Customer Reviews

Tomorrow We Die

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
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Shawn Grady's fiction takes you into a world where daily routine is life and death. His main characters are firefighters and paramedics, and since he lives in that world he brings a sense of reality into his stories. Reading his novels, I feel I'm riding along, witnessing work that sometimes pulls people from the brink of death, and sometimes can't.

In Tomorrow We Die, Grady follows his terrific debut novel, Into the Fire, with another intriguing mystery populated by fascinating characters and the feel of truth that can only come from the author having personal experience in the world he chronicles. It's an engrossing story and the lines in it converge into a climax fit for the screen. I plowed through it in a weekend and didn't want it to end.

You'll have a different feeling when you hear the wail of a passing siren after reading Shawn Grady's books.

Shawn Grady has written a fast paced, plausible thriller that left me panting with a racing pulse when I turned the final page.

Jonathan Trestle is a paramedic in Reno, saving lives for just more than burger flipping wages. He's been accepted to med school though, so he just has to hang on to his job for a few more weeks and a whole new life will begin. But his bosses are ragging him to respond to calls in unrealistic times, with fewer ambulances available.

Jonathan and his partner save a man who collapsed on the sidewalk. The man forces a paper into Jonathan's hands and tells him to "Give it to Martin." Jonathan tries to follow through, but The Angel of Death subverts his best intentions, and he gets sucked into a game with real life and death stakes.

Grady is a fireman and paramedic in Reno, so he writes with an insider's eye for authenticity and detail. You'll finish this book with an urge to thank all the paramedics out there who work so hard for so little.

I loved it and highly recommend Tomorrow We Die.

Shawn Grady's first book, Through the Fire, was a refreshing surprise to me in the Christian fiction industry. I love this guy's voice, and his stories rock. So, needless to say, I couldn't wait to get a copy of his next book, Tomorrow We Die.

Grady surpassed his first book with another intriguing and attention grabbing story. I couldn't put the book down. Well, I did, but not easily.

I love finding an author whose books I want to gobble up. So this happy reader is waiting for the next installment from this fabulous author. If you love good suspense, check him out. He's definitely an author to follow.

Let's see: morbid title, shattered-glass imagery, edgy cover design, great sounding premise...

No wonder I got hooked! And with a great hook of a starting sentence, it just kept getting me with its unique mystery dealing with timeliness and death.

A paramedic with an off-beat partner can't seem to get a break one day without losing people succumbing to death in Reno, AZ... only to get their last one to finally come back to life. Briefly. And yet, that's all it takes to hand a paper with what looks like scribbles on one side and a cryptic message on the other. A very strange ordeal indeed! What makes it stranger is the pressure to get to every accident within a strict time limit (even thought they're short on ambulances) or else. And to report in when they get there. Okay, should be able to deal with that, excep... the guy's partner isn't the onyl that's off-beat, he's just the better version of off-beat, something is off-track!

Hidden messages within timing and an uncovered conspiracy to cover something else up helps seal the deal to make this a possibly over-intriguing mystery. Then there's the romantic side to the story- the paramedic's partner isn't the only having a crush on someone (and the way the paramedic describes her? Get the death certificate ready for "death by: laughter", okay?), he is also having major feelings on someone while dealing with his alcoholic father, a stumbling block in life. Yep, definitely some imperfect characters.

Also, for anyone worried about being preached at by this Christian book, persecute those worries, you don't get any preachy messages on salvation, redemption, or anything else that's basic, but a reminder of how far motives can go, even to make lies up to get somewhere. And I was pleasantly surprised about the scriptural quotation at the end, where the book's title comes from.

For anyone who's even the slightest bit squeamish about what happens in the back of an ambulance, this won't be a good boko to read since it does deal with the edginess of dealing with blood, fixing a broken body, seeing blood flow, and more. Couldn't help it, seriously loved how well this book was written and flowed. From humor to crime drama, to muder/mystery, to medical mystery (and I never thought I could get into that), to broken romance, to even broken families. Also, if you're expecting supernatural stuff... aside from a mention of the angel fo death (as something more of a sarcastic phrase) in the first chapter, don't count on it.

Can't wait to check out Shawn's other books.

Paramedic Jonathan Trestle has been getting in trouble lately for how long it takes his ambulance to reach the scene. But it's not his fault that there are so few ambulances to cover the whole city of Reno at once. When a patient gives him a note before dying, Jonathan is pulled into a mystery that will force him to risk all he holds dear.

I like Shawn Grady's books. They always have a strong main character, a suspenseful pace, and a mystery that hooks me to the last page. This one was no different. And what a clever story too! I really enjoyed all of his characters, especially Bones, the non Trekie-Trekie. And I loved how I really wasn't sure who the bad guy was. I knew who I didn't want it to be, but I wasn't sure. A great read. I look forward to more of his novels.

