Customer Reviews

Total Immunity: A novel of crime

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ward writes a fast-paced thriller set in the LA bureau of the FBI post 9/11, when the department of Homeland Security has cannibalized local agencies, their cases taking priority over all others no matter how long agents have worked the cases or how vile the criminals they pursue. DHS is a fact of life for LA agents Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo. When the partners burst alone into a volatile bust after long months of preparation and undercover work, their prize, diamond smuggler Karl Steinback, is not a keeper after all. Steinback trades up through Homeland Security, Jack and Oscar left only with the angry man's threat ringing in their ears: "All of you are going to die."

When two other LA agents- men Jack has worked with on other cases- die violently and suspiciously, Karl's angry words seem to be more than mere threat. Bodies fall in a hail of bullets in Steinback's arrest and continue to litter a landscape where there is some confusion about the killer's identity and the source of the threat the agents' lives. Jack would like to turn to his superior for guidance but there are problems on that front as well, rumors of agent corruption and a missing $200,000., Jack's name included with those under suspicion. And if complications on the job aren't enough, Jack's personal life is in shambles, his rebellious teen-aged son and discontented girlfriend causing more worries when Jack is most distracted by the case.

Ward reveals the face of modern law enforcement in a cogent story as tough as the streets, agents fighting against time to track a killer who films each grisly murder in what is either a long-simmering vendetta or Steinback's threat carried out by mindless goons. Good cops, bad cops, evil villains, colorful characters and a fast-paced plot make for a classic tale, good vs. evil, corruption and envy with a fresh twist. In a final confrontation, an honorable agent faces the ultimate betrayal and his worst nightmare. Luan Gaines/2009.

For those who have not read anything by Robert Ward, prepare to beocme addicted after reading his latest page-turner.......Wonderfully written, real, absorbing, and full of poignancy and mind blowing action, Total Immunity, is one wild ride...I am not one to be a spoiler, either to the wondeful story line, or great characterization that awaits its reasders, but, trust me, you will be hooked on page 1, by the swift moving plot, and the mysterious bad, and the GOOD?-guys. Pick up this book and be pleased that Mr. Ward is currently at work on the much anticipated sequel. Then go out and seek his amzing backlist, including the laugh and cringe out loud, Hammett award nominated, Four Kinds Of Rain.

Mr. Ward is a true California writer right up there alongside the greats such as Connelly, and Parker. My only complaint?--is having to wait too long for his next book!!!. This is truly the best book I've read this year. I received it via overnight shipping and it kept me awake-(happily) turning pages until this morning. Give this book and author a try: you won't regret it...

I have loved Robert Ward since ther tantalizing RED BAKER, and would be difficult to write a better book than Four Kinds of Rain, but Ward has succeeded in giving us an exciting, action packed " noir" novel. I found myself reading this book late into the night for two nights and my time was not wasted. Jack Harper and his compadre Oscar are two captavating and charming FBI agents with different attitudes and ways of viewing life. Ward has created an exciting novel that examines the grit and grime of the LA subculture with an odd assortment of criminals, bad cops,low lifes and folks that embrace living on the edge. I will refrain from plot analysis as I would not want to spoil the read,. Jack Harper is a complex character, a man who champions the underdog, but who painfully examines his motives, and wrestles with his own demons around parenthood, love and professional choices. He is his own worst enemy. Oscar, on the other hand,his friend and professional partner is a good cop who is grounded and helps Jack deal with the "what is" factor in life. Hopefully, this is not the only book in which we will see this partnership.

Ward takes the reader on a lively noir ride through Los Angeles with dark humor, wit and great characters. I won't reveal any plot details -- that is for the reader to enjoy. I am a big fan of Ward's books (still waiting for the movie version of 'Red Baker'). He is a champion of the underdog and great raconteur. Buy, read, enjoy!

Just finished and would definitely recommend. I just had a copy sent to my mom who loves crime fiction. I also just finished the latest Connelly book and would say that if you like him, you'll like Ward. Characters and landscape are textured so that you really feel like you're driving along the same streets with these guys. Actually, I live on one of the streets where some of the action takes place and can say that the settings are right on.

I'm not going to say too much about the plot right now because I don't want to give anything away but just when you think it's going one way, it goes the other. I've read so many of thrillers where I know exactly what's going to happen. This book is different. Some of the plot turns sort of blew my mind.

Anyway, I'd give it thumbs up.

