Winner Take All (Marcus Glenwood Series #3) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

T. Davis Bunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

Marcus Glenwood's stunning legal victory over New Horizons Corporation came with a severe personal price. Now Glenwood is slowly getting back on his feet, back into his legal practice, and back into a deeper relationship with Kirsten Stansted. But the CEO of New Horizons comes to Marcus seeking representation in a heart-wrenching personal matter. Dale Stedman's one-year-old daughter has been abducted, he claims, by the world-renowned opera diva Erin Brandt. The case swiftly becomes the center of an international dispute and a media sensation. Before long, someone is after Marcus and Kirsten both, using deadly scare tactics. What dark secrets lie behind Erin's magnetic yet manipulative personality? They learn too late that the woman will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A damaged and vicious international opera diva absconds to Europe with her baby daughter in this latest legal thriller from Bunn (Drummer in the Dark). North Carolina legal eagle Marcus Glenwood, the hero of Bunn's earlier thriller The Great Divide, is surprised when high-powered CEO Dale Steadman approaches him for help on a case, since Glenwood recently dealt Steadman's company a courtroom thrashing. But the lawyer takes pity on Steadman when he learns that the CEO's ex-wife, gorgeous opera star Erin Brandt, has kidnapped the one-year-old daughter she had virtually abandoned a year earlier in order to pursue her glamorous career. Glenwood finds his initial effort to make his case stymied by a rival lawyer as well as a shield of celebrity that makes it difficult to get Brandt into court. He finally succeeds by sending his fiancee and research assistant Kirsten Stansted off to Europe to locate Brandt and the child. Stansted makes progress, but the situation deteriorates considerably when she is attacked by a mysterious stranger. Brandt soon turns up murdered in New York, and Steadman finds himself arrested after a coincidental trip to Manhattan as the crime is being committed. Bunn's depiction of family and romantic relationships is soaked in melodrama. Brandt is a particularly lurid, cartoonish figure who seems part witchy prima donna and-incongruously-part militant feminist, spouting such gems as "We are sisters, you and I. Molded by the same harsh flame." The courtroom scenes are long on loud arguments but short on tension and suspense, and the plotting is surprisingly sloppy. Bunn's fans can only hope he rebounds the next time around.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Marcus Glenwood, the attorney who took on the nasty multinational New Horizons in The Great Divide (2000), accepts a case from the company's new CEO, Dale Steadman. It seems that Steadman's ex-wife, a young opera diva named Erin Brandt, has kidnapped their infant daughter, Celeste, and taken her to Germany. The question is why, since Erin is cold to the touch, regarded her husband as a country bumpkin, and never showed any love for Celeste. Germany, as Bunn is at pains to show, resists court attempts to win back even abducted children, because of the chauvinistic notion that anything German is by definition more peaceful and wholesome, particularly if the alternative is the violent U.S. Threading his way through the complications of international law, Marcus dispatches his assistant--and girlfriend--Kirsten to Europe to slap a subpoena on Erin. Erin, always the temptress, confronts Kirsten with her old life in the fast lane, a life not dissimilar to Erin's, and of which Marcus knows nothing. Meanwhile, back in the States, another plotline develops at Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera. Bunn convincingly portrays the world of opera from the Met to Dusseldorf, and though he is not a lawyer, he has a gift for courtroom dialogue. This is a novel about mature romantic love, and how we behave when we cannot find it. It is a thoughtful, moral story, although Bunn's many evangelical readers will find little in it that is overtly Christian. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Center Point Books (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585473103
• ISBN-13: 978-1585473106
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,019,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Davis Bunn is the author of over nineteen national bestsellers, and his books have sold over six million copies in sixteen languages. The recipient of three Christy Awards, Bunn currently serves as writer-in-residence at Oxford University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prose that sparkles!, May 17, 2003

By 

"meurerdaze" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winner Take All (Marcus Glenwood Series #3) (Hardcover)

Despite the fact that I had to go to work in the morning, I stayed up a tad too late in the hopes of getting to a "slow spot" where I could set the book down and drift peacefully off to sleep.

Regrettably, the book contains the ongoing, irritating flaw of ending each chapter in such a manner that it essentially compels the reader to continue on -- even if it is three o'clock in the morning and the reader truly does have a day job and the reader's spouse keeps mumbling, "Just go to BED!"

