Deception

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I've Read This Year
Review: Although I don't usually read spy thrillers, this one was really good. A friend suggested it to me and I thought I'd try it. It was very fast moving and I could hardly put the book down until I finished it. thank you, John Altman. You've got a new fan!

Rating:
Summary: Escape with deception
Review: Altman is a new favorite author of mine. I began with his "Gathering of Spies" and have just now finished "Deception." I think its a close call between which two is the best book. Both stories are good and compelling.

Hannah, like the character of Katerina Heinrich before her, is an ambivalent woman whose motivations and longings are not the typical heroine's. It makes her all the more human, all the more realistic, because she isn't some grand, holy protagonist, but just a young woman who's made some bad choices in her life and is now mixed up in a situation that ordinary people aren't suited for.

I liked the dichotomy between Hannah and Keyes, as each character is pressured further and further by the events that bombard them. It was interesting to watch how they each responded and how they dealt with what was before them.

Rating:
Summary: AN AUTHOR TO WATCH
Review: i was not familiar with this author when I was choosing a book for a quick read, but i am a fan of the genre and the quality of this thriller excited me. The book is not without flaws, mainly that I didn't find the main character, Hannah, particularly complex or engaging. However the overall plot is engaging enough to overlook this weakness and overall I was very happy with the book and am pleased to recommend it highly. Expect more from this new author.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the Read
Review: Intrigued by the cover, I bought this book never having heard of the author. Now I'm going to look for his prior novels. This book is clever, fast-moving, never dull, and thoroughly entertaining. Despite the math formula at the heart of the novel, you don't need to know higher mathematics to enjoy the book. It's just a plot device by Mr. Altman to take you to a series of exotic locales. I thought the ending was a tad contrived which is the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Ordinary Woman In Extraordinary Circumstances
Review: Ms. Hannah Gray, an ordinary woman living in Chicago with job and boyfriend problems, escapes her humdrum life by going on a cruise where all hell breaks loose. This fast paced thriller has it all - plot, characters, suspense, good writing - and is the perfect beach book or vacation bring along. Angelina Jolie should play Hannah (or Vicky, her pseudo identity) is the movie version. Highly recommended for a fun read!

Rating:
Summary: Deception
Review: Oh no no no no no NO! No, please! This is not a satisfying thriller at all! Well, okay, I'll stop with all the indignation, but how can this book be looked on with so much favour? Yes, it has a fast pace, is done up in a nice, clean style, and the characters are somewhat well depicted--and then, I'm done with the good things to say, and it's all bad.

The plot is extremely simple; a woman travelling under an alias, because she flees fraud charges, comes into possession of a book with a valuable secret equation jotted on it. This puts her in danger because people with guns--plus a child-sized assassin with a taste for exotic weaponry--pursue her throughout Turkey and the Greek Islands, trying to eliminate her to get the Maguffin...uh, the book. People who have handled the book have suffered grave misfortune, and if she doesn't watch herself, this woman pretending to be "Vicky" somebody-or-other, will also die for failing to relinquish sensitive, and stolen, reading material that pertains to cooking up a Black Hole.

Thrillers like these trumpet their exotic-location content proudly on the back cover; but don't expect to get a feel for Turkey or the Greek Islands from whizzing through this plotbroiler. Similarly, dismiss any idea that the plot moves beyond its simple premise, to include anything new or different. It doesn't. Woman on the run, while nasty men converge on her to get the book. There are only vague references to what the precious formula she carries actually relates to--so, techno-thriller fans beware. This is never more than a cat-and-mouse scenario, and I wouldn't even say the action scenes are particularly fizzy, or that numerous.

Here are all the fundamentals, adorning nothing. The book seems to be missing something--like a better story.

Rating:
Summary: Changing Identities
Review: There are many different kinds of deceptions in this thriller by John Altman. There's the deception of insurance fraud, there's the deception between lovers, there's the deception of assuming someone else's identity, and several others besides. I got this book as a Christmas present and couldn't put it down once I started it. For an enjoyable reading experience from the first page to the last, I recommend this thriller without reservation.

Rating:
Summary: PURE ESCAPISM
Review: This book only takes a few hours to read and it entertained me from the first page to the last. Actually the most intriguing character is the boy/man introduced at the beginning but unfortunately he doesn't last until the end. Unlike Dan Brown who seems to need a contrived cliff hanger at the end of every chapter, this author picks and chooses with more care and the result held my interest throughout.

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining
Review: Unhappily, this book start out a little slow, and the reader
will have to plow through some dialog filled with cliches
for awhile, but if you persist, the story developes into an
entertaining one.
The author must have had a girl friend like the "heroine" here,
because he invests her with so many odd, and even negative,
qualities, while making her seem worthwhile, and at times a
nice companion, it has to be difficult to have a characte with
so many divergent qualities. Most fictional characters are easily catagorized, whether good or bad, but this one keeps our
interest because at times she is very unappealing and unlikeable, but then before we can write her off, she suddenly
grabs our interest by some quick, inventive thinking that we
have to admire.
The woman is running away from trouble, and she isn't doing a very good job of it, when she is befriended by an elderly couple, and it turns out the man has stolen some newly developed scientific formula, which could, of course, change the
course of world history, and many readers will begin to wonder if they will be able to keep awake during this trite story.
But then the fun begins.
Various thieves, murderers and government agents start to converge on her, to get the formula, and she is teamed up
with different people depending on who is killing off whom,
as she is paired, usually against her will, with various survivors.
And all the time, she is trying to stay alive by her wits, when she doesn't really understand the nature of the formlula everyone wants, and at the same time, she constantly is thinking
of all the money the thing is worth, and she starts to try to
figure out how to cut herself into the payoff. So she is trying to cut herself into the deal, while at the same time she
knows she is about to be killed by any of the othe particpants.
The author does a nice job of maintaining our interest, and most
readers will want to read to the end, and that is a true mark of
a real mystery.

Rating:
Summary: The \perfect airplane read
Review: \I never heard of this author but the cover of the book was intriguing at the airport bookstore. I finished the book during a 5 hour flight and was impressed with its quality. Great action, interesting plot, fast paced and just what I needed to pass the time enjoyably. I'll be looking for this author's next books. You should, too!