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Afterburn: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Colin Harrison (Author) "HE WOULD SURVIVE..." (more)
Key Phrases: chimney cement, scaffolding company, deputy warden, New York, Tony Verducci, Hong Kong (more...)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)


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7 new from $2.23 172 used from $0.01 4 collectible from $4.90

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, January 9, 2000 -- $3.95 $0.01
  Paperback, Large Print $24.95 $19.96 $1.99
  Mass Market Paperback, November 18, 2001 -- $2.23 $0.01
  Audio, Cassette, Abridged, Audiobook $19.00 $0.25 $0.01
  Unknown Binding -- $2.00 $2.90

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This tour de force by the author of Manhattan Nocturne is a genre-bending literary thriller that deserves all the pre-publishing buzz it's received. From the prologue, set in the closing days of the Vietnam War, to the denouement 25 years later in the meatpacking district of Manhattan, it crackles with electricity and keeps the reader pinned in place; this is a book that's truly impossible to put down.

Harrison's three protagonists are so well drawn that their individual obsessions rather than his complex plot seem to drive the narrative. Former fighter pilot Charlie Ravich is a wealthy telecommunications CEO desperate to perpetuate his name by any means, including a surrogate mother; his only son is dead and his daughter is infertile. Christina Welles is an Ivy League-educated mathematics whiz who went to prison for her role in a Mafia theft ring. And Rick Bocca, Christina's former lover, is hiding from the mob boss who has arranged Christina's early release to regain the millions he believes she stole from him. Harrison's observations are acute: he can describe the most horrific torture as deftly as he can write a tender love scene. But his ability to weave the separate stories of his main characters together without sacrificing a bit of momentum is truly dazzling; all three of them live in the mind long after the novel's harrowing climax. This is the real "afterburn" of the title, although it may get a second definition if the book makes as rapid an ascent to the top of the bestseller lists as it deserves. --Jane Adams --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



From Publishers Weekly

Writing like an angel, Harrison in his new thriller (after Manhattan Nocturne) casts human existence as demonic, in a scenario as fierce as any imagined by Goya. The horror begins as American pilot Charlie Ravich is taken prisoner in 1972 in Vietnam, to be rescued by GIs who maim him in the process. Jumping to the present, the narrative focuses on another prisoner, Christina Welles, suffering behind bars in upstate New York for her role in a mob-directed theft ring. Charlie, too, is in pain; though now a wealthy electronics mogul, he's under attack both professionally, by larcenous contractors and a rival firm (like Harrison's Bodies Electric, this is a finance thriller as well as a crime novel), and personally--his wife is exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's, and he mourns the death of his only son. Then there's Rick Bocca, Christina's lover, inadvertently responsible for her imprisonment; he's hiding from the mob on Long Island, good as dead. When the mob, looking for $5 million that Christina stole from them in her final heist, engineers her release in hopes of snatching her to retrieve their loot, Harrison sets in motion a daringly complex tale of chase-and-hunt, of villainy, sacrifice and redemption, that unites these three main figures, and the gangsters who will go to any length--including monstrous torture, detailed by Harrison to the point of sensationalism--to get their money. As smartly orchestrated as the action is, it's Harrison's achingly real characters who empower the novel, as well as his prose: is there a noir novelist alive who can match his wattage? That's not always a virtue, though, as Harrison too often lets rip passages that, though rhapsodic or acutely observant, retard narrative flow. If not always expertly paced, however, the novel astonishes throughout, as much for its moral force as for its storytelling dazzle. 100,000 first printing; author tour; audio rights to Simon & Schuster. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 514 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1st edition (November 19, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312978707
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312978709
  • Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #952,544 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

