Rating: 
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: After reading all of the highly positive reviews listed here, I expected a fast paced, thrilling read. What I got was the complete opposite. Having just lost his only daughter, Tim Rackley, a US Deputy Marshal is out to seek his style of revenge with the help of The Commission, a group of law enforcement professional who have shared the devastating loss that Rackley has felt. Soon, he leaves his life behind and dives into the murk of L.A. to begin a series of hits on criminals who have slipped through the system's cracks...including the man who Rackley believes killed his daughter.
Although it's an interesting storyline, it wasn't as riveting as I expected.
Rating:
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: After reading all of the highly positive reviews listed here, I expected a fast paced, thrilling read. What I got was the complete opposite. Having just lost his only daughter, Tim Rackley, a US Deputy Marshal is out to seek his style of revenge with the help of The Commission, a group of law enforcement professional who have shared the devastating loss that Rackley has felt. Soon, he leaves his life behind and dives into the murk of L.A. to begin a series of hits on criminals who have slipped through the system's cracks...including the man who Rackley believes killed his daughter.
Although it's an interesting storyline, it wasn't as riveting as I expected.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read
Review: An excellent work of fiction. This book will keep you interested page after page. The characters are so well written you will be certain you know them from somewhere.
Nothing more needs to be said. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Far above and beyond the usual vigilante thriller!
Review: As others have already seen to it, I won't rehash the major plot points of the book. To summarize: Deputy U.S. Marshall Timothy Rackley loses his daughter then his job, prompting him to take extreme measures to see justice done. Your basic formula for almost any vigilante cop thriller, right?Not so. Not this time. Gregg Hurwitz takes a common premise and does some remarkable things with it. While there is at least one major plot twist that many readers will sniff out far in advance, the writing, the pacing, and the characterizations in this book are exceptional. It takes a certain talent to weave intense morality plays into all the equally intense action. Be warned, however, this is not light reading! The violence and brutality is conveyed with gut wrenching skill. The book grabs you early and does not let go. Highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: One great peice of work!
Review: Every now and then I get a chance to take a break from the usual technical manual and I get to review something outside the computer industry. If you looking to get away for a while with a story that has you moving from beginning to the very end then take a look at The Kill Clause. Never having heard of, much less read, anything by Gregg Hurwitz, I was most impressed by the way the author spins the story line. I was kept guessing throughout the book and even had a few unexpected moments which I found made the book one of the best works I have read to date. The thing I found that made this a real grabber of a novel was the way the story unfolds and how I found myself thinking "This could have happened to me." and "What would I do in that situation?" You are given an insight into the world of the U.S. Marshall and the author's ability to make the story believable without going overboard is what sets this book apart from the rest. The storyline calls out for the big screen without a doubt. If you like the fast paced, action packed and intense plot then this is just the kind of book you want to get a hold of. Overall an excellent job and I will be watching and waiting for the next novel from Gregg.
Rating:
Summary: Good lead character; but where were the editors
Review: Hurwitz creates some good characters--Bear, Dray, and Tim. However, the book is about 200 pages too long. The story had tons of potential to be a fascinating look at the Marshals and modern LA. It is neither. Instead, it is one long action sequence with some tear jerking thrown in. The murder is terirble and sad--Ginny's that is. Otherwise, the other characters are relatively two dimensional. Where were the editors? It seems the book was sold to Hollywood, which makes sense...it would be a 2.5 star action flick. Still, I hear the Program is really good...will I try Rackley again? Probably...I just hope it is better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: What in the world are you talking about?
Review: I am more confused by several co-reviewers adulation than I am by the plot . . . errrr . . . attempted plot. No one seems to have noticed but this was done before. Back in the early days of "real" TV-Movies, Glenn Ford was trotted out of retirement and starred with William Conrad in "The Brotherhood of the Bell," a secret organization to go that one step further when justice faltered. It bombed.
Apparently unwilling to heed George Santana's caveat about what happens when you don't pay attention to history, "The Star Chamber" was made ten years later with the ever chin thrusting Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook. It was the same story, tedious, boring, UNBELIEVABLE, with an ending so incredible as to defy logic.
So now we have "Kill Clause," which should start off by playing the memorable 'As Time Goes by' from Casablanca, "it's still the same old story."
It's begins with a particularly offensive murder of a child. Why authors seem willing to play this horrific card, the violation of and killing of children, I don't know. Don't they know that readers don't forgive them for this effort . . . . and for the 4 or 5 thereafter?
