Deadline

by Clair M. Poulson

Life is quickly turning from bad to worse for newspaper reporter Dallas Dixon. It all begins when Dallas’s job at the El Paso Chronicle is inexplicably terminated by his formerly admiring boss, Andy Norton. However, a bad day turns into a nightmare when, while heading to San Antonio to make a fresh start, Dallas is shocked by the news of Norton’s murder — and even more shocked to hear himself named as a suspect. When an attempt to assist at a highway accident scene lands him in the middle of a drug scandal, he realizes he has powerful enemies determined to see him imprisoned — or dead.

On the run, Dallas must call on the skills he gained from his time in the military to save innocent lives, including his own. With unexpected help from his long-estranged father, and additional assistance from a rugged private investigator and a brilliant, beautiful Chronicle ally, Dallas races to untangle the murder mystery, but can he find justice before his own deadline?

Genres: Lds Fiction, Mystery, Lds, Suspense, Fiction, Adult, Christian Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Clair M. Poulson was born and raised in Duchesne, Utah. His father was a rancher and farmer, his mother a librarian. Clair has always been an avid reader, having found his love for books as a very young boy.

He has served for forty years in the criminal justice system. Twenty years were spent in law enforcement, ending his police career with eight years as the Duchesne County Sheriff. For the past twenty years Clair has worked as a justice court judge for Duchesne County. Clair is also a veteran of the US Army where he was a military policeman. He has served on various boards and councils during his professional career, including the Justice Court Board of Judges, Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Utah Judicial Council, Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, an FBI advisory board and others.

In addition to his criminal justice work, Clair has farmed and ranched all of his life. He has raised many kinds of animals, but his greatest interest is horses.

Clair has served in many capacities in the LDS church, including fulltime missionary (California Mission) bishop, counselor to bishop, young men president, high councilor, stake mission president, scoutmaster, High Priest group leader, etc. He currently serves as a Sunday School teacher.

Clair is married to Ruth, and together, they have five children, all of whom are married: Alan (Vicena) Poulson, Kelly Ann (Wade) Hatch, Amanda (Ben) Semadeni, Wade (Brooke) Poulson, and Mary (Tyler) Hicken. Between them they have twenty-three children. Clair and Ruth met while both were students at Snow College and were married in the Manti temple.

Clair has always loved telling his children, and later his grandchildren, make-up stories. His vast experience in life and his love of literature has always contributed to both his telling stories to children and his writing of adventure and suspense novels.

Reviews

[Dail Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable as are all of his books.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating. I get so annoyed when authors make people do dumb things to help the story go. For example," I know the police are looking for me, but I'm going to go hide and 'figure things out'" What? Figure what out? Several times in this book I felt like yelling the characters. It's like not paying for a doctor's visit and hoping it will just go away. You can't procrastinate the inevitable.
There is some good material here, but I just couldn't take the process that this kid does in his decisions. One must look at this like the law, "Would a regular and rational individual do this?" And the answer is no. He has some real problems, but that's not the background of the character.

[June Guymon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that has a plot with some really surprising twists and turns. At points i didn't want to put it down particularly towards the end. Mainly for LDS readers.

[Heather (Heathur) Smedley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an easy and interesting read, in the best ways. I wouldn't give it a full 5*s because something was missing for me, though I couldn't tell you what... just one of those things. Maybe it's just not something I would typically read, so that's why; I dunno. 3.89*s sounds fair to me.

Anyway, it's a murder mystery, in which the main characters are LDS, & one of which is accused of murder. The fact that they are LDS isn't shoved in your face, for those of you who seeing that might make you hesitant to read this. DON'T let that fact stop you from reading this; all it means, in the case of this book, is that the characters have certain things they do or do not do, and the book doesn't swear at all(that I remember).

Read this book if you need a fast-paced, easy to read murder mystery. Can YOU figure out who-dun-it?

[Patricia English · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this in the car, this was a thrilling read. It kept me entranced the whole way through and really made me care for the characters in the book. I was rooting for them and hoping that x would not find y. Great book on tape.

[Susan Forsgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptional story line, that keeps the reader entertained and wanting more.

[Norah Baron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of his best books but it kept me entertained. It was pretty easy to figure out who committed the murder early on in the book.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good thriller.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this mystery.

[Jessica Fullmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

drug traffic, cars, family, job lose. what more do you need. Loved it!

[Kevin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of story lines going all at once but mot hard to follow. Some exciting action and suspense as well. All in all, a good read.

[Lura Staffanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable…very fast reading. The ebook had some glitches but the story was good

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

another hard attention catching book! Dallas had it all going for him, a promising job as a journalist at the Chronicles in El Paso,TX and a attraction to a fellow journalist, Heather, who happened to share his faith. It all ended 5 months into the job when he was unexpectedly fired for no reason. When his boss then turns up dead, he becomes the main suspect. Then to make matters worse in his attempt to be a good samaritan, he is tied to a semi with cocaine inside, and now the drug mafia is after him along with the police. He tries to hide out, but with all the people out for him, he has many close calls. One close call introduces him to his father, Mason, whom he has never met. He gets a laywer through an old Iraq serving reporter friend and through his investigators help, Sam, the pieces start to fall into place. His boss, Andy had secrets of his own that he was being blackmailed with...the hit and run. The blackmailers also family, had him cover up evidence in stories regarding his nephew, Tito and his assistant editor was just waiting for the opportunity to take over the paper. The framing of Dallas was the right opportunity for all except Dallas and Heather.

