Customer Reviews

Icarus

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a child, Jack Keller witnessed the horrifying tragedy of his mother being murdered.

Thirty years later, Jack has come along way - with a great marriage, a chain of successful restaurants, and good health - he feels he has it all...that is about to change.

At the grand opening of a new restaurant, Jack witnesses his second tragedy, and all it took was one bullet.

Recovering from his injuries, Jack is nursed back to health by Kid Demeter. Jack looks at Kid as his own son, and Kid looks up to Jack as the father he is missing. During the healing process, Kid will tell Jack stories of his reckless life, and the many women he entertains. In each of the stories, Kid describes the women as sexy, and dangerous, and will only refer to them by nicknames.

Before long, another tragedy strikes...Kid plunges twenty stories to his death.

Refusing to believe the official ruling of suicide, Jack believes one of Kid's women is responsible, and in his quest for answers, he will enter into the dark world of strip clubs, sex clubs, drugs, and extreme violence.

The closer Jack gets to the truth, a killer is closing in on him. Someone watching his every move. Someone killing anyone that gets in the way. And, one wrong move could cost Jack his life.

`Icarus' is an excellent thriller, and a wonderful follow-up to the heart racing bestseller, `Gideon'. In `Icarus' Russell Andrews has crafted a complex, spellbinding plot, worthy of anything Hitchcock created. The reader is kept guessing the entire time, while pieces of the puzzle fall into place. And, when the climax brings to light the final piece of the puzzle, we are left in awe, wanting more.

Russell Andrews has written another blockbuster bestseller, that all thriller fans should run out and buy. UN-PUTDOWNABLE, and utterly suspenseful, `Icarus' is what good thriller writing is all about. After reading this novel I was left with one thought..."If only ALL thrillers were this good."

A MUST read!

Nick Gonnella

Stop reading this review. Immediately scroll back up and buy this book - DO IT NOW! And while you're at it - DO NOT read any reviews that describe the story line, plot, don't even read the jacket cover, because they tell you so much that it takes away from the impact of the book's events.

That said, Russell Andrews (or whoever the actual writers are) has crafted the best book I have read all year - maybe ever! The story of Jack Keller is woven around a host of other charcters from his past and present. Keller suffers recurring and horrendous tragedy and the story tells how he moves on with his life, while healing and searching for a killer. Very creative, very clever, well written and believable characters, excellent dialogue, very easy read, fast-paced. I really could not put it down until I had turned the last page. Finally a book with an uplifting and poignent ending.

Climatic scene that makes up the end of the story is a bit drawn out, but builds well on the mystery and Jack's fears and hopes for the future. Bravo. This book is excellent. I am now scrolling up to buy Gideon.

While some reviewers felt that the first 90-100 pages were slow moving, I found that I did not want to put this book down from the very first page. Icarus is one of those rare books that the less you know about before starting it, the more exciting, surprising and suspenseful it will be to you. While I know it's hard to spend money on a book without knowing what it's about, this is definitely a book that should be the exception to the rule. The style of writing is very easy to read, the plot is very fast-paced, the action is non-stop (particularly in the second half of the book), and the characters are very credible. If this isn't enough to motivate you to put Icarus at the top of your "To Be Read" list, than maybe this will do it for you -- you won't guess who the killer is. Even if you do, it won't be until towards the very end of the book, and by that point you'll have probably gone through a list of characters who you thought "did it." Icarus is the most enjoyable thriller I've read in quite a while. Do yourself two favors -- 1) don't read any reviews that describe the plot, and 2) go right out and get a copy of Icarus (and don't be tempted to read the inside flap. It will take away from some of the suspense!). Also, if you have a little more money to spend, get a copy of Russell Andrews' first book, Gideon.

