Customer Reviews

All Fall Down

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A crackpot in a clown suit hijacks a bus full of mentally and physically challenged children. He forces the driver at gun point to take the bus to a deserted bunker. Several children are killed by the maniacal clown; the driver herself faces death on more than one occasion.

A local police officer who has a 4-year-old daughter has a special interest in the case; in addition to being a single parent, she feels a kinship to every child on that bus.

The questions that really arise throughout this tediously written and overly long, drawn out account are 1) who is the clown and what is his agenda and 2) what is the agenda of the towns folk in positions of power? Summed up, there is a lot of under the table dealing and some very questionable people involved.

The story was good, but it was not well edited and dragged on for a very long time. Half the pages could have been used to tell the story. That aside, it's something that most folks will probably enjoy. It sure beats television.

While the main plot of this novel is exciting, the sub-plots inter-woven make it a more laborious read than it should have been. The author seemed duty bound to include a romantic interest that was poorly done. The writing style is good, the storyline acceptable but the editing that left in all the unnecessary sub-pots leaves much to be desired. The violence seemed gratuitious at times simply to shock the reader into "enjoying" the novel more. Overall, the book is worth reading but many will find themselves skipping multiple pages at times to get back to the core story.

It amazes me that a book can have a storyline such as this one (mad man kidnaps a bus full of handicapped children and begins killing them off) and be so NOT moving. For starters, Fox chooses to rely on a couple of cheap cliches to drive his story. First off, the main plot centers not on the children, but on the cop trying to solve the case. Cliche number one: this cop is a woman. Cliche number two: this cop is also a mother. Cliche number three: woman cop was abused by ex-husband and is now dating chief of police. Cliche number four: FBI big men come in (behaving stereotypically as if they believe themselves to be better then the cops) and cheesy romance between woman cop and FBI G-man develops. This lame main storyline is surprising considering that Fox has obviously done his research when it comes to the kidnapper's pathology. He is a unique character who destroys all preconceived ideas about him along the way. Bottom line, not enough time was spent on developing the characters of the children or their bus driver, kidnapped along with them (most of the kids don't even get names) to care other than in the most detached way, when the kidnapper starts killing them. Woman cop was too cliche for me to care. Thus, I read the whole book which granted was suspenseful enough not to want to put down, without really caring about anyone in it at all.

This is a sensational book about kidnapping a bus full of disabled school children. All the children will be killed in 38 hours if the demands are not met. I liked this book as the author isn't afraid to let his villain be evil in the fact that he kills a child during the bus hijacking lets the reader know this isn't going to be a soppy Disney type book where the hero saves all and no one is hurt.

No this book is a true thriller where you know the clock is counting down for the main hero character a female detective who must work out where the children are and what the kidnapper is really after.

This is an extremely realistic well written book. This could easily happen in the non fiction world which is why you won't be able to put this book down.

This book was one of the those hijacking novels where there is pure suspense throughout the whole book and there are to rest stops along the way. A psychopath dresses up in a clown suit and hijacks a school bus and holds the kids hostage until he gets paid $20 million dollars. The FBI and the local police are called in to help. Can the FBI and the cops save the children in time? Can they stop this madman before more innocents lives are killed? Note- start this novel on Friday night, because you will be reading it the whole weekend. It is too good to stop.

I read this book whilst on holiday in the United States, and it took me less than two days to read it. I couldn't put it down.

I had read before this book, titles such as 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Catch-22', and even 'The English Patient'. The change of style, tone, plot and storyline, really shows what defines literature, but I'm not saying this is a bad book. On the contrary, it is one of the most entertaining books I have read, and a good read if you are the type who likes the action, adventure and suspense. Good work Zachary Alan Fox, what is your next book called ? I'd be glad to read it.

Until I read this, William Diehl's "TAI HOUSE" was the best thriller I ever read. This is equal to it. The reviewers who rated this below 10 MUST have read another novel! This novel is just SUPERB!I look foward to the author's next one.

The sociopath has become increasingly popular after Thomas Harris introduced us to Hannibal Lecter in his two seminal novels; The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. Yet creating a good and believable character that is truly outside of the accepted limits of society remains a hard task.
Zachary Fox pulls it off with Lowell DeVries in All Fall Down.
He is such an interesting character that you actually find yourself rooting for him, although he is a complete and utter monster. And as we all know, it's really the villains that make a yarn such as this fun. The good guys are destined to win, of course, so let's make the obstacle course a hard one.
Fox does this in All Fall Down which is one of the better thrillers to come along this year. Don't begin reading it unless you're prepared to spend the night finishing it.

Zachary Fox is/was either employed as a Law Enforcement Officer or has really done his homework. His grasp on both Law Enforcement procedures and the criminal mind is uncanny. This book should be required reading for all criminal justice students. His writing style combines lots of facts and information without becoming a text book. As a Law Enforcement Officer myself, it bothers me when facts, procedures, or policies in the book I'm reading are way off base. No problem with that here though. I found myself feeling personnally involved in the case and couldn't put the book down. I think it is amusing that everybody else read this book in only two days also. It is just that good of a book

I read the book in less than 2 days - record time for me - this is movie material!