Ghostman

By: Roger Hobbs

Narrated by: Jake Weber

Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Stunningly dark, hugely intelligent and thoroughly addictive, Ghostman announces the arrival of an exciting and highly distinctive novelist.

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-30s 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 48 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.

From its riveting opening, Ghostman effortlessly pulls the listener into Jack's refined and peculiar world - and the sophisticated shadowboxing grows ever more intense as he moves, hour by hour, toward a constantly reimprovised solution. With a quicksilver plot, gripping prose and masterly expertise, Roger Hobbs has given us a novel that will immediately place him in the company of our most esteemed crime writers.

©2013 Roger Hobbs (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Fast, hard and knowing: this is an amazing debut full of intrigue, tradecraft and suspense. Read it immediately!” (Lee Child)

“A slam-bang, pedal-to-the-metal crime story that fires on all cylinders and then some! Ghostman is a gritty, lean, mean adrenaline machine. Mostly, though, it was just plain fun to read. I absolutely loved this book and cannot recommend it highly enough.” (Christopher Reich)

“This watertight debut [is] at once slick and gritty… Straight out of the gate, Hobbs has mastered the essentials of a contemporary thriller: a noirlike tone, no-nonsense prose and a hero with just enough personality to ensure he doesn't come off as an amoral death machine [as well as] heart-stopping scenes that illustrate how small mistakes can turn catastrophic.” ( Kirkus, starred review)

Outstanding listen

Jake Weber makes The Ghostman come alive. Great story that made me feel like I was listening to an old Humphry Bogart movie. Can't wait for the next installment.

Fantastic!!!

A great story. I couldn't stop listening to it. Do yourself a favor a give this one a go. you won't regret it.

The details kill it

What would have made Ghostman better?

If the writer had a better knowledge of firearms, I would have thought more of the story was believable. If you are anything of a "gun person," please skip it. It's been said that the devil is in the details, and the devil certainly got all of these...wrong.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The ghostman

Have you listened to any of Jake Weber’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ghostman?

Russian roulette.

Any additional comments?

no

How many cellphones does a crook need?

Would you try another book from Roger Hobbs and/or Jake Weber?

Probably not

Would you ever listen to anything by Roger Hobbs again?

Probably not

How could the performance have been better?

Speed up the reading pace

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ghostman?

All the ones where "I took out the cellphone battery and threw it out the window"

Like all 20 of them. That was the most ridiculous part (of many ridiculous parts) of the novel.

Any additional comments?

Fairly interesting yarn, however borders on the ridiculous and unbelievable. The narrator bored me to tears with his slow reading pace.

Narrator made boring story unbearable

1. Listen to the book at 1.5 times normal speed if you have any hope of being able to tolerate the narrator's abnormally slow paced reading and odd pauses mid sentence.
2. Lower your expectations for any type of suspense, drama or originality in the plot. "Twists and turns" are clumsily telegraphed way before the story catches up.
3. Prepare to hate the protagonist. You will wish for his capture or torturous death. Or both.
4. Seriously question Audible's recommendations from now on.

Fine at first until he feeds a little girl drano

What would have made Ghostman better?

The story was fine at first, standard antihero material but then the author decides to show how bad the villain is so they gratuitously have him feed a little girl drano until she dies. There was no need for this and I strongly urge parents (and other people who like kids) to avoid this book.

Has Ghostman turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, just this author.

How could the performance have been better?

It was fine.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disgust. The image disturbed me for several days. I'm a 41 year old male so I'm not a wilting flower, but seriously, drano to a little girl?

Disappointed - To say the least

Jake webber has a good voice overall - When he's speaking normal. The character's he portayed in the story seemed dramatic; with voice's I couldn't relate to, or get in to. I thought the story had a good shot in the beginning - But I was quickly losing interest as it progressed. I was hoping for some revalation at the end that made it worth the time invested in it - Like the "Inside man" movie with Clive Owen... If I used that as my guage - You'd have to dig a hole to find the minus star rating. If you like plain action, with no substance - Then this might be for you.

Sorry..................................

Jake Webber

Any additional comments?

I mostly listened to this book because I liked the prospect of listening to Jake Webber, haha. I laugh because that doesn’t sound like a very good reason to listen to a book. I liked the work he did on another book he read. And I liked the plot of Ghost Man. But frankly the book wasn’t all that interesting. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great. Some great details. It just seems like it should have been better. The main character sounds a little like The Saint, like that old TV show (or movie remake) who changes his appearance. That aspect was fun and interesting.

Aside from that, it was your basic Porter type novel. You know, Point Blank. Or Pay Back, the Mel Gibson version. Or was Porter the Mel Gibson version? haha I can’t remember.

Anyway along those lines, but not as good.

Only Jake Weber kept me listening

What disappointed you about Ghostman?

The lack of character development. The idea of someone living this strange life was interesting for awhile, but the main character was way too much of a cypher for this reader. There was nowhere near enough info or inner dialogue to explain why he is the way he is, so he came off as just another creepy criminal. The only humanity I attributed to him came from Weber's reading, which kept me going for some time. Ultimately realized I didn't care enough to finish and returned it.

Has Ghostman turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, but I expect more from the genre.

What does Jake Weber bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Likeability, warmth. I love the sound of his voice and his interpretation of the books he reads for Audible. Really, I only chose this book to begin with because Jake Weber was reading it, having just heard his mesmerizing work on "Night Film." Hope to hear more from him with better material.

Must Miss Breakout Thriller

Simply put: The story, characters, venue and performance of this book were predictable, threadbare and ultimately boring. The dialogue was so laden with crime novel cliches that I had to occasionally take a break to avoid the temptation to erase the entire book before continuing. Predictable tough guys with no depth of character litter this work throughout. Lecturing tomes about "how to", " only two ways to do", etc., ripped off from Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series, here fell flat and came across as condescending.

Geeky descriptions of fearsome weapons and unnecessarily graphic descriptions of grisly acts of violence could not compensate for shallow characters, shaky story line and cringe-inducing dialogue.

Jake Weber's performance was more distraction than entertainment. His efforts to portray hardened criminals as well as world-weary but soft-harted characters from society's fringe lacked subtlety and resulted in caricatures of criminals instead of believable persons. To be fair, the dialogue he was forced to work with inexorably led to this result.

Mr. Hobb's literary agent turned in the best performance here by somehow convincing Audible to showcase this first book as a must-read, breakout thriller.