The Day After Tomorrow

Starred review from April 4, 1994
Touted as a blockbuster, this assured debut thriller delivers in full--and then some. A young American doctor haunted by his father's murder stumbles into a chilling international conspiracy and crosses paths with, among others, a weary L.A. cop investigating a series of surgically precise decapitations, a naive physical therapist and a hypercompetent German assassin. Dr. Paul Osborn, visiting Paris, recognizes the man whom he witnessed stab his father on a Boston street in 1966. Determined to learn the reason for his father's unsolved death and take revenge, Osborn hatches a plan that unexpectedly leads to the gruesome execution of a hired PI and to other killings. Clearly some serious powers are involved. Soon Osborn, aided by Vera Monneray, a Paris medical student, is hiding out from Paris police, Interpol and the L.A. cop who has been summoned to Paris. Meanwhile, Joanna Marsh accompanies Elton Lybarger, a Swiss national whom she has helped recover from a stroke in a posh New Mexico sanatorium, back to Zurich, where he is greeted rapturously by high-ranking German business leaders. As an extensive Nazi resurgence plot emerges, Folsom adds extra flashes--Joanna in a drug-induced sex marathon, a massive train wreck, Vera's other affair with a very important French leader--to heighten the suspense on these rapidly turning pages. A huge explosion in secret chambers under the streets of Berlin sends Osborn on a final chase through Europe and up into the Alps, where the high-tech hopes of an earlier generation are finally exposed. This is a one-sitting novel and readers will have to choose: a full, sun-burning day at the beach or, for those who can't wait, a springtime all-nighter. 300,000 first printing; BOMC selection; movie rights to MGM and the Zanuck Co.

December 1, 1993
Having received the largest advance to date for a first novel, this epic thriller--which boasts three interlocking tales--is sure to get plenty of attention. No plot details are available--the publisher doesn't want to give anything away--but it's like "the early, great Ludlum," enthuses the publicist.

Copyright 1993 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 1995
YA-Paul Osborn, an orthopedic surgeon from Los Angeles, looks up from his table in a Paris cafe and sees the face of the man who murdered his father 30 years earlier. At the same time as he is pursuing the killer, the London police have a series of decaptitated corpses on their hands; Osborn falls in love with the French Prime Minister's mistress; and a German industrialist is recuperating from a stroke in a private sanatorium in Arizona. All of these disparate elements come together nicely in the end. YAs who enjoy a sprawling plot involving Nazis, chases across Europe, and lots of unexpected twists and turns will love this fast-paced thriller.-Susan B. McFaden, Fairfax County Public Library, Fairfax, VA

March 15, 1994
In this ambitious and impressive first novel, Folsom covers vast amounts of territory at breakneck speed. In Paris, an American stalks his father's murderer. In Great Britain, detectives are puzzled by a series of headless corpses that have been frozen to absolute zero. In New Mexico, a recovering stroke victim prepares to return home to Switzerland. In Berlin, a powerful, secret organization with operatives in all corners of the world shows a penchant for killing at the slightest provocation. To this, Folsom adds romance, travelog, and even elements from that old matinee thriller, They Saved Hitler's Brain! (oops, does that give it away?). That Folsom manages to instill some genuine tension amidst all this is testimony to his skill. For popular collections.-- Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Lib., Hammond, Ind.