EVERYTHING TO LOSE
Andrew Gross
2014
William Morrow
Thriller is a word that is thrown around a lot these days as it has become a favorite of marketing folks (just like noir). What Andrew gross is writing truly is a thriller. He’s got pacing and a sense of urgency running through his books like fire follows gasoline.
In EVERYTHING TO LOSE he sets up a wonderful story with Hilary Cantor in what starts out as a blessing is disguise only to discover she may have cursed herself. Hilary’s life has taken a bad turn lately, due in large part to a husband who walks out on her and their son who is suffering from Asperger’s. By sheer chance she witnesses a freak accident and when she goes to help finds the driver dead. She also finds a bag with around a half million in cash. She goes against her principles and makes a rash decision taking the money and splitting the scene. What follows is a game of cat and mouse as she struggles with her decision and soon finds that the people who were supposed to get the money have a long reach. The book continues to twist and turn and keeps pumping the gas speeding to an amazing ending.
In some respects it felt at first a little like A SIMPLE PLAN, but unlike that book, EVERYTHING TO LOSE actually has characters you care about. Gross does such a great job with characters that you don’t want the book to end, But the book is written in such a way that you read it fast because there is no way you want to put it down. Pure brilliance.
Jon Jordan
