The Second Thief

Rating:
Summary: A Fast-Paced Read with aTwist at the End...
Review: Although this novel hit the ground running, I found the story a little "typical" and too bland. The author keeps your attention through a plane crash early in the book, but other than that, the first half seems mostly uneventful.

After drudging through that part, the author takes a new twist and envelops the character in a chase across the country. With a surprise twist at the end that I never guessed coming, Mr. Thrasher has won me over as a new fan.

I would definately recommend this book. The message is heart-warming and the end really throws you for a loop. Don't let the first few chapters get in the way of this great story!

Rating:
Summary: A Fast-Paced Read with aTwist at the End...
Review: Although this novel hit the ground running, I found the story a little "typical" and too bland. The author keeps your attention through a plane crash early in the book, but other than that, the first half seems mostly uneventful.

After drudging through that part, the author takes a new twist and envelops the character in a chase across the country. With a surprise twist at the end that I never guessed coming, Mr. Thrasher has won me over as a new fan.

I would definately recommend this book. The message is heart-warming and the end really throws you for a loop. Don't let the first few chapters get in the way of this great story!

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking, Moving Tale of Second Chances
Review: The Second Thief the third novel of Travis Thrasher, author of 'The Promise Remains' and 'The Watermark.' Writes this thought-provoking story about a desperate man, Tom Ledger, living on the edge in search of comfort and ease. It begins as Tom is willing to risk his own soul, maybe his own life by stealing his employer's closely guarded secret of vital company documents to the highest bidder. Not knowing what is going to happen to him-within hours of commiting his first crime. He's flung into a life and death drama. He boards an airplane along with one man, Kent Marks. The one man who will introduce him to the one thing that will save his life. Suddenly the airplane drops like a rock into a Nebraska cornfield. One thing of a miracle, he survives the crash. Now he faces what could be the final moments of his life.

Even at the most crucial time Tom's attempt at prayer is self-serving. Like something out of the Twilight Zone, Tom walks away from the wreckage. Tom takes a journey through the seedy underworld searching for answers why he was spared from the accident. Why was he given a second chance? That's what Tom Ledger got. When we get second chances everyday. Tom had his second chance before his final journey. He meets Earl after his rescue. This old fellow helps him in his search for life and God. Then flashbacks and fast forwards of his aunt and uncle Dale & Lily, his estranged brother Sean and his former girlfriend, Allegra and the son he never knew, Tommy. Everything he left behind had come to find him. The second chances of making things right. Here he confronts his past and all the consequences he must encounters with all the corporate espionage, terror and even murder. Trying to connect with his past he makes life and death decisions. I'll leave the question to you, the reader. Will he make the choice to follow a path that will destroy everything that he ever held dear? Or, will he find another way to his redemption and salvation? Like Tom, if you were given a second chance. What would you choose? Just remember, the Thirty-Second Psalm [Psalm 32]. It sure let me see the light about second chances. Perhaps it will for you, too.

Rating:
Summary: A ride worth taking
Review: This is the second novel I've read by Mr. Thrasher, and it has secured him a place on my shelf. The Second Thief is a fast-paced ride through the 48 (or so) hours surrounding one man's near death experience in a fiery plane crash. The novel's main focus is on the flicker of life in this man's insular life as a result of the accident. Given life when many died, he tries to avoid his rapidly approaching past long enough to find out "Why Me?". Why should he survive when so many died, and what is the burden that accompanies that gift?

Travis Thrasher again creates believable characters, but doesn't flesh them out much during this short novel. That's okay, since they aren't the point. While the book has action, this isn't the point either. The real novel is inside Tom Ledger's head, as Thrasher once again shows us the inner workings of a guilty conscience and a rocky past. While Ledger is very deadpan in his self-analysis, the gradual increases in emotion and insight are the rewards that appear as the novel progresses. This Pinocchio's wooden heart is slowly struggling to become real, and THAT is what the novel wants its readers to care about. And this is exactly what it does. A fine read.

Rating:
Summary: A ride worth taking
Review: This is the second novel I've read by Mr. Thrasher, and it has secured him a place on my shelf. The Second Thief is a fast-paced ride through the 48 (or so) hours surrounding one man's near death experience in a fiery plane crash. The novel's main focus is on the flicker of life in this man's insular life as a result of the accident. Given life when many died, he tries to avoid his rapidly approaching past long enough to find out "Why Me?". Why should he survive when so many died, and what is the burden that accompanies that gift?

Travis Thrasher again creates believable characters, but doesn't flesh them out much during this short novel. That's okay, since they aren't the point. While the book has action, this isn't the point either. The real novel is inside Tom Ledger's head, as Thrasher once again shows us the inner workings of a guilty conscience and a rocky past. While Ledger is very deadpan in his self-analysis, the gradual increases in emotion and insight are the rewards that appear as the novel progresses. This Pinocchio's wooden heart is slowly struggling to become real, and THAT is what the novel wants its readers to care about. And this is exactly what it does. A fine read.