Customer Reviews

Absolute Zero

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Phil Broker spent his years on the St. Paul's police department as a deep undercover cop. When he left the force, he owned and operated a small resort on Lake Superior. He also help his uncle guide hunters near Ely so he doesn't have time to think that his wife took their baby and went back into the Army after her maternity leave was up. Broker wanted her to stay stateside while she wanted him to go to Europe with her to watch the baby.

The effect of their separation leaves Phil vulnerable as well as miserable and on edge. When he guided three men into the wilderness to look for moose one became very sick. They were able to get him medical help, but something went wrong and the patient was technically brain dead. Phil believes he sees an awareness in the man's eyes and together they find a way to go after the person who seems to have gotten away with killing an innocent man.

Chuck Logan is going to do for suspense thrillers what John Grisham has done for legal thrillers. His prose is crisp, colorful and pointed with not one wasted word. Yet he makes scenes so realistic and colorful that the readers feel that they are mentally watching a video. ABSOLUTE ZERO has so many twists and turns that one never knows from one minute to the next what is going to happen except that this novel is absolutely perfect.

Harriet Klausner

The suspense of which characters are going to gang up on which victims, made me forget about time, space and the pain of my broken foot.

This is the first Chuck Logan thriller I've read. Abridged audiotape. I'm glad I read the reviews because some of the vivid, descriptive prose in the hardback book has been omitted on the tape.

Now that I have read the reviews and seen the list of Logan's books, I have to say:

1)I cannot wait for the other books to be put on tape, so I'll read the paperbacks.

2)The other reviews sum up the characters and plot better than I can.

3)Yes, I did think it was lightweight at first. I said if there are no women on the flip side, I will stop the tape. (women appeared) I am so glad I didn't stop.

4)My daughter just returned from the store with pain pills and a Logan paperback. Which sack should I open first?

This was my first Chuck Logan book, and I could sense that I was missing out on a lot of background story. I really liked how the book started out so fast-paced and intense, and kept it up for about the first 100 pages. And overall, I found the plot to be interesting and enjoyable, and the characters relatively interesting and well-rounded. I guess my only confusion was the relative lack of any moral barometer in the main character, Phil Broker. We are told he has a wife and young daughter, but then he spends much of the book pretty much going back and forth between 2 other women. I definitely felt like I was missing something that might explain his behavior. Including ostriches in the plot was interesting. And being from the Mpls./St. Paul area, it was kinda fun to actually know some of the towns/roads/areas he mentions in the book.

This is my frst Chuck Logan novel and I have to say it will not be my last! Starting with a very exciting camping / canoe trip to supposed murder, this haunted ex-cop with a world of problems of his own goes on to win out in the very cold Minnasota winter. Good story telling!

Chuck Logan has done it again; Phil Broker has to be one of the most interesting protagonists in American fiction today. Nina has broken his heart, but he "keeps on truckin'" and gets the job done. If you haven't met Phil yet, go back and read them in order. You'll be glad you did.

Minnesota author Chuck Logan has a wonderful way with words. His new action/thriller/mystery packs more action in the first 70 pages than many do in an entire book. The bone-chilling cold is a major character.

Phil Broker, former undercover cop, guides 3 Twin Citians - a doctor, a lawyer and a writer - in by canoe to shoot a moose among the northern Minnesota lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA - no motorized craft allowed.) "Broker ... speculated that they wouldn't be out here unless it was a once-in-a-lifetime hunting trip. They had won a state lottery that allowed them to take a moose in the Boundary Waters in the `greatest wilderness, big-game hunt east of the Mississippi.'"

"[The water] had never been warm. Even in summer. For thousands of years that gray water had cherished a geologic memory of its glacier mama." They encounter an unexpected October blizzard - akin to the Gales of November that bode ill for the crew of the Edmond Fitzgerald- and a life threatening situation. Two must paddle out to get help: "The doctor, he decided, was used to digital results and was holding nothing but an analog wooden paddle in his hands, so he was more frustrated than fussy. ... The time stretched out in front of them. Old-fashioned, unplugged, slow Real Time with no crowds, no traffic, sirens, TV, telephones, email, or Internet. Just the creak of the canoe, the hiss and slap of the bow cutting the chop, and the dip of the paddles."

