Andrew Gross (1952–2025)

Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross
4.5 Stars

From The Book:
While driving along a suburban back road, Hilary Cantor, who's just lost her job and whose deadbeat husband has left her to care for her son who has Asperger's, witnesses a freakish accident when a deer suddenly darts in front of the car ahead of her. The driver careens down a hill and slams into a tree. Rushing to help, she discovers the car smoking, the driver dead—and a satchel on the floor stuffed with a half million dollars.

That show more money could prevent her family's ruin and keep her son in school. In an instant, this honest, achieving woman who has always done the responsible thing makes a decision that puts her in the center of a maelstrom of unforeseeable consequences and life-threatening recriminations. It isn't long before someone comes looking for the money, and as they get closer and closer to Hilary, she is pulled into a terrifying scheme involving a twenty-year-old murder, an old woman whose entire life has been washed out to sea by the storm, and a powerful figure determined to maintain the secret that can destroy him.

With everything to lose and putting everything she loves at risk, Hilary joins up with a dogged police official from Staten Island who has his own connections to the money and is dealing with his family's tragic struggles in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Together they must fight to bring down an enemy who will stop at nothing to keep buried what that money was meant to silence.

My Thoughts:
What Hillary did was wrong...but you just can't help hoping that she'll get away with it. I found myself completely wrapped up in the story and the characters. Andrew Gross has managed to put an ordinary, everyday person into a breathtakingly suspenseful and dangerous situation and works his magic with the twists and turns that will keep the reader turning the pages to see how it all turns out. All the time you have to ask yourself... "In Hillary's situation would I have done the same thing to protect my family?" show less

In The One Man, Andrew Gross tells a story about the US government's efforts to rescue one man from Auschwitz so that he can help them win the race against the Germans for the atomic bomb.

Alfred Mendl is a physics professor who was trying to make his way to America when he and his family were transported to Auschwitz. His entire life's work was destroyed until he meets a teenage chess prodigy with an eidetic memory and the ability to remember huge amounts of data. Mendl decides to teach him show more all his formulas in the hope that, someday, his work will survive.

Nathan Blum escaped Poland early in the war and made his way to the United States where he joined the army. His ability to speak multiple languages led to his assignment in Intelligence but he wants to do more, especially since learning his family was killed by Nazis. He is asked to take on a potential suicide mission. He has to somehow get himself smuggled into Auschwitz, find out if Mendl is still alive, and get him out. He only has three days between being dropped off and being picked up. If he's discovered or can't make the rendezvous, his life will surely end in a terrifying and painful way.

What a fantastic book. I've never really read anything by Andrew Gross, best known for his collaboration with James Patterson and standalone thrillers. The suspense is the driving force of the story and the plot never loses energy. The characters are wonderfully developed and I became so involved that I never wanted to book to end. Even the secondary characters make a tremendous impact. This is a beautifully written and heartbreaking novel that definitely had me on an emotional roller coaster. If you are sensitive to novels that deal with the Holocaust you might want to skip this, because they do document some of the atrocities during the story. It's inevitable in any novel set in Auschwitz. Otherwise, I can't recommend this book any higher. It's definitely going to be on my favorites list and I can't imagine it will not make my Top Five favorites of 2016. show less

This was by far my favorite in this series thus far. Oh the mystery, the suspense, the tears!!!!!

I can't really write this one without spoilers like I usually try to do so screw it!

OMG. JILL!!!!! WTF. Why did they have to kill her off!!!!!! That royally pissed me off, I LOVED her character!

And FINALLY time for Lindsay to get another love interest and this one ohhhh boy!!!! hold on ladies and well, probably just ladies on this one. He's a charmer.

The case was so well thought out so show more descriptive I really felt it was real and had really happened. Thank God it hasn't and hopefully never will but damn, this book was great!!!!! James Patterson is quickly becoming one of my favorites! I love all these girls in the Murder Club. They're all so different, so driven, and yet the same.... show less

In The One Man, Andrew Gross tells a story about the US government's efforts to rescue one man from Auschwitz so that he can help them win the race against the Germans for the atomic bomb.

Alfred Mendl is a physics professor who was trying to make his way to America when he and his family were transported to Auschwitz. His entire life's work was destroyed until he meets a teenage chess prodigy with an eidetic memory and the ability to remember huge amounts of data. Mendl decides to teach him show more all his formulas in the hope that, someday, his work will survive.

Nathan Blum escaped Poland early in the war and made his way to the United States where he joined the army. His ability to speak multiple languages led to his assignment in Intelligence but he wants to do more, especially since learning his family was killed by Nazis. He is asked to take on a potential suicide mission. He has to somehow get himself smuggled into Auschwitz, find out if Mendl is still alive, and get him out. He only has three days between being dropped off and being picked up. If he's discovered or can't make the rendezvous, his life will surely end in a terrifying and painful way.

What a fantastic book. I've never really read anything by Andrew Gross, best known for his collaboration with James Patterson and standalone thrillers. The suspense is the driving force of the story and the plot never loses energy. The characters are wonderfully developed and I became so involved that I never wanted to book to end. Even the secondary characters make a tremendous impact. This is a beautifully written and heartbreaking novel that definitely had me on an emotional roller coaster. If you are sensitive to novels that deal with the Holocaust you might want to skip this, because they do document some of the atrocities during the story. It's inevitable in any novel set in Auschwitz. Otherwise, I can't recommend this book any higher. It's definitely going to be on my favorites list and I can't imagine it will not make my Top Five favorites of 2016. show less