72 Reviews
5 star:
 (18)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (16)
1 star:
 (21)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (72 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Scam, April 27, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Afterburn: A Novel (Hardcover)
Incredibly, one of my son's fifth grade friends brought me this book, which no doubt he snitched off the remainder rack of our local independent bookstore (where such stuff is practically given away anyway). Fortunately, he hadn't read it, but mistook it as something I would appreciate (perhaps the cover photo, to a 10 year old, spelled "deep" or "important"). Out of consideration for the the kid's feelings, I spent half an evening with the book, but wished I'd watched tv--or cleaned the gutters--or done anything else instead. This is a lifeless, joyless, altogether artless effort, clearly written with one (jaunticed) eye on a movie contract, the other on fast bucks for a paperback deal. The author, who another reader aptly points out is an editor at Harpers, must have called in his colleagues to promote this, getting it a whole lot more notice than it deserves, and the sort of blurbs usually reserved for serious fiction. I suppose that's the way things go in the publishing world today, but they shouldn't. It makes it difficult for readers to distinguish between serious fiction--or at least a good beach book--and a book so poorly written and edited that it should have never found a publisher. As a lawyer, I feel books of this nature should be published with a disclaimer...it's a scam.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars What a horrible waste...., May 28, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Afterburn: A Novel (Hardcover)
Very few of the books that I buy do I not finish. This was one of them. Terribly formulaic in that dark 90's sort of way, off-putting in its bleakness without any kind of redeeming balance. Try Thomas Harris if you like that sort of tale; one winds up strangely admiring his Dr. Lecter. While Charlie in this novel is not the same kind of character, he winds up being disappointingly pathetic. A good review of this book prompted me to buy it sight unseen - an awful mistake. Truly a 0 star.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars compelling, yet flawed, February 26, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Afterburn: A Novel (Hardcover)
I have read all of Colin Harrison's books, and had eagerly awaited this one. Although the pace is just as driving and the characters as interesting, the violence - expecially the scenes with the drill - seemed gratuitous to me. I know Harrison is drawn to the dark underbelly of society, but in the past any violence or kinky sex was tied to character development. Here Harrison seems intent on providing grisly scenes of torture simply for shock value. As another reader suggested, you would do well to read "Bodies Electric" and "Manhattan Nocturne" before this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Cut it in half
You don't have to literally tear the book in half, the editor should have done this for you. Second book of his that I could not finish. Read more
Published 1 month ago by jfred

5.0 out of 5 stars Afterburn Best Understood By old White Guys
I stumbled on Colin Harrison and Afterburn just this week (April 2009). I'm an avid reader of this genre - how did I miss this? Read more
Published 7 months ago by Baltimore Bozo

1.0 out of 5 stars The number is in the phone
Sorry, Mr. Harrison. Although I do think you write well, I think this book was awful. I will never cease to be amazed at the garbage that passes for plot in the publishing... Read more
Published on August 28, 2005 by Obsessive reader

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book until the end
I loved this book until I got to the end. The ending is so dissapointing that I almost regretted taking the time to read the first 450+ pages. Read more
Published on July 13, 2005 by Dave

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Surprise
I found this book in a bargain book shop in Auckland, New Zealand and couldn't have enjoyed it any more. Read more
Published on April 5, 2005 by Michael S. Weinstock

5.0 out of 5 stars New York Noir at its Finest
Charlie Ravich is a very successful telecommunicaitons mogul in his late fifties, however he is racked with injuries he got during his time as a POW during the Vietnam war. Read more
Published on January 8, 2005 by Shino Marie Tanaka

1.0 out of 5 stars A pile of sadistic tripe
This book does for literature what fecal matter does for holiday dinner. In a wandering, hollow story Harrison writes of a main character who has none, a series of events that are... Read more
Published on December 22, 2003 by Wignall

1.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down.
I finished it at 6 a.m., got up at noon and explored the first 20 Amazon reader reviews. Am relieved that so many gave Colin Harrison the on-target swiftkick I think he deserves... Read more
Published on October 17, 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
AFTERBURN is an intelligent, visceral, well-told literary thriller. Harrison ignores the convenient, overused plot devices found in many thrillers. Read more
Published on August 14, 2003 by Richard Cox

2.0 out of 5 stars Completely ruined by truly sick, pointless violence
Out of the all of the many books I've read in recent years this is probably the only one that ever left me extremely angry at the author, because I enjoