- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Atria Books; Reprint edition (Sep 10 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1439184224
- ISBN-13: 978-1439184226
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #589,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Author John Gilstrap's last thriller, Nathan's Run, was a fast-paced, deftly plotted tour de force about a kid in trouble. In his newest, the author serves up another child-in-danger plot, not quite as scary but touching a more sentimental nerve. Bobby and Susan Martin are still grieving the stillborn son who represented their five-year dream of a family of their own. When a frightened toddler escapes from his kidnappers and plunges into the clearing in the West Virginia mountains where the Martins have pitched their camp, he seems to Susan like the answer to her prayers. And when Bobby shoots the man pursuing the little boy, what seemed at first like a justifiable homicide turns into a nightmare; the pursuer is a cop. Bobby wants to surrender himself and the silent child to the authorities, but after several failed pregnancies, Susan is less willing to give up the boy she almost immediately names Steven, after her dead son. Meanwhile, April, the boy's mother, learns he was taken to satisfy a gambling debt incurred by her ne'er-do-well husband. Gilstrap deftly sets April's search in motion, taking her into a criminal underworld of drugs, extortion, and murder and setting up a heart-tugging situation in which the reader isn't sure whom to root for--the child's real mother, trapped by circumstances, or Susan Martin, who'll do anything to keep him. This explosive thriller ends in a hail of bullets, a climax well worth waiting for after a page-turning read that should earn its author a following of new fans. --Jane Adams
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Corny internal monologues drag down this action-packed third novel by Gilstrap (Nathan's Run; At All Costs), featuring an ill-starred childless couple and a hapless young mom caught between the cops and the bad guys. Still grieving over the recent stillbirth of their first child, a son they named Steven, Susan and Bobby Martin are on a camping trip in the mountains of West Virginia to mark their fifth wedding anniversary when they encounter a frightened little boy and a suspicious man claiming to be his father. After the stranger pulls a gun, Bobby kills him in the ensuing struggle. Finding police ID on the corpse and fearing the consequences of having killed a cop, the Martins take the boy and flee. Having suffered several miscarriages before the stillbirth, Susan believes that God intends the boy to replace Steven. Meanwhile, in nearby Pittsburgh, down-on-her-luck April Simpson discovers that a local drug dealer has kidnapped her two-year-old son, Justin, to hold as a hostage until he can collect a debt from her ne'er-do-well husband. Desperate for her child's safety, April threatens a mob boss with blackmail and is arrested while attempting armed robbery of a department store. Elsewhere, on a rundown farm, the brother of the man Bobby killed is anguishing over not having come to his sibling's rescue. The hero-protagonist (of sorts) who connects all three stories is aging FBI agent Russell Coates, himself embroiled in an old bull/young bull struggle for king of the hill. Although underdeveloped characters, hokey escapes and rescues replete with pulp romance epiphanies give the thriller a comic opera ring, its swift forward motion will speed readers past its flaws. Agent, Molly Friedrich. 7-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
BUNDLED TIGHTLY AGAINST the cold, the young couple lay on an outcropping over the Catoctin River, looking up at the cloudless sky, and wondering which of the countless millions of stars was truly the one that delivered wishes. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
BUNDLED TIGHTLY AGAINST the cold, the young couple lay on an outcropping over the Catoctin River, looking up at the cloudless sky, and wondering which of the countless millions of stars was truly the one that delivered wishes. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book,
By Jamie (Richmond, Va.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Even Steven (Mass Market Paperback)
I really like Nathan's Run, but couldn't get into At All Costs. I'm glad Even Steven came along. Very fast paced and a convoluted, but very followable , plot. Enjoy it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some Problems... All in All a Good Read,
By "cautro" (WI, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Even Steven (Hardcover)
Gilstrap has once again amazed me with his powerful "family on the run"-type writing style. "Even Steven" is, overall, a good book. It doesn't quite live up to "At All Costs," and is no where near as compelling as "Nathan's Run," but not all books can be classics. Gilstraps offers situations that everyone can relate to. A mother in fear of losing a child, a father trying to keep control over his family, an older brother stuck caring for his younger sibling, and a younger brother unable to shed the annoyance of having his older brother watching his every move. Gilstrap's main lacking point is the way he caries out his plot. Sometimes it seems as though he were looking for the easy way out, and didn't take the time to make the stroy beleivable. I would consider this a bedside book. Don't be surprised if it doesn't turn out to be an instant classic!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable read but not his best,
By F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Even Steven (Hardcover)
This does not approach the excitement level of his debut "Nathan's Run",but then very few novels do,and it is still a competent and enjoyable thrilerBobby and Susan Martin are a prosperous couple whose life lacks only one thing-a child,previous pregnancies having gone awry through either stillbirth or miscarriage.While on a camping trip in the Catoclin National Forest they encounter a runaway boy,dishevelled and exceptionally dirty.In close pursuit is a hulking brute of a man who clearly terrifies the child.An altercation breaks out and Bobby accidently kills the man who is carrying a police officer's badge.Susan blithely disregards the circumstances and insists on viewing the child as a gift from God-a replacement for their stillborn child Steven after whom she names the newcomer. The child has in fact been kidnapped by a local gangster as collateral for a debt and stirred into the mix we have the child's real mother ,and the FBI who are in pursuit of the Martin's The handling of several disparte plot strands is not always as deft as could be but the characterization is good and the ghradual unravelling os Susan and her refusal to accept the truth,with its concomittant strain on the marital relationship is convincing not something I can say for the burgeoning relationship betwen the mother and an FBI agent which fails to persuade Perhaps the next novel will get away from the chase motif which is starting to wear a tad thin
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