Rating:  Summary: Once again Review: Case (or whatever his real name is) once again is able to blend science and fiction and at he same time raise important issues about emerging technology. Just as his musing on DNA and virology have begun to surface, nanotechnology will prove also to be a two edged sword. I have always felt Case was better connected to what is going on than the rest of us.
Rating:  Summary: GOOD ENTERTAINING BUT NOT REALLY SMART Review: Dan Cray gets himself into trouble, the problem is we see it comming much before him. In Case's novel, Cray becomes (a la Ludlum) an international target. He is involved (a la Dan Brown) in what could be a religious conspiracy. The scientific mystery behind the plot is (a la Crichton) in nanotechnology.The novel, so, can be said to remind any of those authors. Only it doesn't, Ludlum persecusions are smarter, Crichton's scientific plots really have to do with the book's story). The Eight Day has a smart prose (much better than the overpraised Brown), nice descriptions and some good moments, but it is full of deux es machina solutions (that credit card near the ending, that simpatetic truck driver) and predictable turns (the blackmail, the torture, even the uzi). Nevertheless it is an entertaining read, just don't ask for more.
Rating:  Summary: A highly entertaining yet potent thriller Review: Danny Cray is a part time investigator hired by a wealthy lawyer, Jude Belzer to look into why an Italian billionaire is the target of a smear campaign. Cray, a bit cash starved, jumps at the chance in that he will be very well paid for what appears to be fairly easy work. His investigation takes him to the death of a suspect who commits suicide by entombing himself. He builds a brick wall around himself. The death is highly suspicious. As Cray continues to investigate the case, which takes him all over the world, he begins to strongly suspect that he might be working for the bad guys. John Case delivers a highly entertaining and potent thriller that will never fail to please. The pacing eventually becomes relentless as Cray initially the hunter, becomes the hunted. It is a story of a relatively normal guy getting into something way above himself. Of course, the villain is over the top as is the plot, itself. Yet, given it's primary function to entertain, it succeeds quite easily.
Rating:  Summary: A highly entertaining yet potent thriller Review: Danny Cray is a part time investigator hired by a wealthy lawyer, Jude Belzer to look into why an Italian billionaire is the target of a smear campaign. Cray, a bit cash starved, jumps at the chance in that he will be very well paid for what appears to be fairly easy work. His investigation takes him to the death of a suspect who commits suicide by entombing himself. He builds a brick wall around himself. The death is highly suspicious. As Cray continues to investigate the case, which takes him all over the world, he begins to strongly suspect that he might be working for the bad guys. John Case delivers a highly entertaining and potent thriller that will never fail to please. The pacing eventually becomes relentless as Cray initially the hunter, becomes the hunted. It is a story of a relatively normal guy getting into something way above himself. Of course, the villain is over the top as is the plot, itself. Yet, given it's primary function to entertain, it succeeds quite easily.
Rating:  Summary: Not very believable adventures of an amateur P.I. Review: Danny, an artist who takes on free-lance investigative jobs in his spare time, is one of the least convincing private investigators in current thrillers. As described by Case, he seems naive, reckless, and clumsy. Hired by a man posing as a wealthy lawyer, Danny stumbles into a plot involving a mysterious religious sect. His adventures take him to Europe and to the wilds of eastern Turkey. He survives potentially fatal situations mostly by dumb luck. His carelessness gets a helpful priest killed. The people around him seem not to notice when he shows up bleeding or soaked with dirty water. Despite losing his belongings, he always has access to money. In the real world, Danny would have been arrested if not killed. Skip this one.
