Dead Simple [Paperback]

Jon Land (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

Using an experimental explosive, a terrorist known as "Jackie Terror" blows up every bridge and tunnel leading to Manhattan, holding the entire city of seven million people hostage for a $15 billion ransom. Blaine McCracken and his mentor, Sergeant-Major Buck Torrey, may be the only men who can stop the madman's plan.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A former Weather Underground bomber ransoms Manhattan after demolishing its bridges and tunnels: a formulaic shoot-'em-up featuring former CIA counterterrorist Blaine McCracken (The Fires of Midnight, 1995, etc.). In Pennsylvania, an unguarded tanker truck filled with Devil's Brew, the world's deadliest explosive, disappears without a trace. About the same time, a mysterious bald-headed terrorist, annoyed that his plan to blow up the Washington Monument has been canceled by the fearless McCracken, gets in a few good shots before escaping. Written off as a cripple by medical science, McCracken limps to the Florida Keys, where his Sergeant-Major Buck Torrey, once commander of McCracken's ``Dead Simple'' Special Forces group, teaches him to swim with the alligators and hold his breath for more than two minutes underwater. Just as McCracken is flexing his rejuvenated muscles, Buck heads to Virginia to help his daughter, Liz Halprin, an ex-FBI agent who lost her job when one of the shots she fired at a pistol-packing maniac happened to kill her son's schoolteacher. It seems now that Liz's nasty neighbors want her to sell the family farm to sleazeball developer Maxwell Rentz. Alas, Buck is disappeared by Rentz, giving McCracken an excuse to team up with the beautiful Liz to rescue his substitute father-figure. Meanwhile, psychotic hippie radical Jack Tyrell (a.k.a ``Jackie Terror'' in the '60s) has the truck of Devil's Brew and is making anti-Manhattan plans with his old pals, among them the twisted psychic Queen Mary and the delightfully demented Yost twins, Earl and Weeb. McCracken, with Liz in tow, has no choice but to round up the old Dead Simple gang, including seven-foot-tall Native American Johnny Wareagle, to save the bridge and tunnel crowd from a fate worse than rush hour. Ten pounds of plot in a two-pound bag, filled with gruesomely cartoonish violence, macho posturing, and glib, gun-toting crazies who occasionally shoot straight. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Praise for Dead Simple:

"Strap on your seat belt! Dead Simple has more twists and turns than the New York City subway and moves along at supersonic speeds...A thriller in the true sense of the word." --The Providence Sunday Journal

"The twists and turns will have you on the edge of your seat... Dead Simple is Land's most exciting book yet." --Hartford Courant

"Rock-'em, sock-'em, shoot-'em-up, blow-'em-up, nonstop action." --Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 404 pages
• Publisher: Forge; New edition edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812540018
• ISBN-13: 978-0812540017
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,623,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars typical jon land- you pick it up and you can't put it down, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Simple (Paperback)

Once again Jon Land has outdone himself. Dead Simple is full of fast hard hitting action and in depth charactar relationships. Blaine and the Indian once again go up against a totally evil, larger than life villian, with a powerful weapon and an even more powerful past! The assortment of fellow bad guys leaves little to be desired. The government bads guys shine in this one also. And Blaine gets hurt pretty bad for the first time. As an avid Jon Land fan, this book does what all of his books do, they force you to keep on reading on the edge of your seat to the very finalle. And Dead Simple has a wopper of a finalle! Enjoy, people, enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Action Novel!, January 5, 2001

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Simple (Paperback)

This was a very good book written by Land. The book starts with Blaine McCracken being wounded severely by a terrorist. He has to go to Florida to recover from his wounds. He is ran through a recovery program by his old sergeant. In the meantime "Jackie Terror" and his gang of psychos has hilacked a truckfull of Devil's Brew(A dangerous explosive).Blaine's old sergeaent has to leave and go help his daughter and is promptly Kidnapped.The bad guys.led by Jackie Terror and his gang also a[[ear. McCracken gathers his old troops(7 foot tall Johnny Wareagle) in order to do battle with Jackie Terror and his gang.This book is action packed from beginning to end. You will find it hard to put down. Another good book from Jon Land.

4.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't rank with earlier McCracken books, August 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Simple (Hardcover)

Perhaps Mr. Land was feeling tired after writing an outstanding book like The Walls of Jericho, or maybe Blaine McCracken is just getting "too old for this s--t." In any case, Land's latest doesn't even come close to matching his earlier books. Maybe he should go back to Jerusalem and create a new series with the characters from The Walls of Jericho. Good book, but not his best.