Customer Reviews

Don't Look Twice

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was not a big fan of Andrew Gross's first two novels, but I think his third one qualifies as a considerable improvement. DON'T LOOK TWICE is an interesting, well-plotted murder mystery.

Andrew Gross used to be a co-writer for James Patterson, and he writes this book in the Patterson style. The book contains a lot of short chapters, and is very fast paced and action-oriented. Unlike Patterson, however, Gross invests sizable energy into his characterization, so all the main characters seem more like flesh-and-blood human beings, as opposed to the superheroes and supervillains that dominate Patterson's work.

DON'T LOOK TWICE is not an over-the-top, high-concept thriller. It is instead structured more like a whodunnit, and I think it works well at that level. If this novel has a major flaw, it's the sheer predictability of some of its plot twists. It's not very difficult to figure out who the guilty culprits are, which diminishes the suspense level of the storyline. This book also has some political content near the end, and I wouldn't recommend this book to a hardcore Republican for that reason.

Overall, DON'T LOOK TWICE is an enjoyable diversion, and reads better than most of the James Patterson books I've read over the past several years. If you like Patterson, it's worth a try.

This novel was a fun page turner that kept me guessing most of the way through. The plot has some depth and the story was interesting even though the characters were quite stereotypical of thrillers involving detectives, murder, gambling, crooked government and the requisite love interest. Along the way is the building body count, and the reader learns quickly that it's dangerous to trust anyone involved in the case.

This was the second book in a series featuring Lt. Ty Hauck and I did not read the former, The Dark Tide, so am basing my analysis of the character on this novel only. He's the typical man without a family - estranged from an ex -- and his current love interest is lukewarm, so he's the solitary voice of truth and justice fighting against the rich and powerful. This type of character has become a cliché of detective novels - probably because it works. It would be hard for a man with any type of family or home life to rarely sleep, eat or interact with anyone but those involved in the case. He has a daughter, brother and father and those all make brief appearances in the story but his relationships are never fully fleshed out. The reader doesn't really get to know Ty although he certainly seems to have a conscience even as he displays a lapse or two in judgment that almost compromises the investigation.

All in all -- an entertaining, if somewhat convoluted, tale of murder, greed, and corruption. I will most likely read another installment in this series in the future.

Here we go, a novel with a complex and interesting plot that the author lays out and explains in a reasonable length of time. Too many novels are painful exercises in inordinate detail and background that make you think you should be taking notes to remember it all.

You get into it quickly, the story is compelling, there is entertainment and, sadly, an end. Does this mean the book is "light" or cheats you with too few words? No, it means it is good and fun to read, exciting and you don't want to put it down just because you have an obligation or it is late.

It takes skill to lay down a complex plot and situation that doesn't get in the way of the story. Gross does this very well, with a refreshing ease and clarity. Very impressive and recommended for anyone who wants a little fun in their reading while still being engaged in the subject.

My wife, a native Spanish speaker, found errors in the Spanish. She always does(roll-eyes emoticon). The errors were confined to the first half of the book for some reason. Still, she loved it and also recommends five stars.

Lieutenant Ty Hauck returns in this sequel to "The Dark Tide" with a bang. It has been a year since those events and much has changed. Hauck has become something of a media darling. His relationship with Karen has become increasingly problematic far beyond the different worlds they inhabit. Then, there is his 13 year old daughter, Jessie who is moving into adolescence and Ty is experiencing the culture shock that hits all fathers. He has all that and a lot more on his mind on a routine Saturday morning when he stops to pick up a few things at the local Exxon station.

A routine morning until the gunman, seemingly targeting Ty Hauck at first, opens fire sending bullets into the Exxon station. In the aftermath, while Jessie and Ty survive, the man in line behind them was shot twice in the chest and killed. The dead man was a federal prosecutor by the name of David Sanger working out of Hartford, Connecticut. Ty and his team from the Violent Crimes Unit of the Greenwich Police will soon be working a wide ranging investigation that leads far from the initial shooting with the help and hindrance of the FBI.

Experience has shown that the more strident blurbs on a book or in the promotional copy, the weaker the book and that is certainly the case here. Following the same tired formula of the previous book with this character, this is another paint by the numbers thriller despite the promising beginning. It doesn't take too long to meet the newest vulnerable widow who had no idea her husband had hundreds of thousands of dollars in a secret account. Ty Hauck is, of course, attracted to her and her family while the last widow he romanced seems to be moving on with her life. There are other comparisons but it becomes tedious to list all the way this book follows the same format.