So Marshal Tim Rackley learns of his daughters death, has some (almost equally) painful dialogue with his wife, and joins forces with a group of psychopaths who analyze capital cases that freed the accused, and then 'vote' on whether they should assassinate the defendant. I thought Goebbels, Eichmann and Mengele were dead?
Don't waste your time. I gave it 2 stars for several intricacies of plot and timing, but frankly, it could of been 1. Larry Scantlebury
Rating:
Summary: Hurwitz is back on track!
Review: I read Gregg Hurwitz's first book The Tower a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I impatiently waited for his follow up. When it was finally released, Minutes To Burn was just disappointing. Kind of a cross between David Morrell and Michael Crichten. But I figured Hurwitz was just trying something new, so when his third book Do No Harm came out I picked up a copy. This on sounded more like The Tower. Then I read it and the bad guy was totally unrealistic. I thought there was no was I was shelling out another $25 on one of Hurwitz's books. And then I spotted The Kill Clause at Borders. It sounded pretty interesting. But then I remembered how I'd been burned twice by Gregg Hurwitz. So I sat down right there in Borders, figured I would read a few pages. I sat there and read for two hours! I could not put the book down. Hurwitz had finally written a book that was every bit as good as The Tower. The story was incredably compelling. The characters are real. So real, you'd think they could be living right next door to you. Hurwitz's writing style is very lean and to the point. He desn't waste a word.
I'm not going to bother with a plot summary, that's what the book jacket is for.
Do yourself a favor and buy this book! You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Taut....Terrific ... Totally Terrifying and Traumatic....
Review: if you want to be mesmerized, pick up this thriller!
The Commission...who are they..what do they want with Deputy U.S. Marshall Tim Rackley? He has just lost his 7 year old daughter, Ginny to a savagely brutal attacker. He has his own grief which is pulling his marriage to Dray apart piece by piece. Their baby...raped and dismembered! I admit that this is probably the MOST devasting start of any novel I have read. And more devastating when the killer gets off on a technicality. The Commision...they contact him...they want him. Out of curiosity and for something to drown the pain, he meets with this group. A group that has all lost someone very close to a horrific death. And in each case the killer is freed, leaving them with revenge in their hearts. The Commision...they draw him into their group and although they do all the research in finding the killers...Tim Rackley will be the executioner. Tim Rackley, who has always followed the letter of the law! This is a tightly put together drama..a drama of right and wrong; of the law and bending the law until it breaks...of life and death; the Commision deciding who is guilty and who is innocent; the Commision deciding who will be allowed to live and who will die. Tim is asked to forget the law, to forget all the right that he has stood for, to keep emblazened in his mind A LIFE FOR A LIFE and to go forward with plans for the executions of those whom the Commission vote must die. The main characters are strong and believable; Tim, Dray and Bear (you will love him), and despite a few slightly contrived insignificant incidents, the book is a winner in suspense, intrigue, and technology. The underlying pathos and interaction between Tim and Dray lets us catch our breath for a moment before we are wrenched out of our calm and thrown back into the ugliness that is the world of murder and mayhem. And again we stuggle along with Tim and his conscience. A moral dilmna which leaves us with the question.."If the brutally murdered person was my son, sister, mother, daughter...what would I do"? I never came up with an answer to that question. I wonder if you will!
Rating:
Summary: A White-Knuckle Thriller
Review: In a compellingly emotional opening to the book, Tim and Andrea Rackley are faced with the news that their 7-year-old daughter has been horrifically murdered. Their heartbreaking grief and despair is captured in a few powerful pages and gives us the motivation that drives Tim for the rest of the book. To add to their misery, the man who committed the murder is allowed to walk free thanks to a loophole in the legal system. As a highly trained Special Forces officer turned Deputy Marshall, Tim has the power and the opportunity to exact any form of revenge he chooses on his daughter's murderer, but refrains from doing so when he learns that an accomplice may have been involved. Meanwhile, his marriage is being ripped apart as Tim and Andrea try to come to terms with the loss of their daughter. Just when it looks as though the marriage is beyond salvation and after he quits his job, he is approached by a man offering him a chance at some measure of revenge, luring him in with the possibility that he will also get a shot of finding the mysterious accomplice. Essentially, what Tim is asked to do is join a group of vigilantes, calling themselves The Commission, who are aiming to serve their own justice on criminals who they consider have escaped penalty due to shortcomings in the legal system. Of course, Tim accepts and the action takes off from there as candidates are assessed and their fate is decided, with the penalty to be meted out by Tim. This is a tremendously fast-paced book that highlights the way in which severe emotional situations can skew the judgement of even the most level-headed thinkers. I had a great time reading this book, finding it both thought provoking and white-knuckle thrilling.
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