The Survivor

De: Gregg Hurwitz

Narrado por: Scott Brick

Nate Overbay, a former soldier suffering from PTSD and ALS, goes to an 11th-floor bank and climbs out the bathroom window onto the ledge, ready to end it all. But as he’s steeling himself to jump, a crew of gunmen bursts into the bank and begins viciously shooting employees and customers. With nothing to lose, Nate climbs back inside, confronts the robbers, and with his military training, starts taking them out, one by one. The last man standing leaves Nate with a cryptic warning: “He will make you pay in ways you can’t imagine.” Soon enough, Nate learns what this means.

He is kidnapped by Pavlo, a savage Ukrainian mobster and mastermind of the failed heist. Now blocked from getting into the bank vault to retrieve the critical item inside, Pavlo gives Nate a horrifying ultimatum: Either break in and acquire the item or watch Pavlo slowly kill the people Nate loves most - his estranged wife, Janie, and his teenaged daughter, Cielle. Nate lost them both when he came back from Iraq broken and confused. Now he’s got one chance to protect the people he loves, even if it’s the last thing he is able to do.

©2012 Gregg Hurwitz (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Paging Liam Neeson!

Eight hours into The Survivor, I found myself firmly at three and half stars (which is not a ratings option, unfortunately), wondering whether Gregg Hurwitz's action thriller would rise to four or sink to three. I was still open to moving up to four stars despite being disappointed by a number of plot and character points that have clearly been overused over the years:

The hero with PTSD who doubts his courage despite an impressive CV of brave deeds; the ruthless Ukrainian gangsters who let them themselves be talked out of some of their evil intentions by our hero; the dead friend who appears out of survivor guilt (as in Rescue Me); obituaries as metaphor (as in Carl Hiaasen's Basket Case or any of the four recent books titled The Obituary Writer); the daughter's snarky teenage boyfriend who turns out to be a decent guy (as in The Descendants). Oh, I could go on, but I'll stop.

Yet the writing had me hooked despite all that, the plot unfolding in a layered series of twists and reveals that was appealing, and the primary theme of what fathers will do to protect their daughters of great interest to me as a father of two daughters, with that aspect of the story one order of magnitude more complex than some of the other predictable, hackneyed elements.

Unfortunately, the final five hours sent my overall experience down a half-star rather than up. During that overlong period of time, the plot complexities disappear in a wave of action scenes that make this book an obvious choice for Liam Neeson's next movie. Actually, Liam Neeson will probably turn this role down, because he has already played it out several times. The writing and pace of those last five hours are on par with the rest of the book, which is a good thing, but the plotting and characterization all but ceased to move forward.

A disappointment for me, having greatly enjoyed my first Hurwitz title, Tell No Lies, and seeing huge potential in this book's opening hook -- a man about to commit suicide being drawn off the ledge to stop a deadly bank heist. I'm sure I will give Hurwitz another chance because his writing, in this genre, is very good. But as others have said, I would love to take a break from Scott Brick (I'll give him credit for only requiring 1.25x speed this time instead of the usual 1.5x, but his overly dramatic readings are wearing me out).

Too predictable. Suspend your disbelief a LOT!

I have listened to a lot of Gregg Hurwitz's books. I totally adored Crime Writer when I heard it. As the years have passed and Scott Brick has been chosen over and over as narrator, I am getting warn out. The plot is relatively predictable - kind of a Hurwitz formula. The drama.in.every.sentence.....added by Brick. is exhausting to listen to. There is no climax because every third sentence IS a climax.
I had to suspend my disbelief more than I do with other writers such as Connelly, Laura Lippman, Jeffrey Deaver and David Rosenfelt. That got old too. I think I would skip the next Hurwitz book, especially if Brick narrates that one.
This book is not impossible to listen to, just not as good as others or older Hurwitz books.

Just didn't want to listen anymore...

So I made it almost 11 hours into this novel and while it's well written and the narration is fine, I just didn't care how it ended, so I'm moving on to another book.

It's a fairly simply story, although there's a lot of running around and it seemed pretty obvious to me how it was going to end. I guess it didn't matter to me enough to hear it out because I kept drifting out of the story and so I finally gave up.

I'm willing to believe it could be more interesting to someone else. Maybe I've simply read too many thrillers and I need a more twists. Running from the bad guy for the entire book is just not enough for me.

Awesome Book

I couldn't put this book down once I started it. There were a lot of twists and turns that kept you eager to read more - and prevented the book from being predictable!

If you're wondering whether it's worth a credit - It Certainly Is and you won't regret it.

This is one of those books that I'll read again in time.

2 Bratty Teenage Girls!

I have waited several days to write this review. It hasn't gotten any better. The cause of all the mayhem in the story is one spoiled young lady. Just when the story could end, a different teen girl further complicates things.

In the usual Hurwitz style, the book keeps moving. The scene on the ledge outside while a bank robbery is in progress inside, the mystery of why the Ukranians want the contents of a safe deposit box, the struggling hero, and the race to protect two (conflicting) families has twists and many characters.

The hero is believable with his PTSD, broken family, and diagnosis of ALS.
The Ukranians are overdone. It is hard to believe that they only hang out together, are the baddest of the bad, are evil all day long every day, and murder and torture when they don't get their way or for pure enjoyment.

All that being said, it was a decent listen. I did continue to the (predictible) end. I have enjoyed Hurwitz in the past and will give him another listen in the future.

Scott Brick, again, gives a great reading.