A routine medical procedure goes awry and Broker makes a trip back to the Twin Cities area to investigate possibly sinister causes: "Broker had always taken back roads and harvest fields for granted, but now he saw that Washington County was running out of them fast. Not more than two miles from J.T.'s place the lumber skeletons of new houses haunted the farmland. That was global warming for you. The Minnesota winters used to keep the population down and the riffraff out."

This is a well-written thrill-packed chiller.

I have been home recovering from surgery for a few weeks, so I finally had time to read a few books. I have been waiting for a new book from Logan for too long- his new book in the Phil Broker -Nina Pryce series is outstanding. I couldn't put it down (as opposed to The Summons - by Grisham, which was barely worth reading). Logan's books are full of suspense, and he's developed characters who are worth reading about. If you like james Patterson, Logan is better - and less gruesome. This book is worth checking out.

Minus 459.67 Degrees F

That's absolute zero, folks. Take a hunting trip on the Boundary Waters of upper Minnesota in the fall, and you get a taste of how it feels. Better yet, get dumped from your canoe and see what the water feels like. You have about ten minutes to ponder this experience; after that, you're dead.

Broker had hired on as a guide for three men who had won a statewide lottery giving them a license to hunt moose in the far north of Minnesota. All were competent, if not expert, outdoorsmen and enthusiastic to a fault. Writer, Hal Somers had even delayed a hernia operation so as to not miss the hunt. The other two, a doctor and a lawyer, had left city life behind them. Weather closed in them while they were maneuvering their canoes. The waters boiled up as they fought the blizzard that had descended upon them. Broker's canoe capsized and Somers saved his life, getting him back aboard and paddling powerfully for shore. Somers hernia ruptured during his efforts throwing him in a life-threatening situation on a bleak and isolated island in the wilds. After an heroic effort on the part of the three men, Somers was airlifted by helicopter to the nearest small hospital through the raging blizzard. His life was saved by his fellow hunter who was a surgeon. The surgery was a success only to have Somers go into a coma while he was unattended in the recovery room. Was it negligence or was there evil intent?

Chuck Logan is a masterful storyteller. You're on the edge of your seat all the way from the storms inception to the recovery room scenes. While never slowing the pace, Logan allows you to get to know the four men. Even Somers, who is comatose, has his thoughts as he struggles for consciousness. And it is only Somers who knows exactly what has happened--if only he could tell someone. I like the way the author never wastes a word, yet is sensitive to his characters and the surrounding locale.

Get a cup of hot chocolate; wrap yourself in your favorite quilt to prepare for some fast moving entertainment!
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Silly me...I read this and it's follow-up (Vapor Trail), not realizing they were a series. So now I have to go back and read THE PRICE OF BLOOD and THE BIG LAW. However, even though starting here, Logan has certainly created some interesting characters in Phil Broker and his assorted buddies, especially Merryweather who has of all things..AN OSTRICH FARM! But...there is one heck of a scene in which this ostrich helps our hero out, and it is awesome!
This has an original plot, and it reminds me so much of such early thrillers as "Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Body Heat." Miss Jolene Sommer is one piece of work. The characters of Earl, Jolene's ex-stud, Miles the lawyer and Allan the doctor are also very well developed. Of course, Hank Sommer comes across very sympathetic, too, as he watches the people around him plot his demise.
Broker is a fun, no-nonsense hero, and since I haven't truly met his wife, Nina, I couldn't relate well to his marital plight...but what the heck??
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK..HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This was my first Chuck Logan book and I enjoyed it very much. The novel begins with a thrill-a-minute canoe/camping trip and continues on back in Ely with a very interesting story and cast of characters. The ending also is action packed. I gave it four stars instead of five because I felt the action bogged down in the middle a bit, but this is a very good thriller, well written and well worth reading. I will read his other novels.