Customer Reviews

Collision

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

 

 

In Hawaii on his honeymoon with his beloved Emily, consultant Ben Forsberg goes to take a shower anticipating more sex before they catch the plane back to the mainland. When he finishes his shower, he finds Emily lying dead in a pool of blood. Two years later; Ben still grieves his loss and has not been on a date with another woman since the tragedy that has become a cold case to everyone but him.

In Austin, sniper Nicky Lynch and cleaner Jackie are to take out the big man and the computer geek Adam Reynolds. Nicky fires at both and watches them fall; he assumes they are dead. Instead not long afterward the big man kills the sniper. Former CIA agent "Pilgrim" wonders why he was set up to die by he assumes his handler or his superior as the objective to frame Forsberg for a murder seems to have included eliminating the consultant's only witness to his innocence. Instead Pilgrim decides to team up with a beleaguered Forsberg to uncover the truth and take down who wants them dead. Forsberg does not trust the operative, but has no choice as someone has set him up to take a homicide fall and that someone wants him dead so he has no trial. What the corporate suit also does not know is his historical connection to Pilgrim; what he believes is the agent plans to terminate the partnership once he cleans out those who want him dead.

The keys to this powerful thriller are Ben and Pilgrim seem real in a deadly cat and mouse game against unknown foes though Pilgrim has a good idea who the opposition are. The story line is fast-paced from the opening sequence two years ago in Hawaii and never decelerates until the final twist of several occurs; ironically even when the reader expects a certain spin because Jeff Abbott is known for that, we marvel at the deftly twist the plot takes. This is an entertaining action thriller that fans will enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

Yes, the characters are cartoonish images - the secretly decent killer spy, the fumbling accountant who suddenly acquires survivalist skills, the corrupt former CIA agent turned evil businessman. You've seen them many times before but still they entertain. Needless to say, very few businessmen divide their times between hit squads and the boardroom and few assassins display nascent artisitic abilities.

The plot is complicated and requires a little patience but once you get into the story, it's hard to put down. Two men as different as night and day are thrown together in a double doublecross that's as preposterous as it is exciting. Ben, the accountant and "Pilgrim", the operative become a team and together they thwart the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and all the private agencies and terrorists who want to do bad things to them. The action is non-stop with lots of rather antiseptic killing. Thank God the author is not another latent sadist describing pages of incredible torture. Instead, he works by omission rather than commission, letting the reader imagine the worst.

In one sense it's like a James Bond movie where 5 millions bullets somehow miss the hero yet each of his shots are brilliant and fatal. But that's what readers want and what they like. By the way, this would make for a great movie. My Grade - A-

I have loved Jeff Abbott since the Jordan Poteet books oh so many years ago. He stopped writing those books a while back and has ventured into another series and an occasional stand alone. All are worth reading--and so is this one.

Abbott does an incredible job of accurately weaving Texas (topography, people. culture) seamlessly into intricate plots with exceptional characters. In a lot of ways, Abbott is the Texas version of Harlan Coben. "Collision" is a prime example of this relationship.

The book starts quickly with a death in the first few pages. It progresses on with in depth characterizations (even the bad guys have back stories) and great dialogue. Just when you think you have it all figured out (and, truth be told, you do figure out the big picture early on), Abbott throws in a twist, a new dead body, a flashback.

This is a mystery and a spy novel and a thriller and a story about human tragedy.

Definitely a 5 star read.

This book gets your attention and keeps it. Always important to me. Lots of action. Twist at the end. Well worth your time.
Unfortunately, not all of his books are that good.
Avoid Fear, which is just silly.
I never read Trust Me, but the reviews weren't good.
However, Panic, is another good one and is highly recommended.

Abbott's early books gave us characters to care about. His recent efforts are attempts to capture a best seller vibe. These characters are comic level. He does action well. Give us someone believable and interesting and he'd score that best seller.

Collison (aka Run) certainly does move at a fast pace but the believability factor does outrun the storyline. The storyline is enjoyable though and checking out Collison/Run from your local library is an enjoyable way to pass the time. Don't run out of money at the end of the week by wasting any on this book though, it is nothing special. Similar storylines have been written much better by authors such as Harlan Coben, David Morrell, Charlie Huston and others.

