Customer Reviews

The Up and Comer

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm married. I've got kids. I have no time to read. A friend of mine recommended this book and I couldn't put it down from its first disturbing page. Kids and family....they had to suffer while I woke up, read, ate, read,ate again, read some more....you get the picture. The main character, Phillip Randall is a bit too familiar to me. The decsions he makes - while deplorable - have an all to easy way of making you think...would I do that?
His use of commercial catch phrases is pretty darn funny. There were a few chapters there where there were more tag lines than half time at the Super Bowl.
When you come right down to it, though, Roughan has to be some kind of wacko to put this book together. He touches enough dark areas of the psyche that you feel the need to go straight to church after you finish. Buy this book. It's a good read and it'll make you think about all those "good people" out there. Are you one of them?

A funny thing happened to me while I was reading Honeymoon James Patterson and Howard Roughan. I found a new to me author and what a find. While I have read all of Mr. Paterson's books I rarely bother to red his CO authors book if there are any because quite frankly I'm never that enamored with these books. That said as I gulped down Honeymoon in one day, I couldn't wait to find other books by this author, purchase them and then read his first book The Up and Comer. And now that I have finished Mr. Roughan's debut novel, I can honestly say this is one of the one of the best suspense books I've read in some time.

Phillip Randall is living the high life in Manhattan. With a wife from a very wealthy family and a job in a prestigious law firm, Phillip seems to have it all. Even a nice affair with his friends wife. But it may be too good since somebody is out to blackmail him. And we as readers watch as Phillip's carefully planned life begins to unravel and things go from bad to worse.

I highly recommend this book and now can't wait to read Howard

Roughan's second book, The Promise of a Lie. I also look forward to read ing more books by this talented author who now joins the ranks of other suspsense and or mystery writers I love which include James Patterson, Dennis Lehane James Patterson, Harlan Coben and David Rosenfelt.

Finally I owe a big thank you to Mr. Patterson for introducing me to Mr. Roughan. Had I not read Honeymoon I might never have found out about this author and enjoyed a book as much as I enjoyed The Up and Comer.

I discovered Howard Roughan when he co-authored James Patterson's recent book HONEYMOON (4 star review 3/8/2005). Based on my enjoyment of the writing style employed in that novel, I decided to read this earlier work by Roughan. My reaction was very mixed, the writing was excellent (better than four stars) and the story had interesting potential; however, for reasons which are partially personal and I will summarize later the story barely rated two stars in terms of my enjoyment. Thus, my rating is a compromise and a reader with tastes different from mine might react quite differently. (As demonstrated by the fact this book has received ratings from one to five stars.)

This is the story of Philip Randall, a true UP AND COMER with a small but prestigious NYC law firm. Philip's beautiful wife Tracy is adored by her very rich daddy, who spares no expense for his daughter including the purchase of the luxurious downtown loft where Philip and Tracy live. Philip is truly on the fast track and also living life in the fast lane. He is smart, motivated and supremely self-confident - after all, he has always been able to stare down anyone and ad lib his way out of trouble. Thus, while he understands risk and in fact quantifies all his actions on a risk scale of 1 to 10, he can't resist tempting fate by engaging in an ongoing affair with his best friend's wife. They meet whenever possible at a small sidestreet hotel convenient to where they both work; furthermore, they engage in elaborate precautions to avoid ever being seen together in public except when attending events as a foursome with their spouses. However, as the reader undoubtedly expects and Philip should have expected, suddenly their secret is discovered and the risk factor associated with his affair has rises dramatically. Philip is contacted by an extremely dangerous individual, someone from his past with nothing to lose and a belief that successfully blackmailing Philip can both provide him with the means to start over and settle long-held grievances as well. In order not to provide spoilers, I will simply summarize the outcome with the following description - the risk continues to heighten and all the major characters in the story are severely damaged (or worse) by the conclusion.

THUS.THIS IS REALLY AN OLD FASHIONED MORALITY PLAY. How the high and mighty have fallen! Play with fire and you will get burned. Pride goeth before a fall. Do not covet your neighbor's wife. Take your pick - this combines them all. I liked many aspects of the story; the author's research was good and his phraseology excellent. I work in the same area of midtown NYC which formed the locale for the action, the meetings in Bryant Park and lunches sat the Oyster Bar rang true and imparted authenticity. Many of the mental asides which we experienced with Philip as the first person narrator were truly enjoyable. And certainly Philip is a composite of many of many of the NYC (superficial) glitterati. Several twists and turns of the plot were quite clever and in a few instances unexpected; several of the minor characters including Jack and Sally Devine were also interestingly drawn. Finally, the very last few pages did provide some brief commentary on the correct priorities in our lives and the possibility of redemption as counterweights to the great majority of the book.

A portion of my dislike for this novel is simply due to a misjudgment on my part concerning its nature. I found it tense, disturbing and uncomfortable. I simply had not understood the focus of the drama or how depressing it would be. I also thought that it would be both more plot driven and have a better balance of the ethical and moral dimensions of the characters. If my dislike were purely due to my taste, however, I would not have lowered my rating to three stars. The factor would caused me to downgrade the book was the same factor which caused the story to be the quintessential morality play, the apparent inevitability of the chain of events once set in motion. I found it hard to accept the fact that at a few key decision points in his life Philip would have been so egotistical as to have continued his increasingly reckless conduct when he recognized how greatly the risks had escalated. He didn't have to be able to predict the tragic outcomes which ensued for so many of the participants to realize that his foolishness had become foolhardiness and stupidity. Thus, while I found the story well written enough to finish the book and while the first person narrative helped maintain an immediacy for me as a reader, I became increasingly uninvolved and thus my enjoyment lessened.

