Rating:  Summary: GOOD LUCK PUTTING THIS ONE DOWN!! Review: Gideon is THE Book of the year (until The Devil's Teardrop comes out) !!! Gideon is the most inventive and original thriller I've read in a while. Its written by two men, Peter Gethers and David Handler under the pseudonym Russell Andrews and I can not wait until "Mr. Andrews" writes a new book. Please hurry. I'm waiting.
Rating:  Summary: Amazing! Review: This book is really a page turner. You'll be on the edge of your seat the entire time. It really was amazing and exciting.
Rating:  Summary: Great Summer Read! Review: I enjoyed this page turning thriller. This book is full of suspense that keeps you guessing. Watch out, the identity of the Closer will surprise you!
Rating:  Summary: Fast, furious and keeps you guessing! Review: I was lucky enough to pick up an uncorrected proof copy at the London International Book Fair and once I started reading it I just couldn't put it down! As a lover of msyteries and thrillers I pride myself on working out the plot by the 50th page, but this has so many twists, turns and unanswered questions that I just wanted more! I trust that the authors have sold the film rights, because this, I am certain, would be a box-office smash. I hope that there is more to come from the 'joint' pens of Russell Andrews and will continue to recommend it to all my friends.
Rating:  Summary: ...and then there were none Review: If you don't know the meaning of "body count", you will find out rather soon when reading this gripping, fast, interesting, well written book.The story is about a ghost writer who obviously knows too much about a person playing an important role in the society, although he doesn't know his name. Soon, writer Carl is suspected to be the murderer of his editor and his neighbor. On the run, he takes refuge with his ex-girlfriend Amanda. After two more dead bodies they are forced to find the truth about the story Carl was writing. But obviously a killer follows them closely (is that the reason why this guy is called "Closer?"). Finally, they find out what happened in the life of this important person (with some more dead bodies being piled up around them) and return to confront the responsible people with their knowledge. Knowledge is power, and that is known also by a multi-billion media tycoon who plays an important role in the book. The page-turning style and high speed of this novel keeps you going from the start until the end. This of course makes it possible for you to forget the usual questions which come up when it comes to thrillers: Why don't killers simply shoot their targets but usually try to talk to them or make some "show" (bombs, unusual dresses,...)? The true story about the "popular person" can surely kill a political career, but is it the reason to commit suicide? Why are fired former policemen always fat and sweating? Especially, the murder of the two women at the very beginning is even after the end of the book not fully understandable. But - excluding the body count which is comparable to typical James Bond movies - the story was really fun to read. The author won't get the Nobel Prize for that, but you can have some entertaining hours with this novel.
Rating:  Summary: Not to read if you want to sleep... Review: This book kept me not only awake but thinking about the story when I wasn't actually reading it. I'd find myself working on my laptop and my mind drifting toward the story and hungry to get back to it as soon as I possibly could. Definitely could not put this one down! I'm looking forward to reading more of what this team has put together already.
Rating:  Summary: Power House Thriller...!!! Review: I picked up this book at a used book store. Only its not the book that was out after they printed it. This book is an unrevised proof, and not the real thing. I found some cute mistakes and misspelled words and loved it!! Great book to add to a collection, boy was I lucky. Great action packed thriller, sorry, you DO have to READ this for YOUR self!!
Rating:  Summary: AWESOME BOOK Review: This is the kind of book a good thriller fan devours. "Gideon" is one of the most suspenseful, intricate, and chilling novels I've read in a long time. Without going into a rehash of the plotline, suffice to say Russell Andrews has woven a tale of deception, intrigue, murder, betrayal, you name it..it's in there! The novel opens with a mysterious suicide, and then goes on in so many different directions, your head spins. But it's done so well, you can't help but get involved. The characterizations, I think, rather than being cliche, are wonderfully original. Take the hero, Carl Granville...he's so desperate he gets into something he knows very little about. But once he gets fully involved, he takes the bull by the horns and as any good hero would do, he sticks it out and comes out just fine in the end. Momma One Eye is beautifully drawn. Although she's not in the novel a lot, her presence is so essential, you can almost hear her chanting her psalms. Then we have Harry Wagner, a very different villain...cold-hearted of course and irreprehensible, but there's a softness in him that makes you like him, just a little. And then, of course, there's President Tom Adamson and his wife, Elizabeth. Now here we have a different take on the president and his wife. Tom Bickford, the vice president, stricken with Bell's palsy; Amanda Ways, Carl's ex-girlfriend who finds herself getting involved; Toni, the would-be actress who lights up Carl's life briefly; The Closer, a cold-hearted villain that you can't find ANY good in; Father Patrick Jennings, a priest who hears a horrifying confession; Nora Adamson, the president's mother, whose one scene is riveting; on and on, throughout, this novel cooks, and has some real shockers in it, too. Wow, this book blew me away. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating:  Summary: Great Premise that Fizzles Review: Carl Granville is a talented young writer, living in NY, struggling to get his first book published. When his agent dies, he surprisingly is approached by any writer's dream agent who has an interesting propostion for him. He will be given someone's secret diary and he will fictionalize it within 3 weeks. A guard will accompany the installments of the original manuscript to ensure that Carl does not copy it and at the same time, deliver the finished fictionization to the agent. For doing this, Carl receives $50k up front, $50K when he finishes and the guarantee that his first book be published and seriously marketed. Carl readily accepts, burning the midnight oil to fulfill his end of the deal, but when his new agent and a female neighbor mysteriously end up dead, Carl finds himself out on a limb from which he cannot possibly survive, as he is thought to be and labeled by the media a serious killer on a mission.
Sound fascinating?
It is----but sadly, once the actual diary is read and transformed into Carl's manuscript, the killings are executed and Carl has no where to run, the book just loses steam fast. Suddenly the interesting premise transmogrifies into formula--Carl's ex-girlfriend (conveniently a Wash. Post journalist) becomes involved and the reader follows the actions of a ring of outsiders whose histories eventually tie together to lead to the plot's denouement. Problem is, it is just too formula to be fresh and lead to disappointment even when reading the book's most startling revelations. I picked this book up after reading this writing teams' latest offering, "Icarus". Although, I found "Icarus" to be a moderate-to--superior suspense type yarn, I expected Gideon to be better based on its reviews. I was disappointed.
Rating:  Summary: Gripping but.... Review: I just finished this book after having picked it up on a sale table. I have to admit that I had been intrigued by it since it came out and had wanted to read it, but never got around to paying full price. It is a gripping work, well written and tightly paced. The book is at its best while set in NYC, but when it moves out from there it begins to unravel. For one thing, the geography is off and, sorry, but I find this inexcusable. A quick consultation with Rand McNally would have kept this from occurring. For another, the author(s) push the abilities of the principal antagonists too far for credibility. Both the evil doers and their primary cat's paw are given just a bit too much power. A little more care in these areas and the book could have been stunning to the end. Alas, it is a good work and fun to read, but the book breaks the reader's willing suspension of disbelief and, in the end, does not live up to its potential. I still look forward to reading their next work.
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