Tomorrow We Die is a medical suspense/mystery novel that will take you for a wild ride. I wasn't sure what to expect, but by the time I reached the end of this book, I'd been on a crazy adventure with Jonathan and Natalie. Although a bit slow getting into the fast-pace action, I found it worth the slow-building tension when everything seemed to burst in the last hundred pages.

Jonathan, at the very beginning, seemed all tough-stuff but when he returned home after finishing his EMT shift, the reader gets a peak into his very troubled private life. I was instantly intrigued. And not long after, an old flame walks back into his life, Natalie. Not to be forgotten is Bones, Jonathan's paramedic partner on the ambulance. All these characters were very believable and ones you won't soon forget.

With a compelling and intriguing beginning, the plot builds and tension mounds as the story progresses. Because of Jonathan's job--a paramedic--there were many interesting scenes where Jonathan and Bones replied to calls. It was a fascinating little learning experience for me, getting a peak into the crazy life of a paramedic. Wow. Talk about many stressful moments!

Because of these scenes and others, I would definitely recommend this book to readers with a strong stomach and okay with rather graphic scenes. (lol) While there are numerous scenes where Jonathan puts his paramedic skills to work, there were only two scenes that I think might be a bit graphic for some, that I can remember. Once is when Jonathan checks on a victim in a car accident and described what the victim's mutilated body looked like and then there was also a rather graphic scene when Jonathan is present to watch an autopsy. While I loved reading about how it is done in Tomorrow We Die, others might not be so thrilled.

When I finally reached the last chapter of this book, I was entirely contented with how it ended. Shawn Grady has done a wonderful job, carrying on the mystery and pulling the reader right along. Wonderful writing, intriguing plot, and believable characters make Tomorrow We Die a great read.

I reviewed this book for the author. Thanks to Bethany House for sending me a review copy. It was not required that I give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this book, which I have done.

Not often is one to come across a writer as gifted as the one who has authored Tomorrow We Die. Shawn Grady has thoroughly enveloped me in a story: thrilling, chilling, and humorous. I found myself relating the book to Ted Dekker's on the thrill-scale.

When I first picked up the book, I will admit it was for its cover. It was intriguing and made just for the above reason. When I read that it was a paramedic story, I wasn't so sure. I usually go for the police-chasing-bad-guy book if I'm looking for a thriller, so you can understand my hesitation.

But I was met with a full punch in the face's worth of thrill.

The world of Jonathan Trestle took me in, and it seemed just as soon as had I started, I had turned the last page. Grady knows how to give enough to keep you reading, but not too much as to bore you. The prose was tight-knit, yet few words were able to convey much.

In all honesty, this could very well be one of my favorite thrillers. Highly recommended.

I rate Plot 5/5

I rate Character 4/5

I rate Setting and Description 4/5

I rate overall 4/5

I haven't found a new Christian author in years who I like as much as Shawn Grady. The mystery was compelling - kept me turning pages - and it kept me guessing until the end. Thanks, Shawn!

I love action packed mysteries! This book's opening pages has the main character on his way to help an "unknown man down on the sidewalk at First and West, in front of the church" and this scene is what jump starts the book. The story is centered around this man, Jonathan Trestle and the mystery that surrounds them.

The entire book runs at full tilt all the way. Full of suspense, I found myself guessing at what was going to happen next and believe it or not, I didn't figure out "who done it" until the last chapter. Details such as paramedic procedures, timing, political schemes and more are strewn throughout the book and are key to understanding what is going on and Mr Grady does a fine job explaining these and keeping you wondering until the end..

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A dying man hands paramedic Jonathan Trestle a piece of paper with seemingly nonsense scribbles, saying "Give this to Martin." But the man doesn't die and discharges himself from the hospital. When Trestle tires to return the paper, he finds the man dead, this time permanently.

Then the man named Martin dies - and his body disappears from the morgue. And then Trestle realizes what the scribbles are all about, and finds himself under arrest and on the run.

Shawn Grady, author of the previously published novel "Through the Fire," has written another wild suspense ride through the streets of Reno with "Tomorrow We Die." But there are three aspects of his second novel that make it every bit as good as the first one - and even a shade better.

First, Grady draws upon his own experience as a paramedic, to render the action and details of the story vividly real. Instructions at response scenes are barked and received in language that only a paramedic would know and understand, and yet the reader is able to follow closely.

Second, he develops Through the Fire as both a suspense story and a love story. Trestle connects with Naomi, a nurse serving on an emergency medical helicopter and a former girlfriend he walked away from. The romance is rekindled and becomes part of the suspense story.

Third, Grady draws the character of Trestle in complex ways that make him more than only a character is a suspense story. He was to live and deal with an alcoholic father, deal with his own feelings about the death of his mother, find his way back to Naomi, and protect his acceptance into medical school, not to mention deal with several villains and attempts on his life. In the process, Trestle becomes a very three-dimensional and very real character.

Grady's writing, already solid in his first novel, is even better in "Through the Fire." And he tells a first-rate suspense story, too.