24 Hours

Rating:
Summary: You Will Read it in Less
Review: This being my first Greg Iles book, I was very impressed. Iles has a great style and great character definition that will make me want to read his past novels. With "24 Hours" Iles gives a very frightening story that is so real, that you get shivers from the start all the way to the end. The story is about Jennings' family, whose life is ripped apart by a group of kidnappers. The kidnappers pull this job off once a year by kidnapping the child of a upper class doctor, while the doctor is away at an convention. Every year they pull it off with the leader staying with the wife, the leader's wife with the husband and the leader's mentally handicapped nephew watching the child, all in different locations. Calls must be made every 30 minutes or the child will die. However this time the kidnappers picked the wrong family. The Jennings' are going to fight back. This is one of the best thrillers I've read in a very long time. Any reader of fiction will find this a stay up late read. Can't wait for the movie next year.

Rating:
Summary: what a page turner!!
Review: This was my first outing with Greg Iles...but surely not my last. The "rescue" passage was probably unrealistic but who knows what one might do under such stress. The villain was unbelievably ahead of the game ...scary to think even Iles could think up such a plot. Read this....it will keep you attention to the last page.

Rating:
Summary: 24 hours is all it really deserves.
Review: I haven't read the author's previous work. But judging from the comments of those who have, it looks to me as though "24 Hours" is an attempt to cash in on the "neat-idea-sloppily-written-just-to-get-it-to-movie-producers" trend that afflicting today's novelists like a bad crack habit. In other words the author "dumbs down" the prose so that the illiterate denizens of Hollywood can comprehend the story between lattes. Read anything by John Grisham, Michael Crichton (post 1985), or King (when he fulfils a writing obligation or scribbles under the Bachman pseudonym) and you'll know what I mean.

The plot of "24 Hours" is clever. A rich couple's daughter is kidnapped by villains led by a criminal mastermind. But I sympathized with the bad guys who weren't as two dimensional as one would expect. The author flirted with shades of gray in terms of their characterizations, but didn't commit. After all, Hollywood likes bad guys to be bad. They reminded me of Steinbeck's "George and Lenny." When the author visually describes one of the characters using borrowed interest from a character in "A Simple Plan/Slingblade" he pretty much admits that he's fashioning a contrivance after a cliché. In Hollywood, cliches are good.

The protagonists are lame -- a rich doctor and his white bread wife. The wife kinda comes to life, but the doctor is a total drip. It's hard to feel sympathetic for a guy who is in cahoots with a drug company and hoards works of art. Their life is defined by brands and materialism. These people, in a nutshell, personify everything that's wrong with our culture and society. They are not human beings, but consumers. The bad guys were in a real position to teach the "good guys" (and the reader) a thing or two about what matters. But the author decided to relegate them to stereotypes at the last minute because Hollywood is beckoned by a nod to the status quo, not an invitation to rage against the machine.

When an annoying, suburbanite mother is shot to death beside her Lexus in the last act, I cheered. Not sure if I was supposed to. For me, reality had finally entered her family's sheltered existence and that was a good thing. Then again, maybe I'm a sick bastard. Or maybe I'm just fed up with books that cheat me out of a good read instead of leaving me thinking thereafter. Probably a bit of both, I'm sure. But it's nothing that can be fixed in 24 hours.

Rating:
Summary: Nail Biter
Review: Greg Iles again shows us that he is a master of suspense in his recent book 24 Hours. Ex- convict Joey has figured out a way of getting rich quick and avoiding imprisonment by kidnapping the child and watching the parents every move to insure that they go along with the plan to pay and avoid authorities. This plan has worked successfully five times. Will and Karen Jennings are the unaware victims of the next time.

Iles pace is perfect for a thriller. 24 Hours is truly a book that you cannot put down. Characters are interesting and you quickly feel sympathy for those you should and detest the villains. It is a book you could easily see on the silverscreen and there are a few scenes which seem almost to be written for the special effects.

If you love thrillers, this is one of the most thrilling I have read in some time.

