Trust No One

Fast paced thriller that takes off like a rocket and does not slow down for one second. There are lots of twists and turns to the plot. This one will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. I found some of the plot points a bit hard to believe but none diminished my enjoyment. The ending is particularly satisfying. I listened to the audio version and I can't recommend the narrator highly enough. Patrick Lawlor is excellent.

This is my first reading of a Gregg Hurwitz book. I must admit I had not heard of him before. But, I was taken by the way he presented his characters, how he unfolded the story at a pace that made it difficult to put the book down. And, if you did, you had this urge to get back to the book from wherever you were. That's what a good book has to be, something that's in the back of your mind until the last page. I think anyone who picks up the book will sense that craving at work.

WE KNOW is the second book from Gregg Hurwitz, which was released in 2008. This is a review very much in the spirit of better late than never, as this is a book that is just the thing for fans of big, over-the-top, clever, pitch-perfect thrillers.

You really have to remember that WE KNOW is a thriller. The central character Nick Horrigan obviously has a secret which is obviously going to be slowly revealed as the book progresses (well it becomes obvious after a seat of the pants opening scene). Not everyone with a secret, however, gets a SWAT team descending from a Black Hawk helicopter in the middle of the night to smash their way into their apartment. What on earth sort of a secret is it that would make Nick the sort of person that a show more terrorist, threatening to blow up a nuclear power station, ask to speak to? Alone.

WE KNOW is quite simply a wow of a thriller. It must be, as it does a number of things that normally would annoy this reader, and yet I was hooked. The cliffhanger at the end of each chapter normally annoys. There's a few completely unlikely scenarios (let's face it, for example, even with a HUGE secret, if the authorities wanted you to help out in a terrorist threat, they'd probably knock on the door before they sent in the Black Hawks). But really, the point of a good thriller is that it shouldn't matter if things get a little squiffy plot wise. If there's some obvious manipulation going on - well bring it on, pass the chocolates, pour a glass of wine and let's get stuck in here.

And this really is one of those tremendous thrillers. Simply couldn't put it down. Went out and bought the next book in the series the next day. You can't get better than that. show less

This thriller starts out fast and doesn’t let up until the last page is turned. Nick Horrigan is wakened at 2:18 a.m. by a SWAT team breaking into his home and hauling him out to talk to a terrorist who swears he will speak to no one but him – for no reason anyone can discern. The situation is somehow related to what happened to his stepfather seventeen years earlier, but Nick can’t figure out how everything fits together until he’s gone through about seven acres of hell. Trust No One is a reliable thriller from an author who is now, after two books, on my list of authors I’ll read unconditionally.

It’s good to have friends in high and low places

I love a thriller you can read in a day. It’s not about how many pages or how many hours spent reading; it’s about a book holding your attention for as long as it takes to finish it. It’s about a day you’d rather spend reading than doing anything else. That was my day on Sunday, when I read Gregg Hurwitz’s Trust No One.

As the novel opens, protagonist Nick Horrigan is awakened by sirens in the night. Stepping onto his balcony to investigate, he’s slammed in the chest by the feet of a black-clad man rappelling down from the roof. Moments later, Nick realizes that half the law enforcement in LA is there for HIM. He is utterly astounded as they put him into custody and start show more tearing apart his condo. He soon learns that a terrorist has taken control of part of a nuclear power plant and is threatening to irradiate half of Southern California unless he can talk to Nick face-to-face. Mystified, Nick tells the authorities he’s never seen or heard of the guy. Nonetheless, moments later he’s on a chopper to the power plant, and then inside with the fugitive.

Going into the book, I thought the scenario above would comprise the bulk of this novel, but on the contrary it’s merely the opening of a political thriller in which an average Joe gets embroiled in election year presidential politics. Nick’s a good guy, but he’s got a troubled past. And events he thought were behind him are intimately tied to the mess he finds himself in. Tired of running, Nick calls on all his resources and allies to finally get the answers behind a crime that has haunted him for seventeen years.

As you may have gathered, Trust No One is a page-turner. Along the way we meet several intriguing and well-drawn characters. The convoluted plot is intricately drawn, and while I was always guessing, I never came close to figuring out what was really going on. At the same time, I never felt like the author was cheating with coincidences or contrivances. The ending of the novel is complete, with no threads left hanging to indicate a sequel. Even so, I’m wondering if we’ll see Nick Horrigan again. His tale is told, but I feel like there’s so much more story left in his relationships with the other characters. I, for one, would definitely come back for more. show less

My first time reading Gregg Hurwitz and it won't be the last. An excellent mystery/thriller with political overtones. It opens with Nick Horrigan getting forcibly taken from his apartment because a possible terrorist at a nuclear plant has asked for him. And the roller coaster ride begins. We find out why Nick ran away 17 years earlier after his stepdad was murdered. The race is on to find out information about what happened back then. The current President and his running mate in the upcoming election, as well as the Secret Service are involved. There are several secondary characters that help Nick out, his mom, his ex-girlfriend and a homeless guy.
I enjoyed the book very much. I didn't always like Nick as a character, but I couldn't show more wait to see what happened next. I will be checking out the rest of Hurwitz's books. show less

Elements of this story strain credibility (but thrillers often do) and one of the characters is obviously (but inexplicably) modeled after Barack Obama. Otherwise, it's a page-turning thriller that speeds forward at breakneck pace with a likable, if unremarkable, main character and some nifty plot twists.