30%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 50%
Special suspect?
- lover
Murder of certain profession?
- "All in the family" murder
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- local police w/ IQ of a houseplant
- Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator
- amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards lover
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story?
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- thief/con artist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How much violence does he/she use?
- just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race
- Hispanic
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- champion of justice
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a substantial amount
Motive of antagonist
- jealousy
The antagonists are:
- government bureaucracy
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
City?
Yes
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 3-4
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
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