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Rating: 
Summary: Review by darren
Review: Don't expect "Black Hawk Down"--this is a story about bad choices and bad results. Bowden tells his story with skill and pace, romanticizing the premise without romaticizing his central character, the man who is doomed the moment he finds his treasure...two bags filled with over $1 million in unmarked bills. Bowden's honesty kept this from veering into the hype of similarly themed books (has anyone read the book that Catch Me If You Can was based upon?). The book is slim, but held my attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a lot of substance to this book
Review: I bought this book after reading a complimentary review online. Unfortunately, this book proved to be a very bland, unentertaining read about an unintelligent, vanilla main character who doesn't even give himself a chance to keep the money that he found.Nothing spectacular really happens in the book; in fact, this probably would have been a better feature article for a second-tier major newspaper. I found the characters very difficult to follow, much less get interested in. I do not recommend this book at all.
Rating:
Summary: Not a lot of substance to this book
Review: I bought this book after reading a complimentary review online. Unfortunately, this book proved to be a very bland, unentertaining read about an unintelligent, vanilla main character who doesn't even give himself a chance to keep the money that he found. Nothing spectacular really happens in the book; in fact, this probably would have been a better feature article for a second-tier major newspaper. I found the characters very difficult to follow, much less get interested in. I do not recommend this book at all.
Rating:
Summary: Breezy book with an edge
Review: I received this as a Christmas present, and what a neat present it was!
I started reading this obviously fictional book about this unemployed meth addict Philadelphian dockworker named Joey who finds $1.2 million in unmarked unsequential $100 bills laying on the street -- a $1.2 million which literally fell off the back of the truck. He immediately enters into all these improbable and zany adventures, capped by an arrest at the airport as he's getting ready to fly to Acapulco! During his trial, his attorney opts for a temporary insanity defense, which the jury buys because the guy's buddies testify he "went bananas" for a week when he found the money.
Yet this comedy has an edge to it -- the tragedy of "men who were raised to go to work out on the docks like their fathers and uncles and older brothers, only there's no work for them on the docks anymore, and there's nothing else they know how to do.... It's a story about addiction, about the belief that there is a shortcut to true happiness."
When I got to the Epilogue, I was quite surprised to find that this obviously fictional story was true! The author tells what happened after the trial, and how Joey's story was literally Disneyfied -- and how his good fortune turned out to be his tragic ruin.
The typeface used is a bit distracting since there is no "1" -- and unlike ancient typewriters, instead of the small "L," the capital "I" is used: thus $100 is $I00 and 314 Dunfor Street is 3I4 Dunfor Street.
This is a great book because it encompasses universal themes -- Joey is a Greek tragic figure whose internal flaws, despite his good fortune, emerge to undo him. Many of us, likewise, have envisioned what we would do if sudden riches came upon us.
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT WOULD YOU DO ?
Review: THE TITLE ALONE ON THIS BOOK GOT MY ATTENTION AND AFTER READING THE DESCRIPTION. THIS STARTS OUT WITH OUR MAIN CHARACTER WHO IS AN UNEMPLOYED LONGSHOREMAN WHO HAS A METH ADDICTION THAT HE HAS TO FIND WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF. JOEY HOOKS UP WIT A COUPLE OF NEGIHBORHOOD FRIENDS HE CONVINCES TO GIVE HIM A RIDE TO SCOE SOME DOPE. ALONG THE WAY THEY DRIVE UPON A YELLOW CART THAT JOEY FIGURES MIGHT MAKE A GOOD TOOL BOX. HE ENDS UP FINDING TWO BAGS MARKED FEDERAL RESERVE THAT END UP CONTAINING OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS AND SOTHE ADVENTURE REALLY BRGINS.IN THE START I FELT SORRY FOR THE GUY BUT AS TIME GOES ON AND AS HE CANNOT KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT YOU GOT TO BELIEVE THAT SOME PEOPLE JUST DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE MONEY. YOU GOT TO WONDER WHAT WOULD YO DO? THIS IS FROM THE SAME AUTHOR WHO WROTE BLACK HAWK DOWN.
