Iron House

John Hart is a terrific writer. And what can be more satisfying than a thriller that does not read like an airplane book? Iron House is one of the most violent books I’ve read, but also one of the most incredibly touching. There were scenes so monstrous that at times I had to splay my fingers across my cerebral cortex. And yet at its heart, and most saliently, is the theme of an impassioned dedication to love and family. And it is that latter aspect that really defines the story and that makes the most lasting impression.

Iron House is an orphanage from hell in the mountains of North Carolina. Michael, 10, and Julian, 9, have lived there most of their lives, having been abandoned by a creek just after Julian was born. Julian is the show more weaker of the two and is brutally picked on by a group of vicious bullies at Iron House. When Julian finally kills one of his attackers, Michael takes the blame and then runs away. Julian is adopted by a very rich senator's wife, Abigail Vane, who had actually intended to take both the boys, had not Michael vanished.

The story is picked up again when Michael is 33, and has just told the man who adopted him - the fabled crime boss Otto Kaitlin, that he is quitting the business. Otto picked Michael up off the street and took him under his wing, making him his enforcer but also giving him a home and love. Now Kaitlin is dying of cancer, and Michael has a girlfriend, Elena, who is pregnant with his baby. Ordinarily, no one is allowed just to give up the life and quit. But Kaitlin released Michael and gave orders that he was to be left alone. Michael knows, though, that as soon as Kaitlin takes his last breath, the others will be after him. Stevan, Kaitlin’s real son, is jealous that his father loved Michael more, and wants him dead. And Jimmy, the brutal sadist who also works for Kaitlin and who taught Michael to kill, told Michael: "Nobody walks away, Michael. That’s how it’s always been. The old man was wrong to tell you that you could.”

Kaitlin dies, and from there, the story takes off in a white-knuckled ride as Michael fights to save his own life as well as the lives of the only other people he loves in the world: his brother, his girl, and their baby.

Evaluation: There are some incredible portraits drawn in this book, including Arabella, one of the most evil female characters you will find anywhere, and Abigail, one of the strongest. There are profound depths of love and hate shown in this book that enable you to understand the moments of torture and horror as something much more than an authorial desire to titillate; rather they are a vivid manifestation of the powerful emotions that roil and bubble through this story like huge and hazardous whitewater rapids.

My advice? Get a raft, wear a life jacket, and jump in the water. This book will scare you and fling you up and dump you out, and when you finally reach the shore, you’ll find that not only was it worth the ride, but that it wasn’t anything but love that saved you. show less

IRON HOUSE by John Hart begins with Michael and his pregnant lover, Elena, but soon switches to flashback so we understand what he means when he worries that she doesn’t really know him or know about all the horrible things he’s done. We learn that Michael and his brother, Julian, were partly raised in an orphanage, Iron House. It was a miserable place, for Julian especially. He was a very weak person, but he did have Michael to protect him. And here is where Michael learned to be tough.

Julian is adopted by rich parents, and Michael is not. He ends up, instead, being raised in a Mafia-type mob. Then he meets Elena, and he wants out.

But Michael kills, an act of mercy, the dying “old man” he loves. The “old man” was the head show more of the mob, the person who rescued Michael when he was a boy. So Michael becomes the mob’s enemy. They hunt for him. And, he learns, the mob is also trying to get to Elena and Julian, who Michael hasn’t seen since Julian was adopted.

In the meantime, Julian lives with his adoptive parents, even now as an adult. But, in spite of every material advantage and his mother’s love and devotion, he never does well. He is permanently scarred by his experiences at Iron House. And he doesn’t have Michael to protect him anymore.

Now Michael and Elena are on the run for their lives. Rather than leave the country, though, Michael insists they find Julian so all these years later he can once again protect him.

IRON HOUSE, like Hart’s other novels, will suck you in right away. And you won’t be able to put it down easily, either. I tried. A book arrived in the mail after I had started IRON HOUSE. I needed to read the other book in 3 days. I couldn’t.

IRON HOUSE got better and better, right to the end. Whatever I guessed turned out to be something else.

Few authors can write a thriller like Hart does. While most are plot driven and formulaic, Hart’s are character driven as well plot driven and far superior. So it not only keeps you up at night like a great thriller should; it also makes you care about the characters.

Michael is the star of this story, and of course you’ll love him. But I wonder if I don’t love Julian’s mother even more. show less

Michael was orphaned as a young child, acted as protector to his sickly younger brother in an orphanage, and was forced out of the boys' home after another boy turned up dead. Michael took to the streets, learned to fend for himself, and eventually earned a reputation as a leader. A New York crime boss took Michael under his wing and made him part of the family. Now Michael is in love, expecting a child of his own, and wants out of the organized crime life. Although Otto, the dying crime boss, is willing to let him go, the people standing in line to fill Otto's shoes are not as forgiving. When Otto dies, Michael finds himself fighting to save the only things he really loves - his girlfriend and unborn child, and the brother he left show more behind. Digging into his past, Michael discovers that nothing is what it seems and the only way to survive is to unravel the mystery surrounding his early life.

In Iron House, John Hart has created an interesting character. Michael is a hired killer and a good man wrapped into one complex package. Yes, Michael kills, but only those who deserve it. And he'll do anything to protect those he loves. But Iron House isn't just about Michael and the book is filled with many richly drawn characters. Julian, Michael's damaged and struggling brother. Elena, his conflicted and loving girlfriend. Abigail, Julian's fiercely protective and carefully manicured adoptive mother. And the North Carolina countryside from the richest stately summer estates to the poorest of Appalachian valley hovels serves as a backdrop. The plot is complicated and twisty and intertwined in ways I never expected and when it all comes together at the end, no thread is left hanging. This is my fourth John Hart read and although it isn't my favorite, it reinforces the fact that he does a great job with small town, literate, Southern suspense.

