Glass Tiger [Paperback]

Joe Gores (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2007

Brendan Thorne, ex-Ranger, ex-sniper for the CIA, has foresworn violence when his presence is demanded at a top-secret meeting. Halden Corwin, legendary Vietnam sniper and mercenary, has vowed to assassinate the recently elected president of the United States, and the government’s computers have picked Thorne as the most likely person to find Corwin. Special agent Terrill Hatfield’s crack FBI team will take care of the rest. But when the plan doesn’t go as described, Thorne discovers he’s been drawn into a web of lies, ambitions, and double-crosses that will force him to stand and fight. A fast-paced thriller full of stunning revelations, Glass Tiger will leave the reader breathless.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar-winner Gores (Cases) will satisfy action junkies with this fast-paced, suspenseful stand-alone, though not everyone will find suspending disbelief an easy matter. The impending inauguration of near-future U.S. President Gustave Wallberg is clouded by a threat from a man previously thought dead, Hal Corwin. According to the administration, Corwin, a Vietnam veteran and expert marksman, brutally murdered his own daughter, and Wallberg's closest advisers decide that their best chance of thwarting an assassination attempt is to find Corwin's benevolent doppelgänger in the person of Brendan Thorne, a younger man with similar skills. Despite some flimsy plotting (e.g., wounded characters are assumed dead by their adversaries), Gores artfully shifts perspective between the hunter and the hunted as the alleged assassin moves closer to his target and Thorne finds he can't trust his closest allies. (Oct.)
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

Brendan Thorne has escaped from his past as a CIA assassin, taking refuge on the plains of Africa, where he is the lone white camp guard at Kenya's premier game park. But, as thriller readers know, retired assassins never are allowed to retire. Deported back to the States on a trumped-up poaching charge, Thorne is forced to track down a would-be presidential assassin, Hal Corwin, a former Vietnam sniper who has apparently killed his own daughter, a campaign advisor to President Wallberg, and now has his sights set on Wallberg himself. Even as Thorne embarks on a cross-country journey to find Corwin, he senses something foul within the president's inner circle that may prove more dangerous than any assassin. Veteran crime writer Gores takes what could have been cliched characters in a tired plot and makes it all seem fresh while keeping the real source of presidential jeopardy a secret until the very satisfying conclusion. Wes Lukowsky
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

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156032740
• ISBN-13: 978-0156032742
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,748 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars It takes a sniper to bag a sniper, December 14, 2006

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Glass Tiger (Hardcover)

Under the theory that it takes a sniper to understand a sniper, FBI agent Terrill Hatfield pressures ex-Ranger and ex-sniper Brendan Thorne into tracking down Hal Corwin, a legendary Vietnam operative who has threatened the life of new President Gustave Wallberg. Backed up against the proverbial wall by the machinations of the ruthless and ambitious Hatfield, Thorne starts to shadow Corwin's footsteps, getting into his prey's head, puzzling out just how and when the killer will strike. Doing so, he develops a grudging admiration for the man, whose tragic past bears eerie parallels to his own. Digging into Corwin's seemingly twisted motivations, he also discovers secrets which make him dangerous to Hatfield and the current Administration.

Although it starts from a similar premise as Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact (determining the best way to assassinate a target) and explores similar terrain (extraordinary individuals in extraordinary situations), Joe Gores' latest is very much its own book, an engaging battle of wits between two very similar men whom life has treated very badly. Gores brings each of his main characters to vivid life; readers will have a difficult time deciding whom to root for over the course of the novel, as its twisting course provides different perspectives on each. Fast paced and surprising, Glass Tiger finds Gores getting better with age--at a time in his life when the majority of his contemporaries are content to (literally) rest on their laurels, this multiple Edgar Award wining scribe continues to pen novels that challenge and entertain.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars deja vu all over again, October 1, 2006

By 

Cheryl A. Brander "churl" (san francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Glass Tiger (Hardcover)

If you've read Gores 1989 novel 'Wolf Time' you'll recognize the back story of this book...except the names have been changed. Corwin was called Fletcher, Wallberg was Westergard, Nisa was Nicole etc, etc,
The familiar plotline drove me crazy until I finally remembered where I'd read it before...why it was not 'billed' as a sequel to 'Wolf Time' is a mystery; the answer maybe known only to Joe Gores and his publisher. Gores is always great but his remixing of a previous book was disconcerting and vaguely annoying. 5 star rating would have to be 32 Cadillacs!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "He had not only the sniper's eye, he had the assassins mind.", October 1, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Glass Tiger (Hardcover)

This is excellent genre fiction, boasting an edgy plot that begins with an assassination attempt on the newly-elected President of the United States, Gus Wallberg, the author skillfully building the tension between the pursued and the pursuer. Everybody has an agenda in this thriller, from the President-Elect, who wants his potential assassin, a man from his past, eliminated, to his chief of Staff, who indulges in rough after-hours sex games, and top FBI agent, Terrill Hatfield, head of the Hostage and Rescue/Sniper Team, who is determined to come out on top when the dust settles, no matter who he has to intimidate. Ambition is a powerful motive and none of the power-brokers around Wallberg shirk from violence in the name of expediency.

Besides Hal Corwin, Wallberg's friend from his high school years, is an ex-Vietnam sniper and arguably the best in his field; Brendan Thorne is the wild card in this cat-and-mouse game. Thorne is minding his own business, a guide for rich tourists in Kenya, his killing years for the CIA left behind, when selected by the administration to track down Corwin before he surfaces. Corwin is a virtual doppelganger for Thorne, a match in wits and expertise. True to form, the FBI, in the person of Terrill Hatfield, heavy-handedly maneuvers Thorne into an untenable position, his future return to Kenya at stake. Doing their bidding, Thorne uncovers sensitive information that unfortunately renders him a target just as he is closing in on his quarry, now an endangered species just like Corwin.

In top form, Gores' prose is relentless, the plot a serpentine maze that inevitably leads to the heart of the killing field, fueled by one man's crime and another's ambition, both feeding upon power and greed. With Corwin in his sights, Thorne's Ranger training kicks in, in spite of insurmountable odds and the awesome power of the Feds on the hunt. Thorne proves a formidable threat to the status quo, especially when someone he cares about is threatened. In this brave new world of terrorism and politics, Glass Tiger adds a chilling element to this assassination tango, the power of a rouge agent to threaten the lives of citizens under the banner of National Security. In the end, Thorne barely escapes his intended fate, sure that that killing "is for younger men whose consciences have not yet made cowards of them all." Luan Gaines/2006.