Rating:
Summary: A BRISK, NEAT LITTLE STORY
Review: This a true story about one of those weird occurences in life that everyone hopes for in the back of their minds: A million dollars falls out of an armored car and some lucky stiff find it, grabs it, and takes it home. Unmarked bills! Untraceable bills! You could hide it for a long while, couldn't you? You could find a way to bank it, spend it, whatever, without anyone else knowing a thing, couldn't you? And, of course, you could give it back. Well, that's you. The drug addicted fool who actually found the money did none of these things. He created a bizarre whirwind of motion, but, in the end, he lost it all.
Mark Bowden tells this story fast and he tells it very well. You can rip through it in a night or two. It will be time well used.
Rating:
Summary: A BRISK, NEAT LITTLE STORY
Review: This is a true story about something that lurks in everyone's daydreams: What if I found a million dollars? What would I do with it? The man in this book DID find a million, in untraceable bills.
What would you do with that kind of money? Hide it for a long, long while, then carefully spend it? Find a way to sneak it into various bank accounts? Give it back to the armored car company that lost it? You would do something with it, right? Well, that's you. The fool who found it in real life created a whirlwind of motion, plotting, and bragging that resulted in virtually nothing. Yeah, he lost the money.
Mark Bowden tells this story fast and he tells it very well. You can rip through it in a night or two. It will be time well spent.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story - Very Well Told
Review: This story could have been handled in so many ways - as an amusing Donald Westlake story, as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drugs, as an underdog fights the system story etc. etc.
Instead, Mark Bowden sticks to the facts and lets the story speak for itself. A really enjoyable book. One of the most amusing parts of the story is the section about Hollywood's attempts to turn this squalid tragicomedy into a John Cusack vehicle. As the filmmakers lack Bowden's storytelling ability or good sense, the film is a colossal bomb.
Read the book and remember the old sayings "be careful what you wish for", and "a fool and his money..."
Rating: 
Summary: not really that great
Review: What would you do if you found over a million dollars lying by the side of the road in a yellow metal tub? I know what I would do, but I�m not saying. This is the dilemma 28 year-old Joey Coyle found himself in with two of his friends while driving down a side road in Philadelphia. Joey�s answer was very simple: �Finders Keepers�. This is an exciting true-life story from the author who also wrote the book �Black Hawk Down�.
In February 1981, over a million dollars in unmarked bills fell off the back of an armored truck in South Philadelphia. Joey Coyle, a popular, working-class, young man who�s addicted to drugs, goes from rags to riches, and eventually becomes somewhat of an urban hero. Joey finds himself in a drug-enhanced frenzy for the next week trying to decide what to do with all the money. The story is actually quite funny at times. Joey has a hard time keeping the money a secret, and tells just about everyone he meets about it. Will this be Joey�s downfall or saving grace? Joey does get involved with the wrong people, as the entire city becomes swept up in the search for the money. What happens to Joey takes several different turns and this story has many unexpected surprises in store for us.
What an riveting story! This is a remarkable story of an ordinary young man who comes face to face with an extraordinary opportunity, and has the make the decision of right from wrong? Or does he? I recommend this one to anyone who enjoys a good true-to-life thriller.
Joe Hanssen
Rating:
Summary: Losers, are Always Weepers
Review: Written like a fiction novel, Bowden tells the true story of an instant financial windfall of $1.2 million for Joey Coyle an unemployed, drug dependant, loser with nothing going for him and the IQ of a rock. Joey, depressed after his drug dealer wasn't home spots a yellow container on the side of the road which he thinks would make a good tool box. Looking inside he discovers two bags with reserve bank written on them. Not really caring that this money obviously belongs to someone he quickly puts the bags in his friend's car and they drive away. This book tells what Joey does with the money in the seven days it takes the authorities to work out he took it and capture him. It is a crime in Philadelphia not to try and return something found with a value over $250. His big plans and how absolutely terrified he gets when he realises the mob is not around just to help you change hundred dollar notes into smaller currency are examined in detail. You'll be amazed at just how stupid this guy is. Also the stupidity of Purolator Armored Car Company and their drivers who lost the money of the back of the truck in the first place. What would you do if you found 1.2 million? To be honest I would keep it but I sure wouldn't be as stupid as Joey. This is an extremely interesting book. I never heard of the actual story before so I have no idea how accurate this book portrays events but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It does drag on a bit with the trial and epilogue at the end which could have been summed up with a lot less paragraphs. Apart from that though, I was addicted and wanted to know the outcome. Highly recommended!
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