There was one thing about this book that I really disliked: the conflating of schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder). These are two completely different things. Mental illness has long been stigmatized by our society and misinformation like this does little to help the cause. Schizophrenia is a neuropsychological disorder causing changes in the brain chemistry and structure. There is a genetic component and the disorder does run in families, though the exact cause in unknown. Multiple personality disorder is thought to be rooted in a traumatic event in childhood, which overwhelms a persons inherent coping abilities. One disease is not a more severe version of the other - they are entirely unrelated. Why does this matter? Reading fiction can be a great way to learn new things. With unfamiliar topics, people will take information presented by the author at face value. Information interestingly delivered, in an engaging and engrossing story for example, is "sticky." Readers will remember. And in this case, the "facts" people will remember about mental illness (a topic already rife with inaccuracies and fear) are patently false. It's an unfortunate distraction from an otherwise gripping novel. show less

Iron House is John Hart’s fourth novel but I have to confess that I did not come onboard until his second one, Down River. That one is still my favorite of the three I have read to this point (and, in fact, it earned Hart his first Edgar Award for best novel in May 2008), but each successive novel has been instrumental in enhancing Hart’s well deserved fame and reputation for writing superb thrillers. In April 2010, The Lost Child turned his second and third novels into back-to-back winners of the Edgar for best novel, a truly remarkable achievement. Now, all the buzz is about Iron House, a book that many critics and Hart fans are calling his best ever.

Iron House offers the story of two brothers who were very lucky to survive their show more infancy, only to be thrust into a brutal orphanage setting that emotionally crippled one of them and caused the other to run for his life when he was just ten years old. Michael, just a little older than the brother he left behind, but physically and mentally much tougher than Julian, finds his way to New York and a life on the streets. From there, just in the nick of time, the boy is taken under the wing of a New York mob boss who comes to think of Michael as a son.

But now Michael wants out of the family business. The man he considers the only father he has ever had is dying, and Michael receives his blessing to leave the mob and begin a new life with the woman who is carrying his child. He knows, however, that it will not be that simple. Two people, the boss’s real son and the mob’s chief enforcer, are determined that Michael will not walk away cleanly and they are only waiting for the old man to die before they make their move. Michael’s choices are these: stay in the mob, use his money and connections to start a new life in some remote corner of the world, or kill his two enemies before they can do the same to him and his lover.

Only when Michael is briefly reunited with his long lost brother does he realize that this is just the tip of a very dirty iceberg.

John Hart does not write run-of-the-mill thrillers. He explores how his characters became the people they are and why they act the way they do. He spends as much time developing their inner lives and their relationships with other characters as he does moving his thrilling plots along. If there is such a thing as a “literary thriller,” Hart has to be considered one of the masters of the subgenre. Make no mistake about it, however - this rather dark book is filled with graphic violence, chaotic twists and turns, and scenes that will long stick in the minds of imaginative readers. It is not an easy book to forget, one that fans of psychological suspense most definitely should not miss.

Rated at: 5.0 show less

Like many thrillers, this requires the reader to suspend their disbelief to some degree, but I had no trouble doing so, thanks to its readability and pure entertainment factor. It's long-ish but read very quickly. I appreciate how Hart doesn't just use plot to move things forward - his characters are interesting and well-developed. I look forward to reading more by him.

4 stars

Iron House is the orphanage where Michael and Julian lived as small children, After the death of one bully by Julian, Michael takes the blame and leaves, His story of living on the streets of New York end when he is taken in by a mob boss, Otto Kaitlin. Michael is a killer but has never killed for hate but always because of a reason, he feels.
Elena is the pregnant girlfriend of Michael and does not know of his past life. Michael wants out of the life he now has and wants to marry Elena and begin a new life. Otto Kaitlin has died and now the mob wants to kill Michael.
Julian has been adopted by Abigail, a senator's wife. She had gone to Iron House to adopt two boys that had certain criteria but Michael had already left and she adopted show more Julian, a fragile and weak boy.
Both become adults in different ways; Michael is strong and Julian is weak.
This book is filled with surprising twists and turns; about the time the reader thinks they understand what is happening, there is someone or something added. Everything falls into place and the reader finds the connections. As a reader, I could feel the emotions of the characters, good or bad ones.
"Iron House" is full of violence and death; it is also filled with loyalty and caring.
I personally do not care for the language or violence in books but it seems to fit the characters and it is what helps makes "Iron House" such a thriller.
This is my first book by John Hart and I did like the book and the suspense it held for me.
I wish to thank John Hart for the opportunity to read and review "Iron House".
I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book from the author to read and review. The opinions are my own. show less

Iron House is a complex page turner in every sense. John Hart is a fantastic storyteller, he draws the reader in with a wonderful narrative that is effortless to read.

The first couple of chapters set the tone for the entire book and its pace doesn't let up throughout. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, you find out you really had no idea.

The characters are also impressive. While there is a main character, Iron House isn’t just about him. Relationships play a key role in shaping how the book begins and ends.

A book that deserves to be devoured, Iron House is one of those books that will leave you wanting more.

This is a First-Reads review of an ARC edition.