Jumper [Hardcover]

Richard Barth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2000

Richard Barth departs from his popular series featuring elderly sleuth Margaret Binton to introduce Dr. Samuel Garvey, the best and most daring roller coaster designer in the country, and to take his readers on the ride of their lives.

Garvey is now at work on his masterpiece, the Jumper, for the Angelus Corporation in Texas. The Jumper will do just that-the two cars will jump tracks with each other in the middle of the ride travelling over a 60 foot gap 75 feet in the air. This is the ride that will make or break Garvey as a designer and he is taking every step to insure that it is successful.

While in the middle of designing Jumper, he receives a phone call from Rachael White of the National Transportation Safety Board. She explains to him that there was an accident at the Cyclone in Coney Island and that she would like his help. It soon becomes clear that the accident wasn't an accident, but sabotage. What is even more disturbing is that the assailant left a note tying the crash to other recent "accidents" and threatening to strike again. But where? And why?

As the mystery unfolds and another tragedy is barely averted, the danger is closer to Garvey than he ever could have imagined. Not only is someone after his reputation, but also his life. An exhilarating novel that will leave you as breathless as the passengers on the Jumper.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Angel City, one of the Southwest's largest amusement parks, is planning to open the most advanced roller coaster everAthe JumperAin which two trains fly off their respective tracks and pass each other in midair before landing back on the rails. Given this exciting premise, it's too bad that the novel's mystery elements turn out to be perfunctory. Dr. Samuel Garvey, the Jumper's designer, agrees to help Rachel White, a National Transportation Safety Board official, investigate a fatal accident at the Coney Island Cyclone. A threatening note found at the scene, plus evidence of equipment tampering, indicates sabotage. The pair can't prevent a second fatal "accident," but Rachel manages to avert a third roller-coaster disaster in a classic cliffhanger. On the personal side, Garvey is still grieving for his late wife, who died of a painkiller overdose, and playing devoted single dad to his young daughter, Sarah. The unattached Rachel soon provides some romantic diversion as well as surrogate mothering. Meanwhile, Garvey realizes that someone is also trying to sabotage the JumperAsomeone within Angelus Corporation, the company building the innovative new roller coaster. Undaunted, Garvey gives the go-ahead for the first ride, on which Rachel and Sarah end up as passengers. Barth (Deadly Climate, etc.) offers some appealing characters and interesting background on roller coasters, but his villains and their motivations are only barely plausible.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When sabotage results in death at the Coney Island roller coaster, federal investigator Rachael White begs the FBI and roller coaster authority Sam Garvey for help. Both oblige, though Sam is already pushing his deadline for completion of an innovative new ride in Texas. More deadly sabotage, in Detroit and then Cincinnati, by a serial killer who leaves taunting notes, galvanizes all three parties into action. Tense excitement; broad-ranging backdrops spotlighting roller coaster freaks, business entrepreneurs, and Internet chat rooms; and entertaining information about roller coasters will place this high on the reader request list.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (September 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312266081
• ISBN-13: 978-0312266080
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,009,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A roller coaster of a ride, January 31, 2001

By 

"mkide" (Folsom, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jumper (Hardcover)

I know that phrase is used over and over to describe things that are exciting, but it totally fits this book. There are many plot twists and surprises. The book is a very fast read (maybe that's because it's not as long as most novels). Even so, the characters are developed well. There aren't too many novels written about roller coasters or that take place in amusement parks, so I jump at the chance to read any that I find. There was a movie released in the mid-70's titled "Rollercoaster" starring George Segal, Richard Widmark, and a young Helen Hunt that has a plot similar to this book. Not entirely the same, but similar (a guy wants money and is destroying roller coasters at parks around the country.) If you've seen that movie, you would enjoy this book. I recommend them both!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jumper: A Novel, is a very fast paced and run read, January 21, 2001

By 

"waadams" (Moraga, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jumper (Hardcover)

Jumper: A Novel was a very entertaining read. Dr. Samuel Garvey, a roller coaster expert has been currently working on his newest invention: the Jumper. The Jumper is designed to, after partway throught the ride,jump the tracks over another car and reach the other side safely.

While he works on this, roller coasters across the country start to mysteriously have accidents and deaths. After each incident the saboteur leaves a note.

When Garvey is pinpointed as the cheif suspect things get a little more tricky for him and the jumper.

I love roller coasters and this was a great one to read if you like them also. The book did not include a lot of "riding" a roller coaster but it was immensly entertaining.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall, a good read- but flawed logic/characters/ending, August 20, 2004

By 

Josh Bozeman (Evansville, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jumper (Hardcover)

Overall, Jumper was an interesting read- it was good...not great, but good. Some of the events in the book were a bit illogical and I didn't buy into a whole lot of it, and the ending was really bad- very anticlimactic. I couldn't really say much about why it was a bad ending, without possibly spoiling the book for others, but I can say that the ending was very odd- very short, and things really resolved way too fast to be believable.

Garvey, the roller coaster designer, was an intresting character, and he was easy to like- but, like a lot of other things in this book, he fell into a quick relationship with another character way too fast- the story read as tho it was normal, and they had been together for years, when in reality it was a couple of weeks, and you wouldn't have expected the relationship to start at all.

Interesting information on rollercoasters- even if the rollercoaster in the book was totally implausible, and there were some exciting moments when it came to the rollercoaster accidents.

In the end- it was entertaining, but a lot of the logic was severely flawed, and ultimately it was hard to believe much of the plot points- which hurt the book, but, like I said, it was still entertaining overall.