Rating: Summary: Spectacular Review: This book is fantastic!!
Rating: Summary: an almost perfect crime Review: masterful third person narrative of an extremely well focused plot. a carefully crafted kidnapping scheme is told with cinematically slick scene switching and adrenalin pumping pacing. terrifyingly believable. like a fine watchmaker's timepiece, this one ticks with precision and quality.
Rating: Summary: Unrelenting suspense Review: Dr. Will Jennings and his wife Karen are the loving parents of 5-year-old Abby. Life is good when Will leaves for a medical conference in Biloxi while Karen prepares for a Junior League flower show. And then a monster, a twisted genius named John Hickey, steps into their lives and kidnaps Abby. Hickey has a plan which leaves him virtually untouchable, and he's cocky enough to use his real name in his dealings with his victims. He's used the same plan each year for the past 5 years, kidnapping a doctor's child, collecting the ransom, and releasing the child unharmed. And his plan is so ingenious that his crimes have never been reported. This year, though, there's a change of plan, for there is a personal and diabolical reason for targeting Will Jennings and Hickey wants more than money. Will Jennings, however, has a plan of his own for rescuing his diabetic daughter who will die if she doesn't get the insulin she needs. The pace of this thriller is absolutely frenetic as Karen and Will match wits with Hickey and his partners. Suspense just doesn't get much better than this.
Rating: Summary: The speed of light Review: This is one you better be ready to read non stop. A master thesis in kidnapping and terror. He touches every nerve in your system and scorches them. All the characters were well researched and were strongly believable. I would highly recommend this Author and will read all his other writings.
Rating: Summary: Brilliant...Again Review: Once again, Greg Iles writes a thriller that bears his unmistakable trademarks. His characters are at once easily believable and, yet, different than other author's typical characters. His attention to detail, particularly in medical terms, and his lavish descriptions of Mississippi are once again superb. I highly recommend this book, and his entire collection of works. THIS will be a movie, so buy it now, and when the trailers come out, you can tell everyone, "Yes, but the book is better!"
Rating: Summary: A BOOK THAT YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO PUT DOWN Review: 24 HOURS is one of those books that once you start reading it, your heart starts to race and your hands refuse to release the book until you have finished reading the whole book, and boy is it worth it. John Hickey is a mad genius, one of the worst kind, who has mastered the crime of kidnapping. Hickey is so good at it, he can exact his crime in 24 Hours. With hellish precision, he squeezes a family's pressure points, extorts the ransom and vanishes into thin air, leaving the hostages alive (his promise is the kid always makes it out alive), but the family is too shattered to call the police. Hickey has carried out his plan five times now and hasn't been caught. He has his sights on his next victim, Abby Jennings, the five-year old daughter of Dr. Will Jennings and his wife, Karen, of Jackson Mississippi; this time there is a possible problem that Hickey does not know about. Greg IIes takes a parent's greatest horror, the kidnapping of a child, and turns it into a whopper of a chiller. As the title tells us, the book takes place in 24 HOURS. But in that 24 hours, though you move along at a frenzied pace, you also get to know each and every character intimately. The story line is disturbing and yet fascinating at the same time.
Rating: Summary: The Ending is the Only Flaw Review: This is a fast-paced page-turner that defines the committment family members make to each other. Will Jennings, a doctor, his wife Karen, and their daughter Abby are the victims of vengeful but brilliant psychopath John Hickey. Mr. Hickey has assembled an unlikely pair of partners to help him with his fifth kidnapping in five years, only this time there is more to motivate him than money. He blames Will for a family tragedy and wants Will to feel a similar pain from the loss of a loved one. Iles develops an intricate kidnap plot and uses three different scenes as points of action, each with its own antagonist/protagonist relationship.He moves the story along from scene to scene as the intensity mounts within the 24 hours of the title. I actually considered calling in sick from work so I didn't have to tear myself away from the action. 24 Hours is highly recommended with the plausibility of the ending as the only complaint. However, that is minor and can even add to this thriller's energy if it is taken with a grain of salt.
Rating: Summary: Gripping Drama Review: I have been a fan of Mr. Iles's work since meeting him at a convention a couple of years back. My favorite book was one of his earlier books "Black Cross," which is a thriller set in WWII, which is totally unlike his current books. The past book I really didn't like was "Mortal Fear," which I thought got into kinky online sex at bit too much. Some other reviewers have noted "24 Hours" is like a lot of other books and goes over a lot of familiar territory. I totally agree with those remarks. Other reviewers are seeing Hollywood stars in the author's eyes. I was casting the picture as I read it. I really hate that. When I read John Grisham, I see the production notes in the text and it irritates me a lot. It's like he was not writing the book for me the reader, but for the bigger scope of Hollywood. I won't go into the thing about what the book is about, because the other reviewers have already covered that. I will just keep on with what I didn't like about the book. The little girl who was kidnapped was a diabetic, which was supposed to up the time element drama of getting her back and her life being in danger. But, like so many writers, the diabetic facts were not totally correct. The parents were worried during the whole book with the little girl getting her insulin. The little girl at one point even gives herself insulin. But, HELLO, she never eats anything but crackers and a mint. The guy who has her talks about fixing her a bowl of Captain Crunch, but it's never definite. Without food, giving her more insulin is the worst thing possible. And through the whole book, her blood sugar is up and they keep talking about this in itself making her feel bad. Actually, it's just the opposite. When the blood sugar is too high, the person will feel better than if it was too low. And even though she had not eaten, with her adrenalin going, it probably would have stayed high. One scene even had her passing out because it was too high. That is just not going to happen. The diabetic person will feel bad and eventually pass out/go into a coma when the blood sugar goes too low-like under 100. That means there is too much insulin and not enough food. Her mom even made a special trip to the hideout shack to give her insulin and then was not concerned about getting her food. Giving her insulin and then not feeding her was worse than not giving her insulin and not feeding her. This sort of thing kept on through the whole book to the point I was irritated with the whole thing. This was a suspenseful exciting book I enjoyed reading. The plot moves along quite nicely. But this is the type of book 15 other lawyer suspense writing people could have written. I really wish Mr. Iles would take his unique talent and do unique things with it instead of serving up what has already been done.
Rating: Summary: Great is not even close to what this book is! Review: This book is really a page turner, I couldn't put it down, before I went to sleep, once I wake up, during the day, till I finished it! It was just so captivating, the author Greg Iles does a great job of letting the reader feel what the characters feel. The introduction chapter is fantastic how he introduces the kidnappers to us and how we know there plans in just 8 pages, and how he desribes Cheryl at the Beau Rivage, you have to read this book, its just too perfect to be true.
Rating: Summary: Can Anyone Say Screenplay??? Review: Although I'm unfamiliar with Iles' other works, I was relatively impressed with this one. As a Librarian, I like to check out what our patrons like. A lady came in one day a couple of weeks ago and exclaimed, "I simply could NOT put this down!" It took a little more than "24 hours" for me to finish, but it was an engaging read! A meticulously-planned kidnapping with motives of vengeance and money goes awry when the kidnap victim is discovered to have an urgent medical condition. Her mother pulls heroic punches, determined to outsmart her would-be assailant; her father rises above the tendencies of a man tempted and angered to put logic to work for him instead of waiting for fate to play its hand. Double-crossings and FBI men complicate the plot and lead to a climactic rescue involving an interstate, an airplane crash-landing, car crashes, gunshots, and a surge of who-will-make-it excitement. I can EASILY see this being turned into a screenplay in the next couple of years!
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