The First 48 [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Tim Green (Author), Stephen Lang (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

From the bestselling author of The Fourth Perimeter comes the story of a father who'll do anything to find his missing daughter--including kidnap the U.S. Senator he believes abducted her.Tom Redmond is a former cop turned lawyer in upstate New York who couldn't be prouder of his daughter, Jane, an investigative journalist for the Washington Post. But just as she prepares to break a front-page story on one of the most powerful Senators in Congress, Jane mysteriously disappears. Suspecting foul play, Redmond drives to Washington. He knows that if an abducted victim is not found within the first 48 hours of a kidnapping, the odds of that person being found alive are very slim. And as time ticks by with no sign of Jane, Redmond is forced to confront the Senator--and take matters into his own hands.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

More often than not, a person missing as a result of foul play will be killed if not rescued in the first 48 hours after the abduction. This actuarial statistic is taken as gospel by struggling lawyer Tom Redmond in Green's sloppy third thriller (after The Fifth Angel) when Redmond's Washington Post reporter daughter, Jane, disappears. Before she vanished, Jane was investigating the purported sexual misconduct of powerful Senator Gleason, who years ago destroyed her father's career as a district attorney. Now Tom believes the senator has hired a former CIA assassin to do away with Jane. Enlisting the help of former biker Mike Tubbs, Tom sets off on a 48-hour rampage of criminal trespass, kidnapping, assault, grand theft, burglary, torture and murder, racing up and down the east coast with the duct tape–wrapped senator in tow. Meanwhile, Jane makes her own escape, running half-naked around a Hudson River island, fighting snakes and psychopaths. Just as she thinks all is lost, she meets up with Mark Allen, a handsome mystery man who was one of her key sources on the Gleason story. Mark seems to be on her side—but who is he, really? After the 48 hours elapse, the action extends to the evil plan of a Ukrainian terrorist who talks like Speedy Gonzalez, and Jane's vigilantes commit a few more felonies to save the day. Improbabilities vie for attention with contrivances, and the novel is riddled with careless writing ("Mike began typing again, his stubby fingers running the keys like a prodigy"), silly dialogue (" 'This is GD big' ") and irrelevant detail ("Tom paid at the Home Depot with cash"). As things wind down to a predictable ending, Redmond's 48 hours may seem interminable.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Green's career as a mystery-thriller author began with football-based novels--a subject close to him as an ex-NFL player and a current Fox Sports commentator. Then he changed course and started turning out high-concept legal thrillers (most recently, The Fifth Angel, 2002). If his latest is any indication, perhaps it's time he returns to football. Here we meet Tom Redmond, who seemed destined to become something more than the drunken, slip-and-fall attorney he is today. His daughter, Jane, an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, senses that her father is burying a dark secret that would explain how a once-rising star in the prosecutor's office fell from grace. All she has to go on, though, is the name Gleason. While investigating a corruption ring involving a high-profile senator named Michael Gleason (Gee, could it be the same Gleason?), Jane is abducted, and Tom wakes from his boozy haze to look for his daughter. Though not lacking in intrigue, the story is predictable, and the characters, likable enough, are thinly drawn. Green's celebrity ensures his books a strong marketing presence, and that usually is enough to draw a crowd. This one, however, just might bring out the boobirds. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Hachette Audio; Abridged edition (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586215930
• ISBN-13: 978-1586215934
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,135,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim is the NY TIMES BESTSELLING author of fourteen highly successful suspense novels, including soon-to-be-released FALSE CONVICTIONS and national bestseller ABOVE THE LAW, as well the non-fiction New York Times Bestseller, THE DARK SIDE OF THE GAME which was featured on CBS's 60 Minutes. His last five novels have all been national bestsellers hitting the charts between #22 and #30 on the NY Times Bestseller list. While his first five novels used professional football as their backdrop, his most recent works have drawn more on his experiences as a lawyer exploring the themes of ambition and revenge.

Tim is also the author of a memoir entitled A MAN AND HIS MOTHER: AN ADOPTED SON'S SEARCH which was featured in PEOPLE magazine, Entertainment Tonight, and ABC's Prime Time.
His writing career began at Syracuse University where he was a Rossman Scholar for Humanities, a Syracuse Scholar, an NCAA Top Six Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, and co-valedictorian of his class. While studying English Literature, Tim became acquainted with the renowned minimalist Raymond Carver, and had the opportunity to study under the award-winning writer and professor Tobias Wolff.

During his studies, Tim also played football for the Syracuse Orangemen with a career that included a consensus All-American honors as well as his recent induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1986, he was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons where he was a star defensive end for eight years. During his NFL career, Green began his thirteen year career as a commentator for National Public Radio, wrote columns for USA Today, and received his law degree with honors at Syracuse University. Because of his accomplishments both Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times have called Tim Green the "Renaissance Man" of sports. After his playing career, Tim spent eleven years as an NFL analyst for FOX Sports and recently hosted FOX's nationally syndicated news magazine, A Current Affair. His other broadcast experiences have included ABC Good Morning America's legal commentator, Court TV's Pros and Cons, host of FOX Sports Net's Emmy nominated show NFL TOTAL ACCESS, and Comedy Central's Battlebots. Recently, Tim hosted the ABC Prime Time reality show, FIND MY FAMILY.
In 2007, Tim wrote FOOTBALL GENIUS, his first novel for young readers, and an instant NY Times Bestseller. The success and enjoyment of working with his own kids on the project resulted in FOOTBALL HERO, which was released in 2008. In both novels, Tim models the main characters after his own children, submerging them into a suspenseful world that blends adolescent life and sports with the visceral realm of the NFL. FOOTBALL HERO was selected as a Junior Library Guild choice and a GMA summer page turner for young adults. Most recently he released BASEBALL GREAT, another NY Times Bestseller, as well as FOOTBALL CHAMP. Tim's newest young reader novel, RIVALS, will be released in stores in March 2010.
Tim lives with his wife, Illyssa, and their five children in upstate New York. More information about Tim can be found at his Web site www.timgreenbooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (4-) A Book with an Excellent Plot but Unrealized Potential, February 8, 2004

