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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
The Ghostman is back. After laying low for six months, gambling for high stakes, Just Jack, is bored, bored, bored. So when he gets an email from Angela, his mentor, through an old dead drop, he drops everything and flies off to Macau to help her. Meanwhile, Angela was the jugmaker for a heist of uncut sapphires, except everything goes wrong and too many people are trying to kill her. What else was on the smuggling boat coming out of Singapore? Jack and Angela will have to find it in less than 24 hours to stay alive. Adrenaline ride all the way.
This sequel to Hobbs' astonishingly assured debut, Ghostman, picks up the story of "Jack White", a cipher who wanders the world pulling off heists and killing time until the next job. Ghostman introduced us to Jack in a whirlwind 48 hour job in Atlantic City, intercut with flashbacks to a job gone wrong in Kuala Lumpur five years earlier. That narrative structure is repeated here, as Jack is jolted from his downtime by an urgent call -- this time from his mentor Angela, whom he hasn't seen since the Kuala Lumpur job. In the blink of an eye he's flying halfway around the world to help her get out of a tricky situation in Macau (as featured in the recent James Bond film, Skyfall).
Echoing the first book, this one is 48 hours of hotel break-ins, boat chases, twists and turns, and all manner of underworld details. It's these details that made the first book so engrossing (although to be fair, I have no idea to what extent all the details are true). Once again, Hobbs has crammed all manner of criminal process into the fairly basic story, from how to break into hotel safes, the proper use and disposal of burner phones, repurposing a limousine as a roving hideout, self-surgery on one's eyeball, the different levels of counterfeit dollars, triad godfathers operating out of hole in the wall food stalls, taping a gun to your body so that the tape won't interfere with the firing mechanism, and on and on.
It's a fun ride, but it would benefit from a bit more character development. Jack appears to be motivated purely by thrills, and Angela is a just as shallow a character. Their relationship is key to the plot, but it's never given its due -- there's a flashback to their initial meeting which is kind nice, but there needed to be a bit more to build up their apparently non-romantic dynamic. Still, if you like thrillers with lots of procedural detail, you'll definitely want to pick this up.
Echoing the first book, this one is 48 hours of hotel break-ins, boat chases, twists and turns, and all manner of underworld details. It's these details that made the first book so engrossing (although to be fair, I have no idea to what extent all the details are true). Once again, Hobbs has crammed all manner of criminal process into the fairly basic story, from how to break into hotel safes, the proper use and disposal of burner phones, repurposing a limousine as a roving hideout, self-surgery on one's eyeball, the different levels of counterfeit dollars, triad godfathers operating out of hole in the wall food stalls, taping a gun to your body so that the tape won't interfere with the firing mechanism, and on and on.
It's a fun ride, but it would benefit from a bit more character development. Jack appears to be motivated purely by thrills, and Angela is a just as shallow a character. Their relationship is key to the plot, but it's never given its due -- there's a flashback to their initial meeting which is kind nice, but there needed to be a bit more to build up their apparently non-romantic dynamic. Still, if you like thrillers with lots of procedural detail, you'll definitely want to pick this up.
This is the sequel to Ghostman, by the improbably young (27) Roger Hobbs. It started off great, with the best takeoff riff I've read in years, then goes downhill, almost as if the kid hit a deadline and rushed the last half. The virtues of Ghostman -- the clever mind games, the techno detail -- is replaced by gunplay and wrestling. The descriptions of exotic Macau are pallid, the dialogue stilted, the villains totally unbelievable. Hobbs has lost his way, but at his age he's got plenty of time to reboot.
Roger Hobbs writes a good thriller. I liked his “Ghostman” and I liked this sequel, which was easy and interesting and fast. And yes, I’ll read his next one. They’re fast food novels.
I liked it very much. Not as good as his first but I still enjoy his characters and the storyline moves along quickly and holds your attention.
Jack the Ghostman is backed, this time his mentor, Angela needs his help. After a heist to steal some uncut sapphires worth millions of dollars goes wrong, Angela finds herself in trouble. An unknown crime organisation seems to be after her and she is stuck in Macau without any help. She turned to her protégé in the hope to get back the sapphires and get out alive.
I remember Ghostman to be a fun, fast paced heist novel so when book two, Vanishing Games was released, I knew I would eventually read it. What worked really well in the book was the setting; Macau becomes this mysterious city full of uncertainty. A sovereign state of China, Macau is one of the richest countries in the world, thanks to housing the largest gambling district. A tourist attraction for high rollers, but still housing a seedy underbelly. I had a lot of fun with this book, it was fun and action packed, but still a typical heist novel which is not a bad thing.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/thriller/mini-reviews-crime-edition/
I remember Ghostman to be a fun, fast paced heist novel so when book two, Vanishing Games was released, I knew I would eventually read it. What worked really well in the book was the setting; Macau becomes this mysterious city full of uncertainty. A sovereign state of China, Macau is one of the richest countries in the world, thanks to housing the largest gambling district. A tourist attraction for high rollers, but still housing a seedy underbelly. I had a lot of fun with this book, it was fun and action packed, but still a typical heist novel which is not a bad thing.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/thriller/mini-reviews-crime-edition/