Tunnel

Rating:
Summary: Tunnel
Review: As an avid reader of mysteries and thrillers, I was amazed at how bad this book was. I read at least two novels per week (I am retired) and this ranks among the five worst novels that I have read. The story has been done at least a hundred times before, and the writing was very poor. It seemed like the writer was double parked and was in a hurry. It must have been written with a screenplay in mind because it certainly was not a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent thriller
Review: Gunther is a genius even if he uses his talent to rob banks with the precision of a successful military foray. However, stealing $3 million is not enough for Gunther. Instead, he plans to blackmail the City of New York out of $10 million.

Gunther and his associates crash cars that seal the Lincoln Tunnel trapping several thousand motorists inside. The group claiming to be the Beirut Brigade has bombs set to release gas that will kill everyone if the terrorists fail to receive the cash. New York City police captain Jake Malloy, a former Navy SEAL, heads the counter-terrorist team that is running out of time. Besides having to deal or perhaps ignore the interference from the brass, Jake's beloved girlfriend is among those trapped inside the deadly TUNNEL.

One of the surest literary bets is that a Walter Wager novel will be a fast-paced exciting thriller. His latest tale, TUNNEL, is a superb novel that never slows down. Although, readers will appreciate Jake's personal terror while he struggles to save the lives of many innocent bystanders, the story line is action, action, and more action. As with Mr. Wager's previous tales (see TELEFON and 58 MINUTES, etc.), the TUNNEL is another triumphant thriller that never eases off the throttle.

Rating:
Summary: Zippy Tale
Review: This book is one of the quickest reads I've ever encountered. It's almost impossible to put down. The terrorist plot at the center of the book is nothing new, and the hero of the story is an unblemished impossibility of a person, but the story holds together and delivers non-stop entertainment. If you're looking for great prose don't read this book, but if you're looking for a great read...grab it!

Rating:
Summary: Action movie in print
Review: To judge from previous reader's reviews Tunnel has not so much divided opinion as polarised it between those who see it as a rollercoaster ride of a book with white knuckle tension,and those who demur from this position deeming it badly written schlock
At the risk of seeming craven I must aver that both sides are correct.Wager writes in a sloppy way that trembles on the cusp of functional illiteracy,with poorly developed characters and dialogue recalling the limper and less intellectual Van Damme movies in its banality and facile humour.Characters are sketchily drawn and frankly unbelievable
Yet it does keep the reader churning over the pages ,even if only to discover just how plain naff the whole thing can get.Nobody can claim the book undersells itself in the plot department-it gives us spies of the former East Germany turned bank robbers turned terrorists intent on blowing up the Lincoln Tunnel;a defecting Soviet General (ex KGB),a steely jawed maverick hero and his would be assassins from the drugs cartel in Columbia not to mention his cop girlfriend who is undercover with said gang
It is frankly ridiculous but also compulsive in its narrative drive.Forget the book and go see the movie if it ever gets made

Marked down a point because of my doubts -post 9/11- of making terrorist attacks in New York a subject for such superficial material

Rating:
Summary: Tunnel a deep hole of a story
Review: What was Walt doing while writing this story? Why didn't he bother reviewing what he wrote? It seems he decided to have Tunnel published before he was even done writing it!
Sure, it's a great story idea, the first 10 times it was used, but so much was left out, dropped, left unexplained or glossed over, it seems Wager cared less about his story or us, the readers.
His characters, Gunther, Mirror, "the woman with the fake southern accent and excellent sexual skills" (could he at least given her a name?!), seem to be characters in a TV commercial, that's how much their actions and motivations make sense.
If Wager had spent an extra weekend going through his story and cleaned it up some, it could have made an excellent "Charlie's Angels" episode.

Rating:
Summary: TUNNEL - A passage of crime and terror
Review: When the cold war ends, Soviet bloc spies in the United States turn their attention and skills to crimes - robbing banks, killing innocent people and hostage taking. Hiding behind the political pretense of the so-called Beirut Brigade, the thugs move their operation to the Big Apple for one last big heist. But the Joint Task Force on Terrorism has an adversary the Brigade did not count on: Jake Malloy, a New York cop and Navy ex-Seal with a gun, strong instincts, and a belief in the Golden Rule. Malloy puts the clues together from the various crime scenes and hunts the bad guys down in a climatic ending. TUNNEL is action packed from start to finish, and does not let you come up for air until the end.

Rating:
Summary: TUNNEL - A passage of crime and terror
Review: When the cold war ends, Soviet bloc spies in the United States turn their attention and skills to crimes - robbing banks, killing innocent people and hostage taking. Hiding behind the political pretense of the so-called Beirut Brigade, the thugs move their operation to the Big Apple for one last big heist. But the Joint Task Force on Terrorism has an adversary the Brigade did not count on: Jake Malloy, a New York cop and Navy ex-Seal with a gun, strong instincts, and a belief in the Golden Rule. Malloy puts the clues together from the various crime scenes and hunts the bad guys down in a climatic ending. TUNNEL is action packed from start to finish, and does not let you come up for air until the end.