Review: Ghostman by Roger Hobbs

A Mysterious Review of …

Ghostman by Roger Hobbs.

Review summary: This is an exciting, if also somewhat flawed, crime novel. The primary plot is interesting, is set up quickly and unfolds at a rapid clip. But the narrative is awkwardly constructed, the prose frequently inelegant, and an unnecessary backstory intrudes. Still, these are relatively minor criticims of the book as the overall story arc does indeed work well as an entertaining thriller. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Ghostman
Roger Hobbs
Knopf (February 2013)

Publisher synopsis: When a casino robbery in Atlantic City goes horribly awry, the man who orchestrated it is obliged to call in a favor from someone who's occasionally called Jack. While it's doubtful that anyone knows his actual name or anything at all about his true identity, or even if he's still alive, he's in his mid-thirties and lives completely off the grid, a criminal's criminal who does entirely as he pleases and is almost impossible to get in touch with.

But within hours a private jet is flying this exceptionally experienced fixer and cleaner-upper from Seattle to New Jersey and right into a spectacular mess: one heister dead in the parking lot, another winged but on the run, the shooter a complete mystery, the $1.2 million in freshly printed bills god knows where and the FBI already waiting for Jack at the airport, to be joined shortly by other extremely interested and elusive parties. He has only forty-eight hours until the twice-stolen cash literally explodes, taking with it the wider, byzantine ambitions behind the theft.

To contend with all this will require every gram of his skill, ingenuity and self-protective instincts, especially when offense and defense soon become meaningless terms. And as he maneuvers these exceedingly slippery slopes, he relives the botched bank robbery in Kuala Lumpur five years earlier that has now landed him this unwanted new assignment.