To make matters even WORSE, the plot took an explosive, unexpected turn at the absurd hour of 4:00 a.m. This left me literally no choice but to shake my wife vigorously and shout, "You will not BELIEVE what he just did!"

She immediately became airborne and shrieked, "WHO? WHAT?"

"I can't tell you or it will ruin the book," I replied.

The novel completely ruined her sleep. The poor woman had to drag herself into the living room and sleep on the sofa.

Bunn should be ashamed of himself.

In the future, he needs to make his books more dull. My wife will appreciate it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best commercial novels I have ever read . . ., April 4, 2003

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winner Take All (Marcus Glenwood Series #3) (Hardcover)

. . . and I've read a lot. This is Davis Bunn's third thriller for WaterBrook, an imprint of Random House. The first two, The Great Divide and Drummer in the Dark, were very good, but this book is really something special. There's a depth and richness to it seldom found in commercial fiction.

What really sets this book apart is Bunn's ability to seamlessly combine serious moral, spiritual, and psychological themes with an extremely fast moving and deftly plotted storyline. Others have written similar books--some of David Morrell's later work, Dean Koontz's last three or four books, David Lindsey (sans the spiritual element)--but few have been as successful as Bunn, in my view.

One of the great pleasures of this book is the contrast between the main female characters. Both suffer from major childhood/teen trauma. Both have experienced the highest levels of international fame and acceptance. Both enter adulthood badly wounded and desperately in need of true love and care. One somehow finds the courage to seek it out, while the other remains completely self-consumed. A key scene--indeed, one that the entire book hinges on--occurs when the two meet and one is able to resist the almost overwhelming temptation to fall back into her former life. This scene is simply marvelous and brings front and center Bunn's prodigious talent: fraught with hair-raising peril, depicting a world impossibly glamorous, and perfectly pitched, it is the kind of reader-friendly tour de force that many authors try to pull off, but few have the chops to absolutely nail.

Another thing I really liked about Winner Take All is the grand rogue gallery. Hamper Caisse (great name), Sephus Jones (another great name), and a third individual who shall go unnamed (not to spoil things for those who haven't read it but want to) are about as colorful and nasty a combination of characters as one is ever likely to meet. Indeed, I've read hundreds of commercial thrillers, and seldom have encountered such creatively malevolent characters.

My only complaint is that I had a little trouble getting into the book. You may experience this too. If you do, keep with it; things eventually heat up way past the boiling point. Plus, there are some very skillfully handled plot twists and character revelations that make for great reading pleasure.

All in all, I'd say this is a major advance for T. Davis Bunn in particular and religious-based commercial fiction in general.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HItting the High...and the Low...Notes, January 21, 2003

By 

Eric Wilson "novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Winner Take All (Marcus Glenwood Series #3) (Hardcover)

If you read "The Great Divide," the previous Marcus Glenwood novel, then you need to pick up "Winner Take All." T. Davis Bunn creates believable characters, explores levels of motivation and emotion, and tries to tie it all together with a legal mystery.

The prime players: Erin Brandt, an opera diva, with a determination that overrides even family bonds; Dale Steadman, a CEO under fire, both personally and professionally; Marcus Glenwood, our trusty lawyer friend; and Kirsten Stansted, his fiancee, who struggles with secrets from the past. When Steadman's child is kidnapped by his ex-wife, Erin, Marcus and Kirsten become entangled in a mystery with far-reaching implications.

Bunn struggles to maintain the same level of depth that he accomplished in "The Great Divide." New characters--mostly unlikeable ones--weigh the story down, and certain stretches in plausibility (a mother with not one ounce of concern for her infant child was a hard sell for me) became distractions. As the story progressed, my attentions shifted to Marcus' fiancee, Kirsten Stansted, and I wished the story had been centered from the beginning around her personal struggles.

As in "The Great Divide" and "Drummer in the Dark" (my personal favorite), Bunn has a way of drawing us into worlds unfamiliar and making them interesting. "Winner Take All" actually gave me more interest in the world of opera. Bunn spices his well-crafted narratives with scenes of suspense and true drama, but the two previously mentioned books might be better introductions to his work. In "Winner Take All," he hits the high, and the low, notes. If you're a fan, though, this book is a welcome addition.