In summary, this is a well written, thought provoking book which I admired but did really enjoy. The goal of this review has simply been to attempt to provide enough information to help potential readers decide whether it will appeal to them, since it has been both highly praised and panned by others.

Tucker Andersen

Manhattan lawyer Philip Randall thinks he has it all: a position with one of New York's top law firms, a beautiful and wealthy wife, and a sexy mistress. What Philip doesn't know is that someone is watching, and they are going to make him pay for his sins.

During a night out, Philip and his wife run into high school buddy Tyler Mills. Tyler, recovering from a suicide attempt, approaches his old pal with well wishes, and a bottle of champagne, but the real purpose for this reunion is to begin a twisted scheme to bring is old friend to his knees.

Tyler has been watching Philip, and is aware of the affair he is having with his best friend's wife. This information will enable him to demand a hefty amount of money to keep his silence.

After being confronted by Tyler, Philip denies everything, and refuses to pay, but after the phone-calls, emails, and faxes start pouring in, he realizes Tyler means business, and the only way to stop him is by getting rid of him...forever.

'The Up And Comer' is a suspenseful, and often funny thriller that goes deep into the hearts of it's main characters to examine the destructive paths they have chosen, and to expose the price paid by those who believe having everything is not enough.

Written in a style similar to Bret Easton Ellis, Howard Roughan has created a complex, and compulsively readable tale that should land on the bestseller lists, and be among the summer's most talked about books.

Nick Gonnella

Like a lot of people, I never heard of Howard Roughan until I read James Patterson's novel HONEYMOON, which Roughan co-wrote. I thought HONEYMOON was better written than the average Patterson novel, so I thought I would give one of Roughan's earlier novels I shot. I'm glad I did.

THE UP AND COMER is a very witty, darkly comic novel. It is also a novel that features an remarkably unlikable character as its protagnoist. New York attorney Philip Randall has married his wife Tracy for her family money, while at the same time having an extramarital affair with his best friend's wife. He is also very smug and offers a lot of acerbic (yet funny) commentary about city life in New York. Eventually, something goes terribly wrong with Randall's life. The way he handles this crisis, and the violent complications that ensue, lead to a very suspenseful read. In some ways, this novel reminds me of another novel, James Siegel's DERAILED.

I must admit that I found Randall to be very off-putting at first, because he is such a louse. However, this book gets better as it goes along, and Randall is a very different person at the end of this book than he is at the beginning. In the end, this novel is something of a morality tale, and I enjoyed it immensely.

In short, I highly recommend this book to people who like their suspense mixed with a little dark comedy. I sincrely hope that Roughan writes more books.

Perhaps it is the remains of his youth, but ultra-confident attorney Philip Randall smugly feels he owns the world. Philip has some evidence to support his belief. He is climbing the legal corporate ladder at a record pace. His malleable wife comes from a very wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut family that adores him. Finally, the brazen Philip has a lover, who knows how to excite him.

However, it is the latter that begins to cause Philip great harm. An old acquaintance Tyler Mills has been taking pictures of Philip with his lover. Tyler wants money for his silence or he threatens to blow up Philip's perfect orb. Philip knows that if Tyler talks, his elitist lifestyle ends. However, he also knows that paying the blackmailer will mean a life of feeding this lunatic who will never let go of the cash cow he has cornered.

THE UP AND COMER is a forceful thriller that succeeds because the key characters come across as human. Philip's hedonism, his wife's compliance, his lover's needs, and his blackmailer's rough blend of sadism all ring authentic and make the tale an exciting character study. The story line is told by Philip, which allows readers to slowly see him turn from smug importance to frightened desperado. This technique humanizes the cast even further as readers will wonder what path Philip will take. Howard Roughan is clearly an up and coming author worth following.

Harriet Klausner

When you are having an affair with your wife's best friend who you happen to also be very good friends with the husband as well is never a good idea. If you are going to do it though you have to make sure you do not get caught and Philip Randal a Manhattan lawyer thought he was doing just that until an ex high school associate shows him some photographs. Randal must make the decision of weather to give into the blackmail and face the uncertainty that he will never be sure he has all the evidence or murder the blackmailer. Decisions, decisions. This book is quite enjoyable, to say it is predictable would be a bit of an understatement but even though you know what is going to happen it is still an enjoyable quick light read and you will learn why manhole covers are round, just in case you are ever asked at a job interview.

After having recently finished Roughan's second book, The Promise Of A Lie, which was very good, I went back to read his debut thriller, The Up And Comer. I enjoyed this book a great deal as well. Roughan is at the very least an "Up and Comer" in the thriller genre, and I'd say he's definitely arrived. He's joined the group of writers that I consider to be "must reads." The Up And Comer has it all -- a captivating plot, thrills, suspense, humor, strong characters, sex, clever dialogue, etc.

Without giving away the plot, the story involves a lawyer who decides to take the law into his own hands to try to prevent being exposed for an affair that will threaten the existence of his near perfect lifestyle. Despite his limited sense of morality, Roughan's main character, Philip Randall, is one you can't help liking (and rooting for) even though he stands for many things most people would say they dislike in a person. I highly recommend The Up And Comer as an excellent beach read. It's the type of book that once you start reading, you won't want to stop until you finish it. Do yourself a favor and read this book, as well as Roughan's latest, The Promise Of A Lie. If you're like me, Roughan will soon become one of your "must read" authors.

A masterful medley of witty humor, seduction, reality and suspense... The Up and Comer is an impressive thriller which will have you intriqued and entertained from beginning to end. A must read!

I absolutely loved reading THE UP AND COMER. Despite the infidelity of the main character, Philip Randall, a man who seemingly had everything one could only dream about,it was difficult to dislike him. There were times I actually laughed out loud because the dialogue was that funny when least expected. I'm hoping there will be a sequel to this book because I'd really like to see Philip make a complete Up and Comeback!