When Robert Ward turned his unique gifts as a novelist to writing crime fiction it was a double gift to readers. He first brought his sharp-eyed and compassionate take on the American working-class to bear on the world of grifters, cops, and whacked-out subcultures in the terrific FOUR KINDS OF RAIN, and in TOTAL IMMUNITY he launches a series about two soulful FBI agents caught up in a world of hurt. Having read some reviews, I knew there was a wild and savage twist near the end, but even armed with that foreknowledge I never saw it coming. This is a rich and compelling take on 21-st century L.A. that entertains in many ways--as a mystery, as insight into the souls of criminals and crimefighters, and--towards the end--as a deeply moving meditation on the joys (and terrors) of family. Having finished it I'm already eager for the next tale of Jack and Oscar.

Robert Ward's new thriller, Total Immunity, has all the fast talk, car chases, babes and LA "context" of a great action story but those devices do not drive the creative tension of his tale. Ward creates a cloying uncertainty about which-end-is-up in each character, between characters and in the world. While he captures the bureaucratic paranoia of post 9-11, the heebie-jeebies he depicts are those of us all praying to ward off the judgement of an Old Testament God who punishes the repeated crime of original sin with an-eye-for-an-eye justice. And it is these heebie-jeebies that create the mystery. He has Jack Harper, undercover FBI agent, wondering "when he came down from being one of the bad guys when he didn't know who he was anymore...what was real and what was false had become so twisted in his mind that ordinary human affections seemed to go into hiding and he secretly feared that they may not return."

Jack can't trust himself and he ponders whether he can trust other cops whom he has known from the beginning of his career: "...are Zac Blackley and Ron Hughes bad cops? He would have bet his life against it." Can he trust the beautiful Maria with whom he, " played roles so often as undercover cops they sometimes didn't even know who they themselves were. Only that they were on the same side. Good guys."?

Jack's partner, Oscar, at one point questions what is driving him and making him see things that aren't there. There is firm ground no where.

It is through this mist that that the plot and character's reach a judgement day. Ward's ending is a surprise and we are no longer alone in our angst.

I have no idea why I stuck with this book to the end. I think it was out of a sense of morbid fascination, like not being able to tear your eyes away from a train wreck.

Ward's background is in TV - from the 1980s at that - and it shows in this book. The characters are all cliché: the tough cops (in this case FBI agents) who don't play by the rules; the overbearing supervisors; the troubled teenaged kid; the mean and nasty bad guys. All of them two-dimensional cartoons; characters in a screenplay, waiting to be realized fully as the name-brand actors bring their own personalities into play to fill them out in the undoubtedly hoped-for film version.

Ward has no idea of what FBI norms are in real life, evidently. He has his two protagonists - Oscar and Jack - armed with .38 caliber revolvers, for example, as their duty guns. The FBI hasn't used that weaponry in almost two DECADES. Like most other law enforcement agencies, they use semi-autos (Smith & Wesson .40 cal.). At one point in the book, while trying to obtain records from offshore banks, they discuss how those records are virtually unobtainable and only very senior FBI personnel can even try to access them, and less than a page later they've managed to get their hands on those very records using their own computers.

Jack slaps suspects around at the drop of the hat, even when they're in custody in police stations, and no one seems to bat an eye about it. Come on... in this day and age? Post-Rodney King? How is that even believable anymore?

Here's another example of the howlers in this book, from page 258. Jack worries that one of the bad guys will escape by reaching his airplane at "the secret airport in Reseda". Reseda's a densely populated and built up area of the San Fernando Valley, all of which is itself heavily populated and densely built. No one ever noticed a "secret airport"? How do you miss several thousand feet of runway right in the middle of your community? Is there some high-tech cloaking device the author forgot to mention? Maybe on loan from the Romulans or something?

The dialogue between characters is so cheesy it's absolutely hilarious, in a very campy way. It was straight out of TV scripts from decades ago, like old episodes of Miami Vice (for which Ward wrote scripts) or Police Story. I expected to read that these guys were walking around with the sleeves of their sports coats pushed up their forearms a la Don Johnson.

Finally, about 50 pages from the end, the real nature of the plot and the identity of the bad guy are revealed. That one scene was excellent. The denouement caught me completely by surprise, and I was impressed at how clever it was.

Unfortunately, the book then plunges right back into the same trite tripe it's been shoveling throughout. That scene was the one needle of good writing in a haystack of amateurish babble.

I think my one star is generous. One good scene = one earned star.

The one star rating was give only because the format would not accept a rating of no stars.
How did some this bad get published?