Jack is a tough customer whose mentor is a cleaver-wielding butcher from New York City's meat packing district. As a child, Jack watches his mother die at the hands of a deranged murderer who hurls her body through the window of a Manhattan skyscraper, Nevertheless, he manages to make a success of his life: he acquires a classy drop-dead gorgeous wife and partner, cultivates a lucrative string of top-notch restaurants and still manages to maintain his loyalty to those he has met along the way to reaping the lavish rewards of his work. Basically he wants for nothing, even challenging his own fear of heights by purchasing a penthouse apartment several stories above ground level.
Problem? Yes. Disaster strikes a second time when Jack's wife dies exactly the same way as his mother and again Jack witnesses the entire event. Bereft and broken, Jack comes back to life with the help of a younger protegee, Kid Demeter, a personal trainer with a style both motivating and mysterious. Throughout Jack's recovery, he hears about Kid's edgy lifestyle, epitomized by the high-maintenance women in his life. The "team" as Kid labels them are chivalrously referred to only by nicknames, so when Kid himself is found dead after being thrown from his Tribeca apartment window, Jack does not have a clue as to how to convince the police that Kid's death was murder and not suicide.
By far, the most interesting aspect of this book was Jack's foray into Kid's nighttime world of private clubs and fast women. It is here that the author's minimalist's style really works to convey the multi-layered truths of the demimonde as as seen from Jack's skewed perspective.
This novel picks up momentum once the murders of Jack's mother and wife are recounted. There is little dialogue in this first portion of the story so the reader gets the false sense that the author's style needs an injection of life while I believe his intention is merely to supply background information for the real tale.
This is not great literature---however, it is the perfect read for a trip or a day at the beach where one wants to be moved along by an interesting plot and not the artistry of wordplay.

Jack Keller is a very interesting and engaging protagonist. Right away Russell Andrews takes a unique slant on the thriller genre and sucks the reader into a world that relies more on the writing of E M Forrester than Grisham and Patterson. For the first hundred and fifty pages I was entirely absorbed in the unfolding of Keller's life, even though this was mostly a very unassuming series of stories that in essence are not traditionally necessary. By this I mean that Andrews covers a lot of ground that would normally be glossed over in a paragraph or two before heading into gun fights and street chases. Here in Icarus, Andrews spends a lot of quality time building up his characters in a manner that in turn invests them with more humanity than most books like this.

After the first quarter of this book, Andrews then sets up a mediocre middle that grows a little tired. It takes a long time for the thrill to start up. But if you can make it through this long lull, you are in for a very satisfying who done it. You could say that the meat of the story really doesn't start until you find the ball rolling once again half way through. As an author, Andrews constantly uses aspects of the first half to support the pretty much over the top second half, and it works well. Another reviewer said that they thought that the story was entirely implausible. In many ways it really was. Things could have been done to avoid further events and motives are kind of silly. But then again isn't it allways that way with mystery/thrillers when they take one or two steps too far.

I would highly recommend this book if you are a thriller junkie like I am and are looking for a different look at the genre. I think that Icarus is about as different from the run of the mill action packed novel as I have come across while maintaining the essence of the prototype.

In 1969, ten-year old Jack Keller watched the crazy Reggie Ivers toss his mother Joan out the window. Only the reaction of family friend Dom Bertolini kept Jack from following his mother out the seventh story Manhattan window.

Several decades later, Jack and his beloved wife Caroline run a chain of restaurants around the world. The couple is in Charlottesville, Virginia for the newest opening of Jack's when disaster strikes. During the opening a brawl breaks out. At the same time an unknown assailant kills Caroline and severely injures Jack. As the restaurateur slowly heals, he realizes that the killer is not finished with him because the culprit finished his wife's murder by tossing her out the window. Jack knows the killer will be back to terminate him this time.

ICARUS is an exciting thriller that touches the reader's soul, a rarity for this genre. Russell Andrews slowly simmers the plot so that the audience comes to care for Caroline and Jack. This leads to readers mourning Caroline's death and rooting for Jack to recover in order to take out the killer. Mr. Andrews provides quite a good tale even if the female death count seems high.

Harriet Klausner

There are very few things I would chance about this book, but few as they are, they are significant. First and foremost, this book is marketed as a "thriller". Bearing that in mind- why do so many people ruin this aspect of the book?? The book flap gives away WAY WAY too much of the story- and so do most of the reviewers. The element of surprise was thoroughly ruined by the extensive commentary on the book.

