THE SURVIVOR - Gregg Hurwitz

My review of Gregg Hurwitz's THE SURVIVOR appeared yesterday in Shelf Awareness for Readers. I am re-posting it here with their permission. Shelf Awareness for Readers is a free email newsletter about what's new in great reading. You can sign up to receive it at the bottom of my blog. Plus you'll be entered in the current contest which is for a copy of Lee Child's A WANTED MAN.  O.k. on to my review:

First line: "From this height the cars looked like dominoes, the pedestrians like roving dots."

Nate Overbay is a professional crisis responder with the Los Angeles Police Department. But his job doesn’t help him when he’s the one in crisis. His wife and daughter left, he’s tested positive for Lou Gerig’s disease and Nate feels he has nothing left. So he’s decided to commit suicide. Fate decided otherwise.

Just as Nate’s about to take a nose-dive off a building, a gang of gunmen erupt inside the bank. Deciding he’s going to die one way or the other, Nate charges in taking the gunmen by surprise. But becoming the hero just put Nate’s family in grave danger. The suicide will have to wait.

Gregg Hurwitz (You’re Next) consistently creates explosive openings to his thrillers. The Survivor is his most forceful yet. Using a combination of fast-action sequences and passionately charged circumstances, Hurwitz will ignite readers’ heart rates with an extra jolt of adrenaline.

While Nate experiences extraordinary circumstances, he is also a character readers will easily relate to: daily struggles of his job, relating to a teenage daughter, paying the bills, coping with divorce. And the characters’ painfully realistic relationships keep the momentum of the book in overdrive.

The Survivor is more than a tightly woven, fast-moving plot. Hurwitz sagaciously examines tough interpersonal issues as well as current social issues, like soldiers coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And in the midst of heavy subject matter, Hurwitz is funny. His dialogue is sharp and witty.

Readers who are already fans of Hurwitz will not be disappointed. Readers who have not yet discovered Hurwitz should pick up The Survivor.

The Survivor is available in hardcover (ISBN: 9780312625511) from St. Martin's Press and on unabridged audio (ISBN: 9781455882502), narrated by Scott Brick, from Brilliance Audio.