Ghostman (Jack White Novels, #1) (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

by Roger Hobbs

Fast, hard and knowing: this is an amazing debut full of intrigue, tradecraft and suspense. Read it immediately!' Lee Child. I make things disappear. It's what I do. This time I'm tidying up the loose ends after a casino heist gone bad. The loose ends being a million cash. But I only have 48 hours, and there's a guy out there who wants my head in a bag. He'll have to find me first. They don't call me the Ghostman for nothing...

• ISBN13: 9780857521613
• Publish Date: 14 February 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 31 October 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
• Imprint: Doubleday
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Beth C.]

The Ghostman is no one and everyone. He does his job (robbery of some sort) and then he disappears so thoroughly that most people who ever thought they knew him think he's dead. He doesn't stay in the same place very long before moving to another. He had a name once - but no one knows what it is. It can be a boring life, punctuated by moments of extreme excitement when doing a job. He's one of the best. But when he gets an email from someone he worked with in the past, someone the Ghostman owes big, things change. Suddenly he's on the FBI's radar, being hunted by one of the biggest (and scariest) drug lords around, and trying to find the money stolen in a huge heist that went badly. So, really - what could go wrong?

I wasn't sure what to expect - a debut book can be a risk, and often is far from living up to the hype. I was curious though, since the author is from Portland, and a few parts of the book are set here. Even though this is not my preferred genre, I was in for a terrific ride. Once the book starts, there is little pause - it's like riding a roller coaster while sitting on the couch. I ended up reading the entire book through in one sitting, even when I knew darn good and well I should be heading to bed.

I like the way the past is interspersed with the present - it's never confusing, and yet the back story goes a long way to explain what is going on in the present. It's very well done. There is some slightly graphic violence, and the comparison to Pulp Fiction is, in some ways, fairly apt. But it never crosses the line between advancing the story line and gratuitous. The knowledge base demonstrated in this novel is absolutely incredible and fascinating to an extreme.

I'm glad I decided to give this novel a shot. I'm certain that my husband will enjoy it as well, so it's destined for his nightstand next. I hope that Hobbs continues to write, and more stories of the Ghostman would be destined to end up on MY nightstand first!

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

When a casino heist goes bad, there are a lot of loose ends to tidy up. Loose ends like a million dollars and only 48 hours to find it. The Ghostman is sent into find the money and make sure the crime isn’t connected back to his employer. Only problem is he is in the Wolf’s territory now and he wants the Ghostman’s head in a bag; if they can find him.

First of all, this is a pretty stereotypical heist novel, with all the normal thriller elements that you expect, the double crosses, the cops, the clearly laid out plan, it is all there in this book. So why did I enjoy this book more than I should have? The Ghostman, let’s just call him Jack Delton as that is the name he uses the most in the novel, is nothing really special. There isn’t much character development; he continues to remain an enigma the entire time. Yet there is something about him that I liked; he has the ability to hide in plain sight, to blend in and he is pretty much a grifter sent in to clean up the mess. He is also a pretentious book worm; he admits to reading a lot in the book and has a soft spot for Homer and epic Greek poetry. These elements of his character, and the fact he knows how to handle himself when things get rough, really come together to make a character I enjoyed reading about.

All other characters in the book were completely underdeveloped and just felt like backdrops that got in the way of Jack Delton’s tasks. But then again, you do need conflict and twists and turns to drive a story like this; there was nothing too shocking about the plot, I would have loved a good twist or maybe a darker narrative but all in all, Ghostman was a lot of fun to read.

This is Roger Hobbs’s debut novel and he is only 24 years old which makes you wonder; where did he learn all the skills to pull off a casino heist and cover it up? The detail put into the different ways of doing things was incredibly detailed, so much so that you can’t help but think this is the voice of experience. My main problem was that I felt like sometimes the author was dumbing down the information too much; I think he wanted to make sure every reader knew what was happening but the information felt over done.

Delton spends all this time tying up all the loose ends from the heist, that at times I thought things were going to end up incredibly neat and, to an extent, it did, but I was glad to see not everything goes to plan. I thought maybe Delton had a complex plan to get himself out of mess but instead he decided to live by the motto “Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo” If I cannot move Heaven, I will raise Hell. Simple but effective, but then again that’s the book in a nutshell.

I still don’t have no idea what really made this book so enjoyable; there really isn’t much in the novel that was special, it all felt like it was done before. In the end I was just sucked into the story and enjoyed the ride; it is a good heist novel and I think it will give most thriller writers a run for their money. Sure it was predictable and nonsensical but sometimes you just need some light entertaining junk to read. It is still worth checking out, even if it is just to see what Roger Hobb can do and then spend some time trying to work out how he researched this book.

The review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/04/20/book-review-ghostman/