The book itself however, is terrific. I was hooked immediately and could not stop reading. If you are a fan of James Patterson or Stuart Woods (also a highly compelling writer)you will really appreciate this book. It is suspenseful and not as convoluted as many other thrillers out there.

After reading the first 90 pages I was seriously beginning to wonder when I would be interested in the story. I was close to just moving on to another book, but I'm glad I didn't. Once you get through the initial (and long) set up for the main story the rest of the book is a good summer read. One negative is that most of the story and plot is given away on the jacket flap, so I'm not exactly giving away any spoilers!

First the slow point. The first 90 pages or so are told in such a passive voice that you never feel empathy for the main character, Jack Keller. After the death of his mother in the first chapter the story builds the setting for his adult life. His new life now turns out to be close to perfect - perfect wife, great sex, successful restuarants, extremely wealthy. Now the idea is of course to make you realize the irrelevancy of this perfection when the second tragedy occurs. But the story is told in almost synopsis form and you never become attached to Jack or his wife. You almost feel like you are reading Cliff Notes. Luckily the writing style does a 180 and you start to become thoroughly engaged in the story. The story focuses on his relationship with a youner friend from his old neighborhood, Kid Detmer. Kid has what is known as The Team, a group of about 6 women he sees on the side, who all are beautiful but all have a dangerous emotional edge about them.

Oddly, what makes the story the most interesting is every character but Jack. Each character in the story has an edginess about them and a strong personallity that draws the reader in, wanting to know what makes them tick. Even Jack's surrogate father, Dom, who helps Jack try and find out about Kid's secret world is much more interesting. While you do gain more insight into Jack and especially his wife as the story unfolds, I still disagree with the other reviewers, I never felt the strong connection to Jack as I did with the other characters.

Although its not that difficult to surmise the killer, the author does a good job of keeping you off balance. Too often in other novels, the killer is some character you meet once or there is no real logic or realistic motiviation behind the action. In this case it all comes together extremely well. All in all good summer reading.

Was not familiar with Russell Andrews. Had not read Gideon - but when I saw this, I knew it would be at the very least a good "summer read" - I was more than surprised when I could not put down this book. Russell Andrews kept me in suspense.... A must read for those of us who like "thrillers". I have now ordered Gideon.....

This thriller is set around the fable of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death. Jack Keller, at 10 years of age, was fascinated by this tale, until his mother was viciously assaulted on the seventeenth floor of her workplace. She was a paralegal, working late in the evening, waiting for her partner to arrive. The assault by a madman, seeking revenge on a company of lawyers, sent Joan Keller plummeting through a window to her death. It occurred in front of Jack, who, though making a valiant attempt to save his mother, was left devastatingly helpless. Jack knew then that, for the rest of his life, this would be the worst thing that could ever happen to him. He knew this without a shadow of a doubt, with absolute certainty, and it was his only comfort. Never again would he feel this kind of suffering, pain or loss, or paralyzing terror.

He is raised by his mother's partner, marries Caroline and starts a small restaurant in New York that rapidly becomes a chain throughout the country. Caroline is unable to have children and they raise Kid Demeter as their own, resulting in him becoming a well-known physiotherapist and personal trainer. As Caroline prepares to open a new restaurant in Charlottesville, a lunatic shoots Jack and Caroline in full view of their patrons. Caroline is killed instantly and Kid assists Jack to recover from his debilitating injuries. Jack relies on Kid, just as he relied on his mother thirty years previously when his father abandoned them. Kid then mysteriously falls to his death, just like Jack's mother. The police blame drugs but Jack doesn't believe that theory.

Kid has had a string of women: The Mortician, the Mistake, the Destination, the Murderess and so on. Jack is sure that one of them knew of his own trauma as a young boy and premeditated the crime to avenge a dispute with him. Jack is convinced that Kid was murdered to punish him and he sets out to find the murderer.

The message is simple: each betrayal begins with trust. It is well written, fast paced, and intriguingly interesting for its genre.

Martina Nicolls, Author of "The Sudan Curse" and "Kashmir on a Knife-Edge"