[LAWonder10 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dallas was ecstatic when he was hired directly out of Grad School by the El Paso Chronicle as a journalist. He didn't much care for one of his co-workers but Heather was a good journalist and had been very helpful and pleasant. His boss was a great Chief Editor until something went terribly wrong. Dallas had nobody to turn to that he trusted except for Heather and the man who persuaded him years ago to become a journalist - Mike.

This is a fast-paced mystery/suspense story of deceit, blackmail, criminal activity, discovery, trust, integrity, friendship, self-preservation.

The Title did not seem like a good "fit" and the book cover was passable, but the story itself was action=packed and never dragged. It was wonderfully "clean" !

The Characters were very real and easily visualized. The background scenes were descriptive enough they were portrayed to the reader .

My review of this book offers a strong Four Stars rating.

[Judi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad little mystery. My friend loaned it to me and it was purchased in the LDS Bookstore, so there is no smut! Dallas Dixon is a reporter for the El Paso Chronicle and is inexplicably terminated by his boss, Andy Norton. Thats where the nightmare starts. Dallas is accused of murdering Andy, drug trafficking and more...he is on the run and with the help of his "girl", his recently found father, and another reporter, he is trying to prove his innocense. They are all dodging being murdered themselves as they try to find the real killer. Nothing chilling, but interesting enough for a lazy night when nothing is on TV.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like the writing style of Clair M. Poulson - this is the 1st book I have read written by him. He has over 20 years of law enforcement service in UT and uses those past experiences for the topics of his books. It is a murder mystery but what I liked the most is that every time I thought I had it solved he would add another "missing piece" to the puzzle that would change my suspect. I had a pretty good hunch who "dun" it in the last couple of chapters but you were still left with wondering how the main characters were going to survive. This was full of suspense, action packed in so many ways, love story, and the gospel rolled into one story. Look forward to reading the next one.

[Jon Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was put together very nicley. The plot had some really cool twists and turns and kept me turning pages. The thing I liked most about this book was how acurate the author was in explaining spacific details. I also liked the mobsters that are mentioned in the story, they made the book a bit more fun to read. I would recomend this book to some of my friends who are interested in a mobsters and mormons twist.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never liked Clair Poulson and I only read this one because I needed another book in order to get a free one at work. Dallas Dixon is a reporter who gets caught up in a drug smuggling case with the police and is accused of murdering his boss. On the run and with the help of a beautiful fellow reporter, Dixon must clear his name and bring the bad guys down. Yada-yada-yada.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Clair Poulson, and have read pretty much all of his adult fiction. This is my favorite book of his! It was very engaging, suspenseful, and believable. I usually enjoy taking my time with a book, but this one kept me up several hours later than usual because I couldn't put it down until I was done!!!

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly taut (if a little overly simple) journalism thriller. The Audio version makes for good road trip listening. The characters are well developed and aren't forced by the author to stray too far out of their character for plot convenience. In the end, if you like mediocre Mormon fiction, this one outshines the majority.

[Ryviera Shayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another page turner of Clair's. There has only been one book he has written that I didn't care for. Everything else has been fabulous. This also falls into that category. He insight into people and situations always carries through and makes his books fun, captivating, entertaining reads. This is definitely one I would suggest. Go on! Go get it now!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book is that throughout the whole book I thought Clair M. Poulson was a woman, then I finish the book and see this old man bishop type. HA!

Otherwise it was a quick entertaining read, not highly unpredictable, but felt like watching a murder mystery show on TV but with them praying :-)

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

so much better than his last one!
dallas dixon has just been fired from his job as a journalist, and to make matters worse, his boss was been found murdered outside of his home that same day. dallas had motive, and soon realizes that he has become the number one suspect.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really would give this book 3.5 stars if I could. It was a good read, exciting. All's well that ends well. :) I once thought, way back when, that I would like to be a reporter. I'm glad I didn't go that route after reading this book! Who knew it could be so dangerous.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books that you just can't put down. It never got boring and it kept me guessing as to how this guy was going to get away from the people who wanted to kill him. I kept thinking that I knew who was in charge, but I kept getting it wrong. Very exciting.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book. It was very hard to stop reading the book so that I could go to sleep. There were a lot of twists in this book. My daughter is reading it now. Clair Poulson is a very good author.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poulson has written another satisfying suspense novel in Deadline. His background in law enforcement lends to realistic episodes throughout the novel and I was kept guessing as to whodunit. The motive for murder was a bit thin for me, so that's why I rated it 4 stars.

[Alyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had enough mystery and adventure to keep me guessing and to keep my interest. I really liked it. That said, I was disappointed with the romance- there just wasn't enough detail, and I felt the conclusion was a little weak. Still enjoyable.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

O.K., 3 stars is rather generous. It is not well-written, the characters are quite stereotypical, and the romance was cheesy. But the plot--despite several holes--kept me going. And because it is LDS fiction, of course it is clean.