Customer Reviews

The Eighth Day

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

In his mid twenties, Danny Cray cringes at the image of the starving artist as he has chosen to supplement his meager earnings as a sculptor with sleuthing. His latest customer, charismatic and wealthy attorney Jude Belzer hires Danny to do some research into whom and why someone has been attacking the reputation of a client. Danny easily succeeds and in return receives a nice fee.

Jude asks Danny to dig deeper so the part time detective flies to the Vatican to conduct more research as lure of the first class accommodations are too impossible to resist. However, Danny uncovers a lot more than he was supposed to and he now knows the deadly game his benefactor plays. His discovery leads to Belzer sending his thugs to dispose of Danny, who now flees for his life.

When it comes to an action-packed thriller, the writing team of John Case is as sure a bet as fans will find out. The latest tale, THE EIGHTH DAY, never eases off the throttle as readers follow Danny walk deeper into trouble one step at a time. Though this theme of relative innocence deluded by glamour into a deadly scenario is as old as the bible, readers will root for Danny to defeat his much more powerful foe even if it takes unrealistic spins for him to have a slim chance. The case on this book and previous novels by this writing duo (see THE SYNDROME and THE GENESIS CODE) is that the story line always goes at hyperspeed driven by a likable hero in over their head against a clever villain.

Harriet Klausner

I'm a John Case fan and this one was a real disappointment. I liked the Genesis Code so much I read it twice, and the others were very readable too, but this one just became way too unbelievable to be enjoyed. The story was contrived and the main character a little too stupid. Sorry - this one made me think twice about running out to get the next one.

See book description above.

A John Case novel never seems to disappoint my reading fix. His scientific thrillers are timely, and once you start reading, hard to put down.
One of the main subjects in the book is nanotechnology. This subject has been the theme of several books over the last couple years but Case does a superb job by taking you all over the world on an adventure that includes everything from 'The Contrade' (a brutal horse race in Italy) to the land of the Kurds. There is also talk of Yezidis', Anchorites, 'Black Writing', and more.
A well rounded thriller sure to keep you entertained.

Highly recommended.

Four stars might be a little much. But, I really like Cases' style. He has written a handfull of books that all have a strain of very nicely pieced together passages. Only in previous books that I have read by Case, the passages don't hold up as a whole.

Here in the Eighth Day the book has huge swaths of very readable and enjoyable aspects that do manage to grab your lapels and reel you along for a nice ride. I personally can't wait for Case's future novels and hope that he continues to mature along the arc that is very noticable from one book to the next. The 'Eighth Day' is not close to being a great book. It is corney and the ending is what you would expect from any mainstream writer or hollywood film. I mean, come on... get a little original here and take a couple of chances.

A lot of authors have had novels that revolve around the protagonist being hunted down. Grisham, Ludlum, Coben... on and on. Other than the Bourne Supremecy by Ludlum, it's difficult to think of one that just doesn't go way over the top, where the world isn't hanging in the balance, or the protagonist is a fish out of water and fighting against impossible odds. The 'Eighth Day' straddles this implausible strain that runs through the 'chase' genre. The best components of the novel are where the protagonist is confronting small problems that an ordinary person might concievably confront.

If you get this book, I don't think that you will despise your decision. Just keep in mind that it is not yet up to Case's potential.

You might try Harlan Coban's books that don't have the character Myron Bolitar in them. They are very good thrill rides.

I was overall disappointed in this fourth effort from John Case. His first three novels were well developed, plausible and much more exciting.

In THE EIGHTH DAY, we get so many sidetracks and rambling passages, and all the chase scenes become redundant and ridiculous. Danny Cray is an "artiste" who moonlights as a private investigator for some firm. He's offered a rather good assignment to track down someone who's "badmouthing" a certain famous person. Well, needless to say, that's where Danny goes wrong.

Danny is likeable, but he does so many stupid things; things that I can't see a man of his limited expertise doing. He manages to get a bunch of people killed because of this naivete. He cheats on his girlfriend with an exotic spy and then tries to worm his way out of it when the video of his sexual exploits is e-mailed to his sort of fiance.

The global hopping gets monotonous; the plot incredulous, and the finale is right out of Indiana Jones.

It may entertain at times, but it's way beyond what I've come to expect from mr. Case. Dan Brown, if nothing else, has inspired let's do the mythical conspiracy stuff. Let Brown keep it.

I found this book to be unprofessional and boring. I could use other words to describe it but they wouldn't be fit for a public website like this. The main characters were unbelievable and pathetic. The plot was ridiculous. I only finished it to prove to myself that the ending would be equally unsatisfying. Yet again I am disappointed by so called bestselling authors. I have only read this one book by John Case, and it would take a lot of convincing and bribery for me to read any more.

on page 9, a murder victim's birthdate is given as 6/11/53.

on page 37, this same victim is described as being in his late 30's.

for this to be true, the book would need to be set between 1988 and 1993!! unfortunately, we know this is NOT the case, because on page 35, this same victim is said to have published a book "during the last decade," in 1995.

i absolutely can't stand this kind of sloppiness, especially early in a novel. i immediately put it down for good, despite having loved all of case's previous works.