Formulaic with its clichéd and shallow characters, teasers at the end of each very short chapter, frantic pacing encouraging readers to ignore the shallowness of this extended short story, the resulting read shows virtually zero improvement over the previous book. Fans of the author's work as co-author to James Patterson through a number of novels may appreciate this read. Those looking for something beyond clichéd, shallow characters and an actual story of any depth, will not.

Kevin R. Tipple

This novel really started out as a winner, I couldn't put it down, however the further I got into it, it became boring, twisted without reason and multiple characters that added little to the story. It was a bunch of uncompleted circles and seemed to try too hard to pull it all together and weave the ends into a story that made any sense. It appeared that the author was trying too hard. I did not enjoy this book.

This is a fairly ordinary police procedural. The protagonist is police detective Ty Hauck, who lives and works in Greenwich, CT. A drive-by shooting at a convenience store, while Ty happens to be present with his daughter, starts him down the usual path of twists and turns and misleads and reveals that have come to define this genre. As Ty works to discover who the real target of the shooting was and why he was targeted, he begins to unravel an elaborate conspiracy involving rich and powerful interests, while his superiour officer warns him not to dig too deep, blah blah blah you know how it goes. We've all read it a million times by now. It evens digs up the hackneyed cliche of the vital witness who is killed moments before he can reveal important information to the protagonist. Without revealing too much, suffice it to say that the conclusion manages to bring in the Hollywood left's favorite mega-villians as the ones really pulling all the strings. The tendency of recent fiction in this genre to bring in weighty public policy issues as a way of lending their book some bigger meaning is something I'm growing to loathe.

Ty is not a particularly interesting character, nor are the usual gang of ethnic supporting characters much help. The dialogue occasionally sounds hammy and unnatural. The plot development is at least fairly consistent, with about one substantial development per chapter. It never gets overly complex nor expects you to remember too many details from earlier chapters. It's good light, casual reading you can easily put down for awhile and pick back up later.

It certainly wasn't a BAD book. Any book you find yourself finishing probably had something going for it. It may not have many outstanding moments, but it didn't really have any lulls in the action either. I have alot of hope for this author's future books. He has good structure in place, he just needs to get better at populating his world with interesting characters, natural dialogue, and somewhat more realistic events. Many authors in this genre DO get better at that relatively quickly, so I'd keep an eye on this series and not write it off quite yet.

Excellent reading. Hard to put down. First book I read by Andrew Gross and will certainly read other books he wrote.

I'd have to say that I'm a new fan after reading my first Andrew Gross novel. "Don't Look Twice" is the second novel with Greenwich police lieutenant, Ty Hauck (the first novel being "The Dark Tide"). The novel starts off with a bang as divorced dad Ty is at a gas station with his young teen daughter and witnesses a murder. As he becomes embroiled in the investigation to find the killer of the victim he is surprised to find that the victim is a federal prosecutor and the case does not seem to be at all what you believe at first.

I dare not tell you too much about the plot, so I don't give any of the surprises away, but Mr. Gross is a deft story teller with a fast moving plot with lots of twists and turns (but not too many that you lose the story line). The characters are interesting, well written, and the book kept me up late as I couldn't wait to read what would happen next.

As many know, Andrew Gross has co-authored many books with James Patterson, who is another favorite author of mine. The styles are similar with fast paced action at every turn. For fans of Patterson and those in this genre such as Jonathan Kellerman and Harlen Coben, I would say you have a new author to follow. For me, I have already picked up the first book and will look for more of Mr. Grosses titles in the future.

Ty Hauck returns as the detective in charge of what seems to be some murders revolving around the Pequot Woods Resort and Casino, a high end casino owned by the local Indians. What Hauck doesn't know is it goes much deeper...

The body count is fairly high in this latest by Andrew Gross. Hauck is a fairly likable character overall but in this go round he seemed to have tunnel vision. Not having any clue what he was getting into yet knowing it would hurt people around him. That's the way i saw it anyway. This thriller did pull me in but I didn't get the overall satisfaction from the whole novel that i expected.

At least, if you're Andrew Gross's editor. Then you can reduce his overuse of italicized words, replace words like "pouring" and "sheath" with the words he meant to use, "poring" and "sheaf," and point out that it's hard to watch the Yankees play on television when the story is set after Thanksgiving.