In Run/Collison Ben Forsberg has moved onto a very successful life in the businessworld. He gets contracts to staff companies in the world's hot spots and is very very good at it. Unfortunately for him one day upon returning from a business trip a couple of government agents follow him through the front door. They want to know why a hacker they have been after for quite sometime had been in contact with Ben and what he has to do the hacker's assassination by a snipers bullet. Ben can't believe they think he would be so stupid as to arrange this but they do remind him his wife also died from a sniper's rifle while on their honeymoon. As they force him to accompany them to a secret location it dawns on Ben that maybe these guys aren't government agents at all and that's even scarier than if they are.

Meanwhile at the scene of the hacker's demise an ex CIA agent now even more secret government agency agent wants to know why the hacker was killed and more importantly why a bullet barely missed his head during his meeting with him.

Collison/Run's plot twists and twists but you won't be fooled much. Get it from your library!

I wanted to like COLLISION, but I felt it placed too much emphasis on action at the expense of character development.

Every twenty pages or so, it seems like there is a car chase, or a gun battle, or a fist fight in COLLISION. While Abbott knows how to write such scenes at the mechanical level, I felt I had no emotional stake in their outcome. This is because all the characters in this novel are underdeveloped and kept at arms-length from the reader.

The main character in COLLISION, for example, is a widower, but his grief over his dead wife is his only true personality characteristic. The supporting cast mostly consists of cliched stereotypes that I have seen many times before, such as the world-weary assassin and the oh-so-evil military contractor. Most of their dialogue is trite and designed to push the plot along.

COLLISION contains a rather convoluted plot with a lot of twists and turns. While this isn't always a bad thing, the lack of interesting characters made this book's complicated storyline a chore to wade through. While this novel does have a very dark twist near the end, I found most of this novel relatively predictable.

In short, my advice is to avoid this novel unless you're a big fan of action for the sake of action. If you read and liked Abbott's earlier novel PANIC, this one may be worth a try, because it has the same strengths and weaknesses.

I bought this book one month ago for a long flight to Japan in September. In the book store I really didn't know what book to buy and I have never heard of Jeff Abbott before. Then this silver shiny cover flashed out from the bookshelf. I read the first two pages and though this is it, the book I have always been waiting for.

I think The Bourne Identity is not even close as thrilling and exciting as this story about a man, who's life is about to change.
This increadible tension throughout the whole story chains you to the book and lets you read page after page without wanting to stop.
Listening to music (lounge,cafe del mare,...) while reading the book,makes you vanish into your own world of imagination. I though I was watching the newest thriller in a theater, but RUN gives you so much more than that.
The book's buildup is like a movie itself, seperated into different scenes, which at the end leads you to the one thing you will love most, wanting more of this story.
I already bought PANIC before I even finished this book and I can't wait to get on that flight!

Too many characters, too much plot, too much action. Every chapter is filled with murders, fights, car chases and even plane chases. The hero gets shot, stabbed and/or severely beaten every chapter by different enemies wherever he goes and sometimes some of the enemies become his friends. This is a convoluted mess with twist galore and for me it eventually became boring and banal since there is no depth to the characters or the story. This will appeal to teenage males but teenage males mostly don't read, unfortunately. They want to see the movie or play the game. Since this was a library lend, at least I didn't waste any money.

In this book, the author, Jeff Abbot, hooks you and reels you in early. The prologue sets the stage when Ben Fosberg, on a honeymoon with his wife Emily, comes in from a shower and finds his wife the victim of what appears to be a random shooting.

Immediately, the scene shifts to Austin, Texas, two years later where a deep cover CIA agent, skilled in "wet" work,narrowly misses being shot by a sniper when he is talking to a suspect. the agent, known as Pilgrim, is impersonating Ben. After the assassin, Nicky, shoots the suspect and Pilgrim tracks Nicky down near the scene and kills him. Pilgrim then sticks Ben's business card in the assassin's pocket as a red herring to throw police off.

Then the fun begins, Ben finds himself in an unlikely partnership with Pilgrim as they race to uncover the mystery and the plots. counter-plots which make this book an action packed thriller.

for those readers who like fast paced action and convolted plats, this book is a must.