Customer Reviews

Four Days to Veracruz : A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The author is a Marine, as are most of the "good" characters. So am I, so forgive a bit of prejudice. The main characters are husband and wife: a Marine and an eco-challenge racer (tough couple!) The book is one huge chase of the Marine/eco-runner couple through Mexico by Mexican drug lords, with minor bit parts by their Marine friends. Actually pretty stimulating. This is an excellent, if bloody, adventure on the order of Richard Hannay in 39 Steps. Lots of suspense, clever manuevering by the characters.

When they reach the finish line of the New Zealand Eco-challenge, the military aide to the president, marine Major Darren Phillips plans to ask Kate North to marry him. Not long afterward, the duo are in Mexico for their honeymoon.

Kate persuades her husband to "break the rules" and kayak in a feral part of the country far from civilization. However, that takes them to a place where tourists, albeit even perfect physical specimens, do not want to travel without a platoon of Darren's comrades in arms. Drug cartel soldiers assault the duo though Darren and Kate manage to kill the first wave and steal a cell phone. The drug cartel needs that phone back as it is actually an encrypted satellite phone that the CIA and FBI, who have been tapping into it, also want back in the enemy's hands. Every time the duo uses the phone in their trek towards Vera Cruz, the device reveals their location to the assassins chasing after them.

FOUR DAYS TO VERACRUZ is an exciting macho (even with a female co-lead) action thriller that goes full throttle and beyond until the finish as the story line is all high octane energy. Characters from SHARKMAN SIX including the hero of that novel are part of the thrills so those fans of Owen West have more to cheer for the good guys. With a major death toll and a lead couple inhumanly ignoring or instantly healing from severe traumas while trekking in a hostile terrain, fans of this action adventures will want to join the courageous couple on their honeymoon.

Harriet Klausner

Owen West deserves recognition and praise for this thoroughly effective thriller.

Four Days to Veracruz follows the flight of a couple of endurance athletes who stumble onto the activities of a major drug cartel while honeymooning in Acapulco. They unwittingly pocket a spread-spectrum, GPS-equipped satellite phone which prompts a multilateral manhunt as the cartel, Federales, DEA, CIA, and FBI pursue the couple across Mexico to the Gulf. A background theme of the book is that intelligence agencies may have valid reasons for resisting cooperation.

Owen West's writing and dialog are transparent and carefully crafted. The plot is just complex enough, with multiple threads that provide dramatic relief as needed. The characterization does not reach the level of fine literature, but most of the characters are interesting and original. The overall effect is very cinematic, not unlike (but superior to) my previously favorite thriller, The Bourne Identity.

I was particularly pleased that Four Days to Veracruz is not encumbered by the PC constraints that make so many recent "thrillers" read like Five Year Plans.

My only criticism of the book is that it contains an uncomfortable level of physical suffering and violence described from the victims' perspective. But if you have a taste for high-octane adventure, you will swallow this book whole.

See storyline above.

When I started this book I had no idea what I was getting into. The pacing was relentless. The shear action and drama throughout made you want to marathon read to the end. Sure the protagonists seemed to be able to take a lot of pain and punishment, that which would kill the normal man, but the writing was so vivid it made for great escapist fiction.

Highly recommended.

I read West's first book, Sharkman Six, and have been waiting for his second. Wow. I have to say this is the best book I have read this year and one of the fastest-paced thrillers I have ever read. I read it in two sittings overnight. The plotline is just superb...and the chapters just keep rolling and rolling. If you don't like violence, that's one thing I'd caution you on. But if you want a terrific summer read that isn't dumbed down, read Veracruz. This should be a movie. I sent it to my son, who is in the Marines and currently in Iraq. Top recommendation from someone who reads two books per month.

FOUR DAYS TO VERA CRUZ
Owen West

You know summer is here when the Beach Books start arriving. All Beach Books have certain traits in common:

(1) One-dimensional characters, each with an odd quirk or two so we can tell them apart.
(2) Normal citizens facing powerful forcesusually corrupt bureaucrats in league with criminalsand impossible odds.
(3) Numerous sub-plots, casually tossed aside when they become inconvenient.
(4) A miracle windup enabling the good guys to triumph and love to conquer all.
(5) A blending of the above that can produce a book that you will totally forget five days after you read it.

Four Days To Vera Cruz is a Beach Book.

Darren Phillips and Kate North are honeymooners who just happen to be among the best Eco-Challenge racers in the world (see #1 above). How convenient, since they end up fleeing across Mexico on foot, one step ahead of the worlds deadliest drug cartel and the corrupt Mexican Federales (see #2) who are out to kill them.

The cartel killers disappear without explanation after a hundred pages or so (see #3) and the Federales are joined by corrupt American bureaucrats who, for reasons that are never explained, also want to kill them.

Our heroes somehow turn out to be expert killers as well as racers and kill a few dozen people, shoot down a helicopter, and, inexplicably, a dozen dogs and horses (what's up with that?), but before long they are backed up to the edge of a cliff, exhausted, injured, out of food and ammo, being tracked by every American and Mexican government agency known to man, and face-to-face with Mexicos deadliest mass murderer.

How does it end up? See #4 and #5.

Hey, what can I say? Its a Beach Book.

This book is impossible to put down. I started reading and it was different than I expected...not quite literary but VERY well written considering it is stuffed (maybe even overly so) with action scenes. There is a waterfall/river scene that is the best since Deliverance. I mean, yes, this is a fast-paced commercial book. But it is filled with really good-and smart--writing. Highly recommended! I am going to buy his other...

As fast paced thriller...I loved this 'summer' book. All the stops are pulled from this former marine, West, as he wraps a cool Clancy plot into adventur writing. I was very surprised how much i liked this book. Some characters are flaky...but the action is unbeleiveable and the main characters i want to follow into the next ten books!

I read a lot of thrillers/military novels--DeMille, Webb, Connelly, Clancy--and i have to say this is the best thriller I have read in years. This reminds me of Hunt for Red October or Clancy's early works where the plot was incredible and it just kept building. This novel brings in the CIA, a serial killer, drub dealers, and the mexican and American governments, and ties it up with a big, bloody bow. I am so TOTALLY impressed by this young writer. I read Sharkman Six and liked it, but this one puts him in the category with the best of the genre. You will not be able to guesss this plotline once you start reading.

My husband handed me this book. I was skeptical at first--seemed macho--but I have to say that I could not put this book down. I thought about Kate and Darren North at night before I went to sleep. I'm not kidding. When I woke up, I started reading again. This is just such a great story. I am so glad to have discovered Owen West. This is an adventure book and a love story. I don't remember when a book has motivated me so much!