Panic

Well well well, I can understand why Harlan Coben is such a great fan of this thriller writer – lots of similarities between Abbott and Coben – lots of pace, plot twists and hardly any character development or depth, just plain die-hard good guys versus bad guys. Abbott is crafty – short sentences, lots of action, never a dull moment. But in order to keep the pace and suspense going Abbott has to insert (unlikely) twists, stay pretty primal (good vs evil) and keep his shot-up and tortured protagonists going as if they were Robocop. Evan is a film maker and has just gotten entangled with the beautiful Carrie, when he is called urgently to his mom’s place 3 hours drive away. When he arrives home, he enters a horror scenario – show more his mom strangled in the kitchen, himself being strapped up by two guys, then a third character saving him by shooting the rope he dangles from in two, Evan running off with this third guy, feeling kidnapped and then Evan decides to escape, so he ends up in a police car and on his way to the Station is violently kidnapped again by guy no.3, etc etc… You get my point?

Basically the plot revolves around a bunch of former KGB sleepers, inserted as orphans in a burnt down orphanage in Ohio (wiping out their records), who subsequently go private, selling corporate intelligence to spy agencies and competitors across the world. They form a network called the deeps, each operating from its own vantage point (some from within the CIA). And for some reason (unclear which) Evan’s parents want out, his mom collating a file with names and personal details of members of the deeps and their clients. As soon as the bad guy and his son (Jargo and his mentally disturbed, sadistic son Dezz) sniff a scent of potential treason, they clamp down on Evan and his mom. And hence Evan ends in a week long hunt for the files, in order to extract himself, his dad and Carrie, while having to deal at the same time with a traitor-baiter who is ex CIA.

End of story? All dead, including Evan’s dad, and Evan and Carrie are wounded but save to start a wonderful love life on a tropical island. Duh… show less

Evan Casher is a young documentary film maker whose life is thrown into turmoil when his mother urges him to return to his home town of Austin Texas immediately. When he does, he discovers her body on the kitchen floor of their family home and the killers are still there. Believing Evan has some information they want, the killers torture him then leave him for dead but he is rescued by someone claiming to be one of the good guys. What follows is a wild ride with spies, double agents and lots of unnecessary killing.

This is a perfectly serviceable thriller in which a normal person is thrown into extraordinary circumstances. There’s action a-plenty and a main character who is charming enough that I wanted him to beat the bad guys show more (however unlikely it should have been). However, I found the plot overly complex but not as engaging as it might have been. There seemed to be a few too many unnecessary twists on top of what was basically a story about a list of names. At no point during the entire book did I care a jot whose name was on the list or what happened to it and when the list was all anyone was talking about it made for some dull spots.
As with all thrillers of this type you have to suspend your disbelief about whether or not an average bloke could suddenly develop the skills to take on a gang of well-trained mercenaries and the CIA in MacGyver-like fashion but I found it more difficult than it should have been to do that here. However I’ll acknowledge that if I’d enjoyed the story more I’d have been less picky about the absurdities of Evan’s success against all the well-trained killers he faced.

To be fair to the author, part of my problem with this particular reading experience had nothing to do with the author. The narrator of the audio version I listened to struggled quite a bit to maintain the separate voices for each character (perhaps due to their large number) and some of the voices were just plain jarring to the ear. In particular the voice of one of the two main bad guys annoyed me intensely and, although there weren’t many of them, the bits of action that involved British characters were plain awful.

To me there was nothing unique about this thriller but it’s the kind of thing lots of people, including the types who commission Hollywood movies these days, really enjoy. There’s loads of action sequences, a decent amount of interesting deaths, a particularly nasty villain, an explosion or two and minimal character development. I’d have preferred a touch more credibility and a few less fight sequences but that’s just me. If you’re going to tackle Panic though I really wouldn’t recommend this audio version. show less

This book was solidly okay. It was one of my first thrillers, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but reading this book was essentially like watching a stereotypical action movie. Gunfire, car chases, and obligatory references to the CIA, FBI, and KGB abound. The book was technically fine, but there was nothing here to really make it stand out or catch my interest. I picked it up initially as a sort of random selection at my library, and it sounded interesting, as the dust jacket hinted to someone whose life wasn't what they'd always believed. This was accurate, but so much time was spent on the action in the story that I didn't feel completely invested in the personal aspects like this. Additionally, the actual plot wasn't nearly as show more unique as the dust jacket had led me to believe; even as someone who doesn't regularly watch action movies or read their literary equivalents, it fell pretty perfectly into the expectations that the Bourne movies and Salt have set for me.