Explosive and addictive, a taut, sharply penned thriller from page 1 to startling finish - that's John Case's fourth novel. While the author surely proved himself with "The Syndrome," "The First Horseman," and the New York Times bestseller "The Genesis Code," he exceeds all expectations with his latest, a hard-driving journey propelled by international intrigue and amazing technological advances.

Danny Cray is a 28-year-old artist with hair enhanced by spiky blond highlights (thanks to girlfriend, Caliegh) and three piercings in his left ear (thanks to himself). He's a sculptor and video artist who has just been offered a showing at Neon, a prestigious gallery. To make ends meet he has been moonlighting as a private investigator for Fellner Associates; now he needs to come up with enough art to make a proper presentation - some expensive new equipment would help.

It seems almost serendipitous when he receives a call from a wealthy attorney, Jude Belzer, asking him to do a little work for him. According to Belzer, a powerful, super-rich Italian businessman, Zerevan Zabek, is the target of unfounded slander. Belzer wants to keep this assignment separate from his other dealings with Fellner, and asks Danny to take it on solo, tracing the smears to their source.

Naive is a good description of Danny when he first meets Belzer - what attorney has a phalanx of bodyguards? Nonetheless, the proposition is too tempting, too easy, and too lucrative. Danny grabs it.

He's instructed to find out all that he can about a professor of religious studies who died recently, evidently by sealing himself alive in a concrete vault. Belzer insists that if Danny can get to the late professor's papers, his files, all will come to light. But, instead of light there's darkness, a sinister darkness as a man the professor called on the day he died also turns up dead.

A FedEx receipt in the professor's trash indicates that he sent his computer to a priest in Rome stationed at the Vatican. End of assignment, or so Danny believes. Belzer is in Rome, and he can simply look up the priest, retrieve the computer, and solve the mystery. But, no, Belzer wants Danny to go to Rome and get the computer. Ten thousand dollars plus $800 per day is more than the young artist can turn down. But, what could this computer hold?

He boards a plane for Rome, where he meets his interpreter, Paulina, "a dark beauty, thirty at the outside, with the kind of high-gloss glamour that costs real money." His suite at a luxe hotel has every imaginable accouterment, yet he has unknowingly placed himself in jeopardy, his fate to be determined by Zabek, a man who had a way of "killing people that gave dying a bad name."

From Rome with all of its glories Danny's quest takes him to Istanbul, and a terrifying encounter in an underground cistern. From there he travels to a remote Turkish border town, still searching for answers, and only one step ahead of those who would kill him.

John Case is a master at limning the scenes of Italy, especially Siena's Palio, a breathtaking bareback horse race held in Siena's seashell shaped piazza.. His characters are drawn incisively, whether they be arresting or menacing. Dialogue sparks as suspense builds to a thrilling denouement.

Open "The Eighth Day" only if you're prepared to not put it down - Case's tale grabs you with the first page, shakes you up a good bit, and doesn't let go until the final word.

- Gail Cooke

In this novel John Case has created a very readible thriller that is a touch above your average James Patterson or John Grisham in terms of both intelligence of the subject matter and incredible plot twists. Combining elements of political intrigue, religion, nano-technology and globe-trotting suspense makes this a complex and intriguing thriller. The strongest feature of this book however is the fashion in which we identify with the protagonist Danny Cray and his constant struggle against an opponent who is probably smarter and infinetly more resourceful than he is. Case does an excellent job of portraying Danny's reasons for becoming involved in a sceme which he knows is probably too good to be true and then his constant efforts to extrecate himself from this situation when he comes to realize how deep and sinister this sceme actually is.

By using his personal knowledge of Washington D.C. and international politics John Case (a.k.a. Jim Hougan) creates an aura of realism that makes some of this less credible plot twists seem plausible. A cut above your average thriller and I look forward to reading his next.

I will admit that John Case's books are a bit of a guilty pleasure. While I'm sure even the author(s) wouldn't argue them as life-altering literature, they are fairly well written and original novels within a genre (thrillers) that by and large seems to have run out of steam. That being said, I can only hope that pressing bills and/or a pressing publication deadline was the cause for the massively bad "Eighth Day". While I could wax on about this or that particular problem, the overall fault in this book is what can only be termed a terribly weak premise and a plot that just fails to engage on every level. Plot points make no sense, the writing is stilted and formulaic and so on. Do yourself a favour...if you want a good little "escapist" read by John Case pick up "Genesis Code" or "The First Horseman". Otherwise if you persist with the "Eighth Day", don't say say you weren't warned when, barely managing to digest the horribly cheesy ending, you wonder how to get your money back.