Slay Ride [Hardcover]

Chris Grabenstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2006

Scott Wilkinson is a successful young advertising executive on his way to the top. Christopher Miller is an FBI legend who has been willing to do whatever it takes to see that justice is done. However, at age 50, he’s ready to spend more time with his family.

Two weeks before Christmas, Scott goes on a routine business trip that will forever entangle their two lives. It starts like so many others. Wilkinson calls for a car service to take him from his home to the airport. But the driver of Lincoln Town Car 716 is late. When he finally shows up, he drives like a maniac, and Wilkinson feels fortunate to reach the airport alive.

Then, he makes a big mistake. Wilkinson calls the limousine company to complain. Customer Service assures him the bad driver will be “dealt with.” Nicolai Kyznetsoff looks and sounds like all the anonymous others who whisk successful young executives back and forth to the airport every day, but the man behind the wheel of Car 716 is something much more sinister: an avenging dark angel who will stop at nothing to wreak revenge on the one man he holds responsible for ruining his life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Grabenstein's riveting third novel (after 2006's Mad Mouse), ad exec Scott Wilkerson makes the fatal mistake of complaining about his driver after a wild taxi ride to Newark airport. Lucky Seven cabs are dispatched from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where "Thieves in Law," a Russian exile mafia, rule the roost. Driver Nicolai Kyznetsoff (aka "Grandfather Frost" with a Santa hat) plans to settle the score with Scott at his "dacha," a broken-down cabin in the Pennsylvania woods. A gripping subplot finds off-duty FBI agent Christopher Miller on the trail of the "Man in the Moon," a serial killer who has been taking out cab drivers with every full moon on the Jersey shore where Scott and his family live. These two intrigues connect after Miller uncovers a money-laundering scheme in Brighton Beach. Not for the weak of stomach, this Christmas-season thriller involves raunchy strip shows and graphic KGB-style executions. (Nov.)
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

Advertising executive Scott Wilkinson has a very nice life: a lovely home in suburban New Jersey, a beautiful wife, a baby boy, and a little girl on the way. But his charmed existence becomes cursed when he steps into a Lucky Seven airport limousine driven by an embittered one-time agent of the KGB. Nicolai Kyznetsoff is already enraged at the world when Wilkinson dares to admonish him for being a few minutes late. After surviving a white-knuckle ride to LaGuardia, Wilkinson calls Lucky Seven to file a complaint and is soon kidnapped. His worried, very pregnant wife refuses to sit around and wait. Meanwhile, across town, FBI special agent Christopher Miller, placed on probation for outshining his jealous boss, uncovers details of Russian diamond smugglers who transport the booty in nesting matryoshka dolls. This is the third offering from comedy-troupe alum Grabenstein (Tilt-a-Whirl, 2005), who makes up for tepid suspense with a cast of flawed, lively characters, including a portly limo driver, Kostya Garvonik, who inhales Russian pastries as if it were a competitive event. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1 edition (September 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078671820X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786718207
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,227,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Grabenstein did improvisational comedy in New York City with Bruce Willis before James Patterson hired him to write advertising copy.

His first John Ceepak/Jersey Shore mystery TILT A WHIRL won the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery in 2006 and was followed by the critically acclaimed MAD MOUSE, WHACK-A-MOLE, HELL HOLE, MIND SCRAMBLER, ROLLING THUNDER (nominated for The Best Sidekick award) and, coming in 2012, FUN HOUSE. A Ceepak short story RING TOSS appeared in the June 2010 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

Chris has also published two holiday thrillers: SLAY RIDE and HELL FOR THE HOLIDAYS and became a New York Times Best Selling author thanks to his short story "The Demon In The Dunes," which appeared in the anthology DEATH'S EXCELLENT VACATION, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner (thanks Charlaine and Toni!)

FOR YOUNGER READERS....

His fist book for middle grades readers, THE CROSSROADS, won both the 2008 Agatha and Anthony Awards as Best Children's/YA novel, appeared on several "Best" lists, and has been optioned to become a movie. The second book in the series, THE HANGING HILL, also won the Agatha Award. The third Haunted Mystery, THE SMOKY CORRIDOR, all about a zombie who lives in the basement of a middle school, was published by Random House in August. The fourth book in the series, THE BLACK HEART CRYPT, will be published in 2011.

Chris wrote CURIOSITY CAT, the play within the book from THE HANGING HILL, for friends at the Children's Theater of Knoxville. The script is now available for production everywhere through world renowned play publisher Samuel French.

