Tough Customer: A Novel

Version: Unabridged (Abridged version available here)
Author: Sandra Brown
Narrator: Victor Slezak
Genres: Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: August 2010
Length: 13 hours, 40 minutes
Ratings:
Formats :
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Overview

Colleagues, friends, and lovers know Dodge Hanley as a private investigator who doesn't let rules get in his way—in his private life as well as his professional one. If he breaks a heart, or bends the law in order to catch a criminal, he does so without hesitation or apology.

That's why he's the first person Caroline King—who after a thirty-year separation continues to haunt his dreams—asks for help when a deranged stalker attempts to murder their daughter . . . the daughter Dodge has never met. He has a whole bagful of grudging excuses for wishing to ignore Caroline's call, and one compelling reason to drop everything and fly down to Texas: guilt.

Dodge's mind may be a haze of disturbing memories and bad decisions, but he arrives in Houston knowing with perfect clarity that his daughter, Berry, is in danger. She has become the object of desire of a co-worker, a madman and genius with a penchant for puzzles and games who has spent the past year making Berry's life hell, and who now has vowed to kill her.

Dodge joins forces with local deputy sheriff Ski Nyland, but the alarming situation goes from bad to worse when the stalker begins to claim other victims and leaves an ominous trail of clues as he lethally works his way toward Berry. Sensing the killer drawing nearer, Dodge, who's survived vicious criminals and his own self-destructive impulses, realizes that this time he's in for the fight of his life.

From acclaimed best-selling author Sandra Brown, Tough Customer is a heart-pounding tale about obsession and murder, the fragile nature of relationships, and, possibly, second chances.

Reviews (3)

Meh.

Written by Anonymous on March 7th, 2012

  • Book Rating: 3/5

I found the relationships implausible and behaviors annoying. It was just okay.

Good Read!

Written by Carol from San Diego, CA on November 9th, 2011

  • Book Rating: 5/5

One of the best I've heard in a long time. The twist at the end is excellent!

Tough Customer

Written by Anonymous on August 2nd, 2011

  • Book Rating: 5/5

This was my first Sandra Brown novel. Excellent story and I loved the ending.

Author Details

Author Details

Brown, Sandra

Sandra Brown is the author of fifty-six New York Times bestsellers, including PLAY DIRTY, which was released in August 2007 by Simon & Schuster. Her other recent bestsellers include Ricochet (2006), Chill Factor (2005), White Hot (2004), Hello, Darkness (2003), The Crush (2002), Envy (2001), The Switch (2000), The Alibi (1999), Unspeakable (1998) and Fat Tuesday (1997), all of which have jumped onto the Times bestseller list in the number one to five spot.

Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published seventy novels, most of which remain in print. As of 1990, when Mirror Image made The New York Times bestseller list, each subsequent novel, including reprints of earlier books, have become Times bestsellers. In 1992 her novel French Silk was made into an ABC-TV movie. Brown now has seventy million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-three languages.

A lifelong Texan, Sandra Brown was born in Waco, grew up in Fort Worth and attended Texas Christian University, majoring in English. Before embarking on her writing career, she worked as a model at the Dallas Apparel Mart, and in television, including weathercasting for WFAA-TV in Dallas, and feature reporting on the nationally syndicated program “PM Magazine.” She is much in demand as a speaker and has appeared at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. and the Texas Book Festival in Austin, TX, as well as charity functions throughout the year. Court TV also sought Brown to host the 2007 premier of its popular series “Murder by the Book.”

Awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature, the American Business Women’s Association’s Distinguished Circle of Success, B’nai B’rith’s Distinguished Literary Achievement Award, the A.C. Greene Award and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Sandra has also been named Thriller Master for 2008, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. In addition, Sandra is a member of Author’s Guild, Mystery Writers of America, Novelists, Inc., Literacy Partners, and a founding member of International Thriller Writers.

Sandra and her husband Michael Brown live in Arlington, Texas.