Rating:
Summary: Gave Me the Chills
Review: How could I have missed this author? If the rest of his books are half as good as this one he'll goes on my "A" list.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, but...
Review: This book sounded interesting from reading plot descriptions and reader reviews. I found the plot of the story to be interesting and the story was a good read, but there was a lot of gratuitous sex in the book that just didn't need to be there. I skimmed these parts and was disappointed that the author felt that these parts were really important to the plot. If you are offended by material such as this I would stay away from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Greg Iles: the Alfred Hitchcock of suspense thrillers
Review: After reading 'The Quiet Game', easily the best myster/legal-thriller I have ever read, I was anxiously waiting for '24-Hours' and let me say right here and now, it was one of the most thrilling stories I have read in a long time. Taking place pretty much over the course of just 24-hours, the pace is frenetic at the very least and once in motion, quite literally never let's up.

The plot is absolutely chilling to anyone who is a parent: your child being kidnapped for ransom. The thing about kidnapping in this country is: the culprits almost never succeed. The FBI captures virtually all of the criminals who are stupid enough to use kidnapping as a means to get rich quick. This is where Joey comes in. He knows how unsuccessful snatching people for ransom is, so he devises a nearly foolproof plan that has worked like a charm 5 times-in-a-row...but that is before Joey decides to make a grab for Abbey, the diabetic daughter of Karen & Will Jennings. His idea is actually incredibly simple: grab the kid, take them someplace isolated...hold Mom and Dad in two other separate locations keeping them apart for the entire 24-hours it takes to pull off the *plan*...which means you need 3 kidnappers in order to make the *plan* work. What Joey did NOT count on, was the determination of Karen & Will. Y'see, Joey is going to make this the FINAL *plan* and intends to move out of country and enjoy the spoils of his evil ways with his partners. He also has something special in store for Will in particular, making this last operation one not only of kidnapping, but of sweet revenge. I can't tell you the WHY, because finding out is half the fun of this rocket-ride of a novel. I CAN tell you that once you begin this thriller, you will be hopelessly caught up in Greg Iles' fertile imagination, one that won't let you go until you reach the final page. The explosive climax is worthy of Hollywood's biggest chase scenes. Word has it that Hollywood is interested in turning this story into a movie, and as long as they didn't screw it up, it would be a great one, too.

I only gave '24-Hours' 4 stars simply because after finishing 'The Quiet Game' I was absolutely stunned with how amazing it was. Greg Iles is a truly gifted storyteller, and it was almost impossible to equal that novel (in my opinion) and as good as '24-Hours' really is, 'The Quiet Game' is still my favorite novel by him. Do NOT let that influence you into NOT buying this book, on the contrary, buy it, read it and enjoy because it is a fabulous book that deserves ALL the positive reviews it has received--and NONE of the negative ones. I am truly mystified at those who did not like this book, and actually went out of their way to bash it. Go figure. For ME, it was great and I Highly Recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: a really good read
Review: This was the first book I'd read by Greg Iles, and I loved it. After hearing that it was being adapted for film, and after reading other reviews, I bought it. I finished the book in a day. If you enjoy thrilling reads, pick this one up.

Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS WHY I READ MYSTERY/THRILLERS!
Review: If it were possible to write a book using a stick of high caliber explosive as a pen, Greg Iles would be the one to do it. "24 Hours" is quick-paced, yet loses no amount of character or plot development because of it. With exactly the right number of twists and hooks, the reader is drawn right into the middle of the action and not released until the hostages are!

The Jennings are a model family: Will is a much sought-after anesthesiologist, while his wife Karen is a discontent housewife who was forced to put her own promising medical career on hold when she became pregnant. Little Abby is the result, precocious and suffering from severe juvenile diabetes, a plot point that comes up again and again throughout the story. While Will is away at a medical conference, Abby is kidnapped by another type of family that falls somewhere on the opposite end of the scale from the Jennings. The resulting nightmare is brilliantly told thriller that holds ones attention like it was stapled to the page! With a series of double-crosses and unexpected plot twists, the story roars along to an intelligent conclusion.

This being my first reading of any of Iles books, I will definitely seek out his others as soon as possible!

Rating:
Summary: ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT THRILLER!!
Review: This is a real page turner. Fabulous! The story never drags, and the characters are all smart & savvy. Thanks Greg...you've got another winner here!