Last Snow [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Eric Van Lustbader (Author), Richard Ferrone (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2010

The electrifying follow-up to the Jack McClure thriller First Daughter from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bourne Sanction and The Bourne Deception

Jack McClure, Special Advisor and closest friend to the new President of the United States, interprets the world very differently from the rest of us. It’s his greatest liability, and his greatest asset.

An American senator, supposedly on a political trip to the Ukraine, turns up dead on the island of Capri. When the President asks him to find out how and why, Jack sets out from Moscow across Eastern Europe, following a perilous trail of diplomats, criminals, and corrupt politicians. Thrust into the midst of a global jigsaw puzzle, Jack’s unique dyslexic mind allows him to put together the pieces that others can’t even see.

Still unreconciled to the recent death of his daughter and the dissolution of his marriage, Jack takes on a personal mission along with his official one: keeping safe from harm his two unlikely, unexpected, and incompatible companions—Annika Dementieva, a rogue Russian FSB agent, and Alli Carson, the President’s daughter. As he struggles to keep both young women safe and unearth the answers he seeks, hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the Ukrainian police to his own NSA, Jack learns just how far up the American and Russian political ladders corruption and treachery has reached.

In the vein of Eric Van Lustbader’s latest bestselling Jason Bourne novels, Lustbader takes us on an international adventure in this powerful page-turner that will keep you reading through the night.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Lustbader's wordy sequel to First Daughter takes dyslexic Jack McClure, former ATF agent and now adviser to recently elected U.S. president Edward Carson, to Moscow, where Carson is negotiating an important treaty with Russian president Yukin. When minority whip Sen. Lloyd Berns dies in a mysterious hit-and-run accident on Capri, the president asks Jack to investigate. Accompanied by Annika, a beautiful Federal Security Bureau agent who's part of a complicated Russian trap, and Alli, Carson's 22-year-old daughter whom Jack saved from a bad guy in the previous book, Jack travels to Ukraine, where Berns was supposed to be on a fact-finding tour. In Kiev, Jack finds a secret agency called Trinadtsat, a shadowy group of Russian oligarchs, and plenty of trouble, including a retired American general out to have him killed. Lustbader fritters away many pages with Jack's navel-gazing, time that could have been better spent in gunfights and derring-do. (Feb.)
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

Lustbader’s second in the Jack McClure series is a definite step up from its predecessor (First Daughter, 2008). After saving the daughter of the president of the U.S., McClure now has a role as a special advisor to the president. When he’s asked by his new boss to investigate the mysterious death of a U.S. senator on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine, McClure can’t say no. His comrades on the investigation include a rogue Russian agent and the president’s daughter. Meanwhile, stateside, both McClure’s home life and new job are in danger of falling apart. In the previous book, McClure never emerged as more than a stock action hero, but this time he shows signs of multidimensionality. The story line seems oddly out of sequence in a couple of places, but the main plot will hold readers’ attention. Lustbader’s last several books have found the formerly best-selling author spinning his wheels, but this time he shows some renewed spark. --Jeff Ayers --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio; Abridged edition (February 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1427208808
• ISBN-13: 978-1427208804
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,427,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Van Lustbader is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, a New York Times bestseller for 24 weeks, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fictions most beloved and enduring heroes. His New York Times bestselling novel, "The Testament," was published in September, 2006 and in paperback in August, 2007.
His novels have been translated into over twenty languages; his books are best-sellers worldwide and are so popular whole sections of bookstores from Bangkok to Dublin are devoted to them. The Ninja was sold to 20th Century-Fox. It is now in pre-production.
Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business. He is a second-level Reiki master.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Whiteout, February 25, 2010

By 

Ronald T. Roseborough "Ronrose" (Dover,De USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Snow (Hardcover)

This is a follow up to the author's book, First Daughter, which had ATF agent Jack McClure saving the President's daughter from a homicidal kidnapper. Much of the Last Snow draws from the previous book, with Jack now protecting the President and his family, especially his daughter, who has been traumatically effected from her previous abduction. The book is set in Russia, where the President is trying to push through a defense treaty. Needless to say, nothing is what it appears to be on the surface, neither the reasons on both sides for the treaty nor the numerous spies and counterspies working on their own or their government's objectives. Deceive, deny and obfuscate seems to be the rule. The author is good at twisting the reader back and forth through the convoluted plot. There seemed to be so many twisted characters that I wasn't entirely taken by any of them, including Jack. On the whole, while it has all the trappings, with the twisty plot, a large cast of characters driven by their psychological short comings and plenty of action, this seems to me an average thriller. First Daughter

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Psychological espionage thriller, February 21, 2010

By 

John Hebert IV (Stow, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Snow (Hardcover)

Overall I thought this book was okay. The protagonist surprisingly turns his dyslexia and visions/recollections of his daughter into great attributes. There is a lot of wondering who is a friend or enemy and the related agenda each character has to motivate he or she. There is a lot of delving into the past and explorations of the psychological background inspiring the main characters motivations. It was a bit too much of that for my taste. All in all an acceptable thriller.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Whatever happened to the Lustbader who wrote the early Ninja books?, June 21, 2010

By 

disABILITY LADY "Carolyn" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Snow (Hardcover)

I tried to read the First Daughter - and couldn't get attached to the characters. Having LOVED Lustbader's early books, I decided that I just might have judged him too harshly, and decided to give this Last Snow a chance. 200 pages into the book and I couldn't decide what I disliked more - the plot or the characters.

Sorry, but this is just an average - at best - novel for me. With so much out there that exceeds expectations, I'm sorry that his current books are not up to par with his earlier works. Just my humble opinion.