Long story short, if you like high-action stories and spy thrillers, this will probably be right up your alley, but I was hoping for something with slightly more emotional or intellectual depth. show less

A book that delivers what it sets out to do, which is take the reader on a twisting, turning rollercoaster t breakneck speed. It's full of unexpected events, people who aren't what they seem, double-crossing and so on. That said, it's not the sort of thing I generally go for; in general I would prefer character development over relentless action, but once in a while something like this is fine. If page-turning action is your bag, you could do a lot worse than this.

Proclaimed as "One of the year's best books" on the cover, I was obviously expecting something very good. However on the contrary, I was bitterly disappointed. 2005 was clearly a very bad year for publication.

If you're a fan of the fast-paced and simplistically written novels of Dan Brown, then you'll like this. The pace of the story is so fast that you've barely come to terms with what's just happened, before you're being transported to a completely different world altogether, within the space of 2 pages. Incidentally, the characters are weak and hard to like, and it's a book that's difficult to really lose yourself in. The story additionally keeps on twisting and turning into the farfetched until you find yourself lost altogether and show more not really caring what ridiculous twist the story is going to take next.

Definitely not recommended. Watch the film instead, if/when it inevitably comes out! show less

Evan Casher is a documentary maker of some minor note, a young man on the road to success. His parents love him; he has an incredible new girlfriend; everything's going swimmingly. Until, that is, he finds his mother horrifically murdered and nearly gets killed himself. Then he discovers that everything he knew--everything he thought he knew--about his life is a lie. His parents never were the people he believed them to be, and now he's in danger--from his mother's killers, from the CIA, the FBI, and maybe, just maybe, his own friends and family. He's going to have to toss aside the sheltered life he's lived and learn to play hardball if he wants to survive.

In many ways this is a very well-constructed book. The characters come alive show more with detail. The plot twists and turns unexpectedly, threading its way through layer upon layer of deceit. Plenty of action kicks up the pages. So why couldn't I get into "Panic"?

The characters felt as though the author constantly held them at arms' length. They were very well-detailed to be sure, but I didn't feel close to them. I never really cared for them. Characters--and how much you identify with them--make or break a book, and they're part of what broke this book for me. Even when the book gets into Evan's head it feels like it maintains a restrained distance.

Many of the characters in this book are supposed to be worldly, experienced, intelligent, highly-competent spies and assassins. Yet they don't come across that way. Sure, it's good to show that spies and assassins aren't supermen and superwomen, that they're human and have flaws too, but these folk come across as fatally foolish and clumsy in places. I honestly couldn't believe that they'd been in business as long as they had. In particular, Evan seemed entirely too much the emergent prodigy as he battled the overwhelming forces arrayed against him--or maybe it's just that he seemed that way compared to their unprofessional antics.

Full review at ErrantDreams show less

Evan Casher, who makes films, has a telephone call from his mum, she needs him to visit her straight away, it's over 2 hours away, but there is an urgency there that he cannot refuse. So begins his great adventure: Who works for the CIA? Who are the baddies and who are the good guys? Where does Carrie (his girlfriend) fit into all this?

This is an absolutely fantastic read, you never quite know where it's going to head next. I was wondering if I was going to enjoy the book initially as I had seen some low ratings, but I'm glad that didn't deter me. It was totally wonderful escapism. I enjoyed Evan as a character and enjoyed seeing him grow in his travels deeper into the world of espionage.

This is well worth a read, especially anyone who show more enjoys a light espionage thriller.

Review here: http://bookannelid.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/panic-by-jeff-abbott/ show less