Rating: 
Summary: An adrenaline rush from start to finish
Review: Dave Elliot is a normal guy. Successful, healthy, re-married, everything in his life is routine and going well... until his boss walks into his office with a loaded gun. From that point on, for Dave it's a headlong sprint for survival, using only his wits and the tricks of his former trade: Army Special Forces in Vietnam. As nameless men try to kill him for an unknown reason, all Dave's training, suppressed for a long time, comes back to him. Garber's style is much more comfortable and easy to read than most action authors, but his best method is that of a voice in Dave's head, his "guardian angel", objectively following him around and cynically providing commentary on the gravity of his situation. The tension crackles as Dave tries to avoid early retirement and figure out why he has become a target. Dave Elliot is one of the most enjoyable protagonists to appear in adventure thrillers today, making this a great read for all action fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast, Fun and only Semi-Furious
Review: I always read the bad reviews and some folks really hate this book. Funny thing is, as I read their negative reviews I thought to myself that "these are normally things that I'd hate too". But, and I do mean but...I enjoyed it. This might be because I listened to it on audio and maybe presented that way, it was better than reading it. In any event, I had fun with it and would also recommend that yopu seek out "Rascal Money", the author's only other work.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I haven't read any of Garber's previous efforts, but loved this story about a upstanding businessman who finds everyone from his boss, his best friend and his wife all seemingly trying to kill him. Trapped in a NY high rise, this book is almost perfect.
Garber's principle character David Elliot is a likeable guy whose inner voice carries on a constant conversation. The banter is amusing and in a story where he is seemingly alone, much of the dialog is between him and himself.
I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading an adventure book. There are government conspiracies, Vietnam flashbacks and even a hint of mid-life crisis. Perfect for anyone that works in a high rise.
Spoiler ahead....
There is one point that confuses me. After Elliot's boss commits suicide, Agent Ransome instructs his team to put Elliot's blood at the crime scene to implicate him in the crime. Yet, we learn that Elliot is extremely contagious and bodily fluids could ultimately infect all of New York and beyond. Other than this apparent slip, the book is near perfect.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre writing
Review: I'm a huge fan of Stephen Hunter and James Garber was recommended to me as an author who is a close second to Mr. Hunter--WRONG. This book has an extremely linear plot, ridiculously one-dimensional characters, and absurd stilted dialog. I couldn't believe how silly some of the characters sounded. Scott Thatcher talks like a cartoon character. David's wife is a horror that makes you wonder what he was thinking to hook up with her in the first place. Ransome is supposed to be an intimidating villain but is just predictable and boring. There are no surprises in the plot. This is the second book I've read by Mr. Garber--there won't be a third.
Rating:
Summary: Fast paced action
Review: In a manner not unlike the young Australian author, Matthew Reilly, Garber has set out to write an action novel which doesn't let up. Well, Ok, it would let up for a paragraph here or there... The story is largely set in a high rise building in New York but what initially keeps you turning pages is how absolutely everyone seems to have turned against the our hero - The enormous "Why?" combined with non stop action means its about half way through the book before you can even pause (to go to sleep?) before resuming and galloping to the finale. Although I felt the story unfolded in a standard non-stop 'action' way, comparable to the moronic bits of fluff Hollywood calles 'blockbuster movies' nowadays, I was impressed with plot - it was quite rich without stepping into the unbelievable until the final page (yes folks, don't read the epilogue...). Its a cracking read so if you are feeling like some 'blockbuster' reading, you can't go far wrong with this book!
Rating:
Summary: Uninspiring paranoid fantasy
Review: Joseph Garber's "Vertical Run" was a mindless supposed action thriller that fortunately was a very easy read. The plot was a pale and predictable rehash of more polished examples of this genre.
47 year old Dave Elliot is a high ranking executive of the Senterex corporation, a successful conglomerate, with offices on the 45th floor of a New York skyscraper. Elliot, a former Green Beret that served in Vietnam, while at work, without warning inexplicably becomes the target of all those he comes in contact with. This bewildering cat and mouse game commences when his boss, owner of Senterex, the pudgy Bernie Levy pulls a loaded gun on Elliot. In short order Elliot discovers that a large mercenary team has been dispatched to find and execute him. Elliot, as expected, uses all his military guile and cunning to evade his pursuers and determine why he has been targeted.
Garber certainly did not come close to enticing me to pick up any of his other work.
Rating:
Summary: And you think you've had a bad day at work?