Chris's new middle grades caper series, RILEY MACK AND THE OTHER KNOWN TROUBLEMAKERS (an Ocean's Eleven starring eleven-year-olds) will be published by HarperCollins in January 2012 with the sequel slated for 2013.

Chris has also written for Jim Henson's Muppets and co-wrote THE CHRISTMAS GIFT, starring John Denver, a made-for-TV movie that first aired on CBS in 1986 and still shows up somewhere on cable very early in the morning every holiday season.

Chris's dog Fred, however, has the best credits in the family: Fred starred on Broadway in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thriller that will keep you up all night, November 3, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Slay Ride (Hardcover)

The publication of SLAY RIDE, Chris Grabenstein's third novel, raises an interesting question: is there anything that this author cannot do well? Grabenstein seemingly burst from out of nowhere onto the mystery and suspense scene with what has become known as the John Ceepak/Jersey Shore mysteries: the award-winning TILT-A-WHIRL and MAD MOUSE. Ostensibly a stand-alone work, SLAY RIDE in some ways is a more ambitious endeavor for Grabenstein. Certainly, if his intent was to tell a story that would keep the reader up all night, he has succeeded admirably.

SLAY RIDE centers on Christopher Miller and Scott Wilkinson, two very different yet driven men whose lives come to intersect briefly but meaningfully. Miller is an FBI agent, a specialist in kidnapping cases and a legend in the agency. Wilkinson is a wunderkind in the advertising industry who sees the world in terms of seconds and minutes, causes and effects. Both men value only one thing above their jobs: their families. Wilkinson's life, though, is dramatically changed when he complains to his car service about his driver's erratic behavior. Nicolai Kyznetsoff, the driver in question, is a dangerous, rabid wolf with the ability to wreak havoc and revenge at whim. He slowly and methodically begins researching Wilkinson's life, plotting a dark and final retaliation with a number of bloody rewards.

Meanwhile, Miller, riding a desk job since incurring the displeasure of a superior, finds his path intersecting with Wilkinson and Kyznetsoff as the result of a seemingly innocuous strong-arm burglary of a Russian immigrant's apartment. Kyznetsoff is indirectly tied to it, and it has attracted the attention of a number of people. Kyznetsoff, the hunter, finds that he is the hunted as well --- by more than one party and for more than one reason. Nothing, however, will prevent Kyznetsoff from carrying out his revenge against Wilkinson, even as Miller races against time and distance to keep Kyznetsoff from destroying not one but two families.

SLAY RIDE is a thriller best read on the edge of your seat. Kysnetsoff is an unforgettable villain --- Grabenstein does for Santa Claus and limo drivers what Stephen King did for clowns --- whose danger quotient is exceeded only by his animal cunning and intellect. The plan that Grabenstein constructs for the climax of the book is nothing short of amazing, all the more so because it's so workable. The author, however, does not give his characters short shrift either; Miller is an immensely and immediately likable protagonist. SLAY RIDE is supposed to be a stand-alone work, but Miller is too good a character to limit to a single novel. Hopefully we'll see more of him in the very near future.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definition of a"Page Turner" - Read it in one sitting, July 11, 2010

By 

Dom Miliano (Denville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Slay Ride (Paperback)

I have been a fan of Chris Grabenstein's work since I read his first Ceepak/Boyle Jersey Shore novel - Tilt-a-Whirl Tilt-a-Whirl. Having read my way through that series (including the new Rolling Thunder Rolling Thunder: A John Ceepak Mystery), I was looking for another Grabenstein fix. Enter Slay Ride. The story starts with a wild ride from a crazy limo driver and ends with a huge explosion and close combat shoot out. In between, we have crisp dialog, fast paced action and a lot of scary moments. The main bad guy (there are a couple) is so bad, you want to blast him yourself but know that he's so well trained as a killer that he probably would get the drop on you.

Since this is not a series (yet?), the author has the luxury to kill of anyone he wants and as a result, you turn the page expecting one of the heroes to get picked off in one of the shoot outs. A fear that isn't 100% unfounded!

This is perfect summer time reading - exciting and well written - a novel that leaves you wanting more. Highly recommended...

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars QUITE A RIDE, October 15, 2006

By 

S. A. Kemppainen "Skempp" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slay Ride (Hardcover)

SLAY RIDE is, as they say, a real page turner. Chris Grabenstein creates another stellar character in Chris Miller in the same mold as Detective Ceepak. In taking a ride with a psychotic driver, Grabenstein hooks the reader into an engaging tale of personal vendetta, international intrigue and crack police work. Fast paced. Well crafted. Excellent read...and, I'll be careful about whom I complain...