Jack Wakes Up (Jack Palms Crime Mysteries)
by Seth Harwood
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Book Summary Information
Author: Seth HarwoodEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-17
ISBN: 0979692954
Number of pages: 268
Publisher: Breakneck Books
Book Reviews of Jack Wakes Up (Jack Palms Crime Mysteries)
Book Review: Jack Gets 5 Stars???
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this a few months ago and somehow wound up on the page again this morning. I saw that this book had gotten five stars from over 50 reviewers and the only other ratings are two four star reviews. That bothered me just enough that I felt like I'd better weigh-in for the sake of balance. C'mon guys, this was a great book and tons of fun, but on my meter a book has to be really special to hit five stars. Scott Sigler, the author of Infected: A Novel, and who pens the first review here, awards it five stars which is very kind of him and I know he is supporting a talented fellow podcast author. Yet Sigler's book "Infected" just blows away this book. Of course, it blows away most books. "Infected" is one of the most exciting and stunning novels I've read in years and if you haven't read it yet then don't waste any more time getting yourself a copy.
While "Jack Wakes Up" is a great book, I can't honestly place it on the same level as "Infected". Therefore I give the former four stars, maybe even 4.5 stars, and the latter five. Neither book is literature, but that's not what they are trying to do. They aspire to be edge of your seat entertainment and they both succeed. They're fun, enjoyable, exciting, packed with action, put a grin on your face, and are stories that will stick with you long after you finish the book. Maybe we just need more than five stars to work with so we can have more subtle gradations of quality and enjoyment. OK, that nitpicking over with, hey, please believe me when I say "Jack Wakes Up" is an extremely fun book and is done very well. If your a fan of action books in the Lee Child vein you're are definitely going to like this book. I bought it on a whim from Amazon based upon some good reviews, which it deserves, and was thoroughly happy with it.
Jack himself is a very well done character. A cast aside action adventure actor, wrecked by an ugly and publicly-messy divorce, down on his luck and short of dough, he let's a somewhat sleazy friend get him tangled up with some Czech guys looking to score some drugs. In the midst of the deal Jack finds his friend murdered in his house. Jack wants to stay away from the cops but also needs to make sure he isn't in danger too. The story hurtles forward from there with a cast of drug-dealers, cops, ex-KGB rogues, strippers and pissed off Colombians. Harwood writes well and doesn't fall prey to cliches, making his characters intelligent and believable. I enjoyed this book start to finish, admired the three-dimensional characters, and loved it that the plot refused to be drawn into stereotypes or any type of predictability. Harwood always happily surprised me as the story unfolded because people acted rationally except for when excellent reasons were provided for irrational behaviour. In other words his characters act in a self-beneficial manner except for when angry, stressed, or under the influence of hubris. Harwood does a great job of keeping things wildly fun but within the realm of possibility. The story was slightly more predictable than chaos theory, in other words, not very predictable at all. There was plenty of great action in this book, but it too was reasonably believable with the good guys getting their butts kicked as often as the other way round. If Seth Harwood publishes more books you can bet that I'll buy them. I'll also add another recommendation: if you enjoy this story, and you've already read "Infected", I'd suggest looking up Charlie Huston's Caught Stealing: A Novel trilogy next. Those are great books in the same vein as this one.
Summary of Jack Wakes Up (Jack Palms Crime Mysteries)
What does an action movie one-hit-wonder and ex-drug-addict do when he's cleaned up, down on his luck, and running out of money? In the three years since Jack Palms went clean-no drugs, no drinking, no life-he's added fourteen pounds of muscle, read 83 books, and played it as straight as anyone can ask him. Now, when an old friend from L.A. calls, he hits the streets of San Francisco to help a group of Czech drug buyers make one big score, a single drug deal that he hopes will set him up for life. But, when people start turning up dead, and an old nemesis on the police force calls, Jack finds himself with just 24 hours to track down San Francisco's biggest drug supplier or face charges that will put him behind bars. Only an Oscar-caliber performance will get him through this alive.Men's Adventure Books
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