By 

Tucker Andersen (Wall Street) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First 48 (Hardcover)

In many ways, this is a typical TIm Green thriller, a fast moving story relatively light on character development but held together by a tight timeline, non-stop action, and at least one unexpected plot twist. The story begins with a brief prologue whose relevance is only established later but which provides sufficient context to allow the reader to guess the motivations of some of the important protagonists as the story unfolds. Unfortunately, therefore, this somewhat reduces the suspense regarding one element of the story. In Chapter One we meet Tom Redmon, an almost fifty year old former prosecutor now barely making ends meet as a low-rent defense attorney who drinks too much in order to keep in touch with his dead wife Ellen and to ease the pain that remains from the long ago incident that ruined his career. Soon thereafter, we meet Tom's only friend and part time investigator, Mike Tubbs - a thirty year old, three hundred pound reformed motorcycle gang member and computer genius who feels that Tom's legal skills and persistence were responsible for keeping him out of prison and that he thus owes Tom a debt that can never be adequately repaid.

We have only just been introduced to Tom long enough to learn a little of his eccentric nature when the scene shifts from Ithaca, NY to the newsroom of THE WASHINGTON POST. There a shadowy source is feeding Tom's daughter Jane, a young reporter, very damaging information about none other than Michael Gleason, the cause of her father's downfall many years ago and now a senior and very powerful U.S. Senator. As Jane becomes convinced that she may have a story of Pulitzer Prize potential if her source is trustworthy, she decides that she has to visit her father and confront him in order to finally learn the secret of how Gleason destroyed Tom's career as background for her understanding of the Senator and in order to decide if he is as corrupt as her source has indicated. Under a morning deadline from her editor, Jane returns to DC later the same night to prepare the story for the editor's approval, but she fails to appear at work the next day. When Tom contacts her editor the next afternoon after becoming concerned about her, he learns that the police are investigating her disappearance and that her apartment has been ransacked.

Tom was a policeman before attending law school, so he immediately recognizes that THE FIRST 48 hours after a subject's disappearance are crucial to successfully locating the person alive. Since the countdown has effectively begun several hours earlier, he and MIke immediately pack up Tom's old diesel pickup truck and head for DC. Tom finds that his sense of urgency is not shared by either the POST management or the DC police, both of whom are treating Senator Gleason with the deference that the powerful in Washington so often command. Tom's reputation as an oddball and his aggressive behavior quickly end all chances for their cooperation, so he and Mike decide to independently investigate Jane's disappearance. Of course, Tom is totally convinced that Gleason is undoubtedly the key to the puzzle, and makes the Senator the initial target of his inquiry. He and Mike also pursue the parallel track of determining the identity of her shadowy source.

The plot has several threads that are ingeniously woven together, and the depiction of the intrigue surrounding the Washington lobbying scene is accurately drawn. The book is an easy read and a real page turner; I started it during an afternoon and had finished it by bedtime without speedreading. Also, in some ways, the central charcters are much better developed than in Green's earlier books. During explanatory flashbacks, we learn a lot about Tom and a fair amount about Mike, and we are treated to a wonderful tradition which has evolved which involves the exchange between them at appropriate moments of relevant philosophical insights drawn from recognizable historical figures . So, why not a five star rating? The story suffers from the two interrelated flaws which plague the author's other books which I have read. First, there are a few too many tricks played on the reader in regard to certain events. (I cannot be more specific without creating a spoiler.) While this makes the story more exciting and unpredictable, it does so in a way that is basically a shortcut for the author at the reader's expense. Second and much more importantly, Green does a great job of providing many accurate and interesting details in order to create a realistic backdrop, but then in an apparent effort to increase the "thrill quotient" and keep the reader's adrenaline pumping he makes some elements of the story so farfetched as to cause it to lose all credibilty. It undoubtedly is a great story for a speed reader, who would probably primarily care about the plot and love the action; in some ways it is a better movie outline than a book.

If you are a Tim Green fan or are just looking for an action thriller that has an interesting plot and which is a fast read, this book should provide a few hours of enjoyment. This is the fourth book by Tim Green that I have read, and it is much superior to his last effort, THE FIFTH ANGEL (review 3/21/03). It is about on a par with THE LETTER OF THE LAW, but not nearly as good as THE FIFTH PERIMETER, so if you haven't read that one I recommend it highly.

Tucker Andersen

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Borrow........Don't buy!!, July 9, 2005

By 

Trish (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First 48 (Hardcover)

Jane Redmon, investigative reporter for the Washington Post, has a story of a lifetime, involving a scandal with a US senator. However, this investigation proves to be deadly for those that know too much. The senator does everything in his power to keep his 'affairs' private, even kidnapping Jane and threatening her life. Her father, Tom Redmon, has more than a passing interest with the senator, something that Jane knows nothing about. He sets out on a '48 hour' adventure to save his daughter before it's too late.

This was my first book by Tim Green, and I must say that I was somewhat disappointed. The plot/storyline was all too predictable and most of the action was completely unrealistic. However, this will not be my last book by the author, as the book did keep me in suspense and I did finish it.

Trish

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interminable,., July 22, 2005

By 

P. C. Farranto (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First 48 (Hardcover)

Tension builds as the clock counts down-- can you stand the interminable book as a meaningless arbitrary deadline approaches? Lot of action in a weak plot and no charachter development. I gave it 2 stars rather than 1 because there was just enough there for me to finish the book.