The Hidden Man [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

David Ellis (Author), Luke Daniels (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2009

Jason Kolarich is a midwestern everyman with a linebacker’s build and an easy smart-ass remark. He’s a young, intelligent, and successful attorney; but he’s also struggling with a horrific tragedy that threatens to unravel his own life, and possibly the lives of everyone he holds dear. When a long-estranged friend, charged with murder, resurfaces needing Kolarich’s legal help, the lawyer has to put together a competent defense for the accused, despite his private doubts. In Chicago, neighborhood loyalty goes a long way. But as the trial looms, it becomes clear that Kolarich will have to unearth some unsettling events from their childhoods in order to crack not only this case, but also a mysteriously connected crime that went unsolved more than thirty years ago.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Edgar-winner Ellis (Line of Vision) is off to an exhilarating start with this first in a series set in an unnamed Midwestern city featuring grief-stricken attorney Jason Kolarich, who blames himself for his wife and child's death in a car accident. Jason is shaken out of his emotional coma when a stranger called Mr. Smith hires him to defend an old friend, Sammy Cutler. About 26 years earlier, Sammy's two-year-old sister was kidnapped from her bedroom during the night. Suspicion centered on Griffin Perlini, a convicted sex offender who lived a few blocks away, but police could never prove that he took the child. Now Sammy is accused of killing Griffin, who he believes murdered his sister. Mr. Smith demands Jason get an acquittal for Sammy, conveniently supplying witnesses and a scapegoat for the case. Ellis avoids clichés in a multilayered legal thriller that depends on precise character studies, an original plot and a surprising but logical twist at the end. Author tour.(Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

David Ellis’s previous novels include In the Company of Liars, Jury of One, Life Sentence, and Line of Vision, for which he won an Edgar Award. An attorney from Chicago, he serves as Counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged Lib Ed; Library edition (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423379268
• ISBN-13: 978-1423379263
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,460,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, September 7, 2009

By 

Maxine S. Gauthier "mystery max" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hidden Man (Hardcover)

I am an avid mystery reader and I have to say The Hidden Man is the absolutely best book I have read in a long while - in fact I lost several hours of sleep because I just could not stop reading. It was also a delight that not only was the story intriguing, with a lot of sub-plots, but David Ellis is also a gifted writer - very well written. Not matter how many times I thought I had the mystery solved, I was always wrong - David Ellis kept the reader going into the very end. It is not often that I find that I have not "figured" out the climax - Ellis really threw me a loop! The story was exciting, fast-paced with regular glimpses into the main character's past. While reading, I felt like I was one-on-one with the main character, racing to unravel the facts that would save himself, his brother and his childhood best friend.

I highly recommend The Hidden Man - just a word of warning - do not start reading unless you have the time to finish - you literally cannot put this book down!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thoughtful and Surprising Thriller, October 19, 2009

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hidden Man (Hardcover)

After Audrey Cutler is snatched from her bedroom in the middle of the night, the lives of her seven-year-old brother, Sammy, and his best friend, Jason Kolarich, are forever scarred by the tragedy. Griffin Perlini, a known sex offender who lives nearby, is suspected of the crime, but the case is never solved and Perlini goes free. After Audrey's disappearance, Sammy's already dreadful home situation turns from bad to worse.

Growing up in a grief-stricken family, Sammy seeks escape through drugs and becomes involved in crime. Jason briefly heads down the same path, but because of his success on the football field in high school and the loyalty of Sammy, Jason is spared from spending time in juvenile detention. Jason eventually escapes the neighborhood and his abusive father by way of an athletic scholarship, leading him to receive a college education and a law degree. Additionally, he marries the woman of his dreams, and they have a beautiful daughter together.

Sammy, who continues to have run-ins with the law into adulthood, is not as lucky. And neither is Jason's younger brother, Pete. Slighter in stature than Jason, Pete is the unlucky target of their drunken father's physical and emotional abuse. Although Jason was fortunate enough to escape this deplorable family situation, he has never forgotten his roots.

But despite being able to leave all the misery, the misery is able to find Jason. Thirty years after Audrey's abduction, Jason is a broken man. Once on a fast track to stardom in a high-powered criminal defense firm, he crashes and burns after his wife and daughter are killed in a freak car accident one night while he was working on a high-profile case. Blaming himself for their deaths, he trades his success and notoriety for isolation and despair and walks away from a promising future to begin a modest law practice.

One day, a nattily dressed mysterious client known as "Mr. Smith" hires Jason to defend Sammy on the charges of murdering a man suspected of abducting young Audrey 30 years ago. The evidence against Sammy is overwhelming, and the trial is scheduled to begin shortly. In addition to paying Jason a huge retainer, Mr. Smith lays out Sammy's defense. He gives Jason his marching orders, including providing an eyewitness who can exonerate Sammy, and expects Jason to fall in line and conclude the trial quickly. But things don't add up for Jason, who is determined to find the truth and is not afraid to stand up to Mr. Smith or a prosecution out to convict Sammy of murder.

When Jason refuses to buckle to Mr. Smith's threats, Pete is imprisoned on a federal drug and weapons charge. Jason realizes Pete has been set up and suspects there is more to the case than proving the innocence of Sammy. Fighting against the odds and against the clock, Jason must first discover the truth about the past in order to save his brother's life and prove his friend's innocence.

In THE HIDDEN MAN, David Ellis has created a likable hero in Jason Kolarich, an everyday man who has scraped his way to the top through hard work and determination yet still remains true to his values. Ellis, the lead prosecutor in the trial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, has used his first-hand knowledge of the criminal defense system to craft a thoughtful and surprising thriller that ponders the larger questions of fate, loyalty, redemption, and having the courage to do what is right in spite of the risks and regardless of the consequences.

--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific legal thriller, September 6, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hidden Man (Hardcover)

In 1980, someone abducted two-year-old Audrey Cutler from her bedroom. Her stunned mother held her seven year old son Sammy tight as if she will never let him go. The police question sexual offender Perlini, but the evidence was not there.

In 2006 Sammy runs into Perlini. Soon afterward the prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Audrey is dead. The police arrest Sammy. His high school crony defense attorney Jason Kolarich is hired to defend Sammy. However, the fee for his services comes from an unknown M. Smith who wants a speedy trial and the lawyer believes his defeat as he is told how his client is to plea. Still reeling from the deaths of his wife and daughter in a car accident, Jason tries his best. His inquiry leads to a mass grave of children, but instead of euphoria, his client's financial backers abduct Jason's brother threatening to kill him if the attorney uncovers any other revelations.

This is a terrific legal thriller starring a dedicated attorney who wants to do his best by his client regardless of who is paying for the defense or his own issues. The story line is fast-paced from the onset as armchair lawyers will root for and read in one sitting Jason's efforts to mount a viable defense. Fans will enjoy Jason's idealistic attempts to defend Sammy especially after his sibling is kidnapped. David Ellis has a winner in Jason Kolarich.

Harriet Klausner