Rating:  Summary: AN EXPLOSIVE, ADDICTIVE TAUTLY PENNED THRILLER Review: Explosive and addictive, a taut, sharply penned thriller from page 1 to startling finish - that's John Case's fourth novel. While the author surely proved himself with "The Syndrome," "The First Horseman," and the New York Times bestseller "The Genesis Code," he exceeds all expectations with his latest, a hard-driving journey propelled by international intrigue and amazing technological advances. Danny Cray is a 28-year-old artist with hair enhanced by spiky blond highlights (thanks to girlfriend, Caliegh) and three piercings in his left ear (thanks to himself). He's a sculptor and video artist who has just been offered a showing at Neon, a prestigious gallery. To make ends meet he has been moonlighting as a private investigator for Fellner Associates; now he needs to come up with enough art to make a proper presentation - some expensive new equipment would help. It seems almost serendipitous when he receives a call from a wealthy attorney, Jude Belzer, asking him to do a little work for him. According to Belzer, a powerful, super-rich Italian businessman, Zerevan Zabek, is the target of unfounded slander. Belzer wants to keep this assignment separate from his other dealings with Fellner, and asks Danny to take it on solo, tracing the smears to their source. Naive is a good description of Danny when he first meets Belzer - what attorney has a phalanx of bodyguards? Nonetheless, the proposition is too tempting, too easy, and too lucrative. Danny grabs it. He's instructed to find out all that he can about a professor of religious studies who died recently, evidently by sealing himself alive in a concrete vault. Belzer insists that if Danny can get to the late professor's papers, his files, all will come to light. But, instead of light there's darkness, a sinister darkness as a man the professor called on the day he died also turns up dead. A FedEx receipt in the professor's trash indicates that he sent his computer to a priest in Rome stationed at the Vatican. End of assignment, or so Danny believes. Belzer is in Rome, and he can simply look up the priest, retrieve the computer, and solve the mystery. But, no, Belzer wants Danny to go to Rome and get the computer. Ten thousand dollars plus $800 per day is more than the young artist can turn down. But, what could this computer hold? He boards a plane for Rome, where he meets his interpreter, Paulina, "a dark beauty, thirty at the outside, with the kind of high-gloss glamour that costs real money." His suite at a luxe hotel has every imaginable accouterment, yet he has unknowingly placed himself in jeopardy, his fate to be determined by Zabek, a man who had a way of "killing people that gave dying a bad name." From Rome with all of its glories Danny's quest takes him to Istanbul, and a terrifying encounter in an underground cistern. From there he travels to a remote Turkish border town, still searching for answers, and only one step ahead of those who would kill him. John Case is a master at limning the scenes of Italy, especially Siena's Palio, a breathtaking bareback horse race held in Siena's seashell shaped piazza.. His characters are drawn incisively, whether they be arresting or menacing. Dialogue sparks as suspense builds to a thrilling denouement. Open "The Eighth Day" only if you're prepared to not put it down - Case's tale grabs you with the first page, shakes you up a good bit, and doesn't let go until the final word. - Gail Cooke
Rating:  Summary: Really good. No really, really good Review: Great characters that you grow to care about. Interesting plot. Good story. I couldn't put the book down (and have since finished his "The First Horseman"- also great). I was really impressed by this book. I'm now a hooked fan.
Rating:  Summary: Case does it again! Review: Having read all of the current Case books including the NY Times bestseller The Genesis Code, as well as Jim Hougan's previous works (Hougan and wife use the name Case as a writing team)I was not disappointed in this latest effort. As with all of the Case novels, the themes and plot lines are current and timely. The story keeps you enthralled and turning pages. Obviously those whose "intelligence" was put to a test must have felt the same or they would have put the book down and walked away. Case presents characters who are real world examples and not perfect superheros. Well done. Looking forward to the next one.
Rating:  Summary: The Stupid Detective Review: I bought this book because I have read other Case novels and enjoyed them. But he must have been on a serious deadline when he slapped this one together, because the plot holes are outdone only by the utter cluelessness of the main character. If it had been a t.v. show I would have been yelling at the screen in sheer frustration, but instead at one point I actually yelled at the book. Danny Cray is hired by a mysterious-looking dark guy, complete with dark glasses and bodyguards, who, for some reason, doesn't want to engage a traditional detective agency and throws money at Danny, a twenty-something, part-time semi-amateur, to get him to take the case. Red flags #1, 2, and 3. Without doing any due diligence on his new client, the Dumb Detective finds out who the dead guy spoke to right before he died, happily hands over the list to Mysterious Dark Guy, and then is shocked - SHOCKED - to discover that the people on the list start dying horribly! But does that slow our hero down? Nooooo.....he hops a plane to Italy where he blunders from one predictable plot twist to the next, getting nice people killed right and left and leaving a paper trail of cell phone calls, credit card receipts, and emails that are easily traceable by any run-of-the-mill Evil Billionaire - all the while puzzling, "How did they find me?" Duhhhhhh...... I'm giving the book an extra star because I could not put it down - not because it was a taut thriller, but because I was completely fixated on finding out what stupid thing Danny Cray would do next. And, in that, he failed to disappoint.
Rating:  Summary: An unforgivable waste of my time and money Review: I found this book to be unprofessional and boring. I could use other words to describe it but they wouldn't be fit for a public website like this. The main characters were unbelievable and pathetic. The plot was ridiculous. I only finished it to prove to myself that the ending would be equally unsatisfying. Yet again I am disappointed by so called bestselling authors. I have only read this one book by John Case, and it would take a lot of convincing and bribery for me to read any more.
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