Review: One minute you're sitting in your big cushy office, getting some work done, and the next you're running for your life, because it seems that everyone from your boss to the janitor wants you dead. And just to drive the point home, there's a team of skilled mercenaries on your tail. And all you have to get you out in one piece is your military training and a voice in your head. Now that, my friends, is a bad day at the office. With light-speed pacing and expert storytelling, Joseph Garber's action-packed thriller is definatley worth a read. The book's office building setting and relentless action scenes draw immediate comparisons to Die Hard, all the while infusing a great mystery story, as protagonist Dave Elliot tries to figure out why everyone seems to want him dead. The character developent and writing are surprisingly good for an action novel, as are the use of subplot and flashbacks. Elliot's recolections of Vietnam are fascinating, and the military background makes him a surprisingly rescourcful character. None of this slows down the plot, however, which barrels along at supersonic speed and never lets up. Things explode, people get shot, and the ending is maddeningly creative. Vertical Run is a great piece of escapist fiction, definatley a ride worth taking.
Rating:
Summary: A new storyteller is among us, and a very good one
Review: Remember this name: Joseph R. Garber. He has written, apparently, three novels to date. I've read two of them, and they are surpassingly good! I first read Whirlwind, in an advance reader's edition (review copy). Amazon will not let me review it yet, because it will not be released until tomorrow, but let me tell you, it is a thriller that will hold you spellbound, as will this one: Vertical Run, his second book. The first was called Rascal Money, and he is a literary critic and business analyst for Forbes magazine.
From the back cover:
'Dave Elliott is about to have a very bad day at the office...
'It begins early this morning when the company president strolls into Dave Elliott's office with a gun in his hand and murder in his eye. From there it gets even worse. To Dave's mounting horror he discovers that his colleagues, friends, and even his wife and son wanbt him killed.
'He can't imagine why.
'Now he's trapped in a fifty-story New York office tower with a team of ruthlessly professional mercenaries hunting him floor by floor and expecting him to be dead by lunchtime.
'They're wrong.'
This is a 300 page (popular paperback) adventure thriller that is somewhat better than you would expect from Clancy, Cook, or Higgins. I predict that this author is destined to be our next leading writer in this genre. He writes like a man who has 'been there,' and the details of the 'spook trade' are utterly convincing as he describes it.
But, don't let it fool you. Because a man writes like an ex-Green Beret does not mean he has been one. The late R. Wright Campbell wrote a book called The Spy Who Sat and Waited, with the story set in the Orkneys. His description of the islands and the people was so poetic and convincing, I asked him how long he'd spent there. He answered me that he'd never been there. He learned all he knew about the area from the encyclopedia. Bobbie Campbell was, simply put, a born stroyteller: a troubador. Perhaps the same is true of Joseph Garber. In any case, he is a wonderful storyteller who will hold you spellbound. You won't be able to put it down.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: Streamlined Thriller
Review: This book is just straight, streamlined thriller: no romance, no political agenda, no religious agenda, a little tip of the hat for a sadistic shoulder angel (Everybody's got to love him!) And that's it you'll be-bang-right out of your reading chair up through the roof on the Vertical Run! BUY IT!!
Rating:
Summary: Vertical Run
Review: Vertical Run is a pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat thriller that leaves you hanging at the turn of every page. Joseph Garber has hit a grand slam with this book that I would consider one of the best fiction book I have ever read.
As the protagonist, David Perry Elliot is finding out, there is a reason as to why the mercinary Ransome would like him dead. After his boss tries to kill him and he survives a fire fight in the hallway of his executive suite at Sentrex Corp, he manages to make it to the second story dining hall. But that is where he meets Ramsome and this time is able to get a pot shot with a pistol he got from one of Ramsomes team to land in Ransome's leg. He is able to leave Sentrex after waiting until the cover of darkness and then proceeds to go to Marge's house. Marge is a lady he meets after his run in with Ransome in the dining hall and she does give him the utensils to make a disguise. But do you really think that Mr. Elliot, being an ex green beret, just left without preparing for a return? He does set up booby traps that help him when he eventually returns after finding out the truth.
There is one way that helps the reader tap into David's thought process and makes it possible to figure out why it is David is wanted dead. Flashback. Flashback is when an author will stray from current happenings of the book to go to an event in the past of a character. Not only does it go back for a few days, but it goes back all the way to his days as a Green Beret in the Vietnam war to help him survive.
If one is a careful, attentive reader, you may pick up on the little hints the author drops to hint the truth. These little hints are called foreshadowing. These hints did help me find the reason why he is wanted dead, but only one page before Mr. Elliot himself finds out.
I would suggest this book to anyone who likes a book that will leave you winded even five minutes after the book has been closed. If you want a book where by the end there are no secrets, this is the book for you. If you want a book that is dull, boring, poorly written, and a book to put you to sleep, this is not the book for you.
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