RECKLESS (Ty Hauck #3) by Andrew Gross

Slow Going At First.

Published in 2010.

Reckless is all about how quickly the world's stock markets can be played by a few bad actors who don't particularly care about making money so much as they care about wreaking havoc, bit this book takes a very long time to get started.

Hauck is in the suburbs of New York City. He is working for a corporation as a security consultant, meaning he investigates people the company may work with and gets involved with internet breaches and the like. Hauck's company is investigating an big-time investor with a hidden past. But, Hauck has a personal connection to the murders of a Wall Street broker and his family and soon finds a connection to a third murder that ties in all three investigations. But, is his company interested in what he finds? Is anyone?

The book is set in the midst of the Wall Street collapse in 2008 that kicked off the Great Recession. Gross does a great job of folding in his fictional companies with the big names that were at the heart of the mess. He also demonstrates one of the ways our economy is vulnerable to foreign manipulation, an idea laid out very clearly in Kevin Freeman's non-fiction book Secret Weapon.

Unfortunately, this book takes a solid 150 pages to really get moving. Once it gets going it is quite the rocket ship, but those first pages are a bit of a slog.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Reckless.

No Way Back: A Novel by Andrew Gross

Not Up To The Standard Set By His Other Books

Published by William Morrow in April of 2013

This is my fifth Andrew Gross novel. Unlike in his other novels, the characters in No Way Back failed to connect with me. The hallmarks of an Andrew Gross novel are all present here: an easy writing style, a quick-moving plot and some sort of shocking event that causes the main characters' lives to spin out of control. But, unlike the other books, I found myself to be lukewarm to all of the "good guys" and the sinister plot that held the bad guys together to be forced.

In No Way Back the reader meets Wendy Gould, a married suburbanite who almost has a one night stand with a handsome  piano player after she has had a horrible fight with her husband. She stops it before they progress to the actual deed and while she is in the bathroom re-arranging her clothes a stranger enters the room, argues with the piano player, tosses a gun to him and then kills him. Wendy steps out, picks up the gun  and then kills the attacker. Then she flees and is framed for both murders.

As the bodies start to pile up, Wendy digs into her case and discovers connections that lead her to a Mexican nanny with a dangerous past.

Nothing about this book was particularly bad, but nothing was particularly great either. The plot moves forwards at a relentless pace, but it is sometimes unclear as to the why and how of how it all comes together. The characters are interesting people but there is nothing there that makes the reader really want to connect to Wendy or to the nanny, Lauritzia Valdez. I read to the end to see how the story ended up but not to see what happened to the characters themselves.

Pet peeves:
#1) the Spanish is atrocious, and this is a recurring problem in Andrew Gross books. I like the fact that he tries to offer some Spanish to lend some authenticity. But, all pretense of authenticity is destroyed when the Spanish is this bad. There are literally millions of native Spanish speakers in this country - please vet your Spanish with any one of them before you publish it.

#2) There is no GMC Explorer. The Explorer has been manufactured by Ford since 1990 and was never ever manufactured by GMC since it is a completely different corporation.

#3) the AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle, not a submachine gun. A submachine gun is a completely automatic weapon (hold down the trigger and it keeps shooting) that is the size of a large pistol (or a little bigger). Think Uzi. The AR-15 is a semi-automatic (you have to pull the trigger every time you shoot) rifle (long gun).

So, in the end the book is 3 out of 5 stars because the characters failed to resonate with me and the plot comes together so suddenly that it isn't remotely plausible. Good beach reading but I suggest any of these other Andrew Gross books instead: Click here.

Reviewed on April 27, 2013.

This book can be purchased on Amazon.com here: No Way Back.

I received this book from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Eyes Wide Open by Andrew Gross

Published in 2011 by Harper Fiction

Andrew Gross just keeps on cranking out solid escapist thrillers. This is not life-changing literature but it sure is a book that can make you late for work in the morning because you just can't put it down!

In Eyes Wide Open we follow Jay Erlich, a New York surgeon. His brother, who lives in Morro Bay, California calls and tells him that his nephew has climbed the giant rock in the bay and fallen to his death from it and the police are ruling it a suicide. Erlich's brother and his nephew both suffer from mental illness but his brother is sure that it is not a suicide. Erlich rushes out to comfort his brother and his sister-in-law and help them figure out what happened.

When he arrives, he discovers that there are a lot of unanswered questions and things look suspicious. The more Erlich digs, the more he discovers that there may be a connection between his nephew's death and a long-forgotten connection between his brother and a Charles Manson-type cult that his brother refuses to discuss...

Morro Bay City with Morro Rock in the background.
Photo by K.J. Kolb

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Eyes Wide Open

Reviewed on December 30, 2012.

15 Seconds by Andrew Gross

To be published July 10, 2012 by William Morrow (DWD's Reviews received a preview copy from the publisher)

Andrew Gross has learned a thing or two from his former writing partner, James Patterson. In this case, he has learned to deliver a great summer read. Nothing too complicated. Don't think about it too much - just go with the book and let it take you for a ride.

In 15 Seconds, we get a man-on-the-run story featuring a man who is falsely accused of murdering a police officer. Henry Steadman is a well-respected plastic surgeon who donates lots of time and money for worthy causes. Suddenly, he's being hunted by every police officer in town for a murder that he did not commit (but he did witness it) - and they are in a shoot first, ask questions later mood. To make matters worse, Henry gets a phone call from the real killer telling him that his daughter has been kidnapped and will be killed if Henry turns himself in.

So, Henry runs for his life while he tries to figure out who really killed the police officer and has taken his daughter.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 15 Seconds.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on May 23, 2012.

The Jester by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

Patterson switches up big time

Published in 2003.

Known for his murder mysteries, James Patterson and co-author Andrew Gross decided to try something new and have given us The Jester, a fun, fast-paced adventure set in war-torn medieval Europe.

Hugh De Luc is a happily married innkeeper until he heads off to fight in the Crusades. The gruesome fighting and wanton disregard for life change and sicken him so he deserts and heads home only to find his wife taken captive and his infant son dead.

At this point, Patterson is on more familiar ground. Hugh De Luc must find out who did it and try to bring him to justice. Unfortunately, medieval customs and laws interfere with that search. Throw in some religious relics and a menacing group of French knights who believe they are condemned to hell and you have the indgredients for a fine book.

Patterson's descriptions of medieval life ring true, although the ending may not have worked out so well in a real medieval scenario. Nevertheless, it was lots of fun and a big improvement over the Women's Murder Club series.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Jester.

Reviewed on July 16, 2006.

Don't Look Twice: A Novel (Ty Hauck #2) by Andrew Gross

Much like his mentor, Gross provides a readable, entertaining read

Published in 2009.

Much like his mentor James Patterson, Andrew Gross has written a readable crime novel with plenty of twists and turns, lots of personal stuff thrown in and written in a pleasant, accessible style.

Don't Look Twice: A Novel is the second in a series about Ty Hauck but you do not have to have read the first to follow what's going on in this installment. The story is chock full of short chapters and the trail is complicated, but not impossibly so.

My one pet peeve is the Spanish in the book. It only appears on two pages in my Advance Reader's Edition but it is awful. "Victor no es aqui" is not proper or even remotely adequate Spanish. This is Spanish One material. It sounds like something from a poorly used translator website. C'mon now, Mr. Gross. There are millions of native speakers throughout the country. Find one and have him or her vet your Spanish in the future. It should have been "Victor no está aquí."

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Don't Look Twice.

Reviewed on March 10, 2009.