Customer Reviews

Last Snow

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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

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.

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.

I have read a couple of Van Lustbader's books before, so I am familar with his work.
I was somewhat disapointed in the "Last Snow" however.

A friend of the President is asked to take the President's daughter on a
dangerous mission - not very believable.

Too many Russian names that were similar - hard to keep the players apart.

Again, not a bad read but I wont read again.

If Booklist says that "Lustbader's second [book] in the Jack McClure series is a definite step up from its predecessor (First Daughter, 2008)," then am I glad I didn't read the first. I've always associated Mr. Van Lustbader with the perenially moving, fast paced thriller and this he does well again in Last Snow. However, it is the characters that do not hold up. They are not believable and the reader is forever pulling back, questioning their authenticity which makes for unsmooth, jerky reading. A guilt-ridden dyslexic main character who sees visions (Are they? We never know) of his dead daughter; a Graves disease suffering daughter of the US President; a beautiful and lethal Russian agent with carnelian eyes. I asked an opthalmologist-He's never seen carnelian color eyes. The setting is Russia, but the novel's Russian characters speak not only perfect English, "Gurov shrugged, 'Six feet under, I imagine. We required verisimilitude.'" Yeah, I can just hear Gurov saying that. The names, as in any Russian novel become confusing, but that is expected.
Mr. Van Lustbader attacks conservatives, neocons and a person born out of "entitlement" throughout the book. Smart way to allienate 50% of American readers. I guess I'll save my capitalist dollars on any future Van Lustbader novels.

This book was plodding, and at the end, I found myself simply bored with the many intertwining characters, many of whom I simply did not care about. The book deteriorated into exposition, finding it necessary to explain subplot after subplot in excruciating detail rather than moving the main plot along to conclusion. I found myself skimming much of the final pages just to get to the end of the book, which I almost never do. Too many details done wrong - "pizza with pepperonicci" (this from Pappa John's in Washington DC according to the book), an almost sudden death by "arsenic", duh, arsenic is a heavy metal and death, like lead takes months to manifest. If the details can't be done right, and the book is boring and its conclusion bynzantine, there's not much in for most thriller readers.

The book will keep you engrossed, but it's formulaic. SPOILER: First, get rid of the love interest from the last book. Second, add international intrigue. Third, add a surprise ending out of the blue that will make the reader buy the next book.

I enjoyed First Daughter, and don't regret the time I spent reading this one, but it was lacking something. Substance, perhaps? Worth reading, but either from the library or at a paperback price.

Not as good as previous books featuring these characters. I think he is stymied by not being able to explain the special way of thinking his main character uses to solve puzzles. He is now in process of killing off his characters so he can try a different approach.

"Everything comes to an end, he thought. Love, hate, even betrayal....In the final moment, everyone falls, even the would-be kings.... In the silence of the tomb, we all get what we deserve."

In LAST SNOW, indeed everyone falls --- somewhere along the way. Some just fall harder than others. Maybe it's because some deserve harsher treatment than others, maybe because their betrayal is greater.

We met Jack McClure in FIRST DAUGHTER, as he saved President Edward Carson from a would-be assassin, his daughter Alli. To be fair, you need to know that Alli had been kidnapped and brainwashed by a supremely malevolent man. Now both Alli and her father see Jack as her savior. In the intervening months, the first daughter has been gaining ground toward recovering her mental health and rebuilding her trust, but she still clings to Jack for support.

Jack's boss, President Carson, has come to Moscow to forge an accord with the Russian president Yukin. If successful, their agreement would put an end to Russia's military assistance of Iran. Of course, the United States would have to make some concessions, but they would be minor ones, taking into account the enormity of the gains. But is everyone giving the President the straight scoop, or does Carson have an advisor with ambitions at odds with the country's? There seems to be more than one faction at work, each believing in its singular goal. Only one can truly benefit the Americans. When word comes of Senator Lloyd Berns's death in Capri (when he should have been in Kiev), the President asks Jack to investigate.

Now, as Jack is leaving for Kiev, Alli blackmails her mother into letting her go along. What the First Lady doesn't understand is how dangerous Jack's mission is. Nonetheless, her headstrong daughter wins and Jack now has two thorny problems: find out what happened to their man in Capri, and somehow keep Alli safe. Wait, he has three thorny problems. Before he left Moscow, he became embroiled in a domestic dispute at his hotel, ultimately shooting a man and running off with the damsel in distress. That damsel turned out to be a fairly high-placed operative in the FSB, and her lover was connected to the Russian mob. Could Jack have gotten himself into a bigger mess?

Actually, yes. As he's working on his latest assignment, he discovers a hornet's nest of intrigue. The dicier things get, the more Jack begins to feel that no one is telling him the truth. What saves him is a malady that most consider a curse. Jack is dyslexic. But while some people see that as a handicap, he has turned it into a gift, allowing him to assess situations in a uniquely three-dimensional way. His mind maps and choreographs facts instead of forming them into a lineal path. In that way, he finds solutions unavailable to the majority of us. Of course, having that gift can also make him susceptible to betrayal. Connivers will take advantage of it, feeding him erroneous information and using him for their own purposes.

LAST SNOW is full of betrayal but also redemption. Jack is in the middle, juggling to keep things in balance. He continues to harangue himself with guilt over the death of his own daughter, which reinforces the bond with Alli. Fortunately, his focus on the first daughter helps him come to grips with his grief over the loss of his child. And he knows that Alli has a lot of healing to do but very little time for it. She will be lucky to have Jack in the end, for she will need all her strength to handle the challenges that come her way in the cold snows of Russia.

Beware, this novel comes to a whopping shocker of an ending. If you like espionage, action stories, thrillers, mysteries, or all of the above, Eric Van Lustbader should be at the top of your list of must-read authors.

This hyper hackneyed hogwash was nearly impossible to read. I don't quit many books before finishing, but this book deserved only six chapters. I knew from the first few pages that it was going to be a tough read but I gave it a chance. The worst thing was, being a retired Ophthalmologist, Lustbader didn't even know or bother to Google Grave's Disease. I've wasted enough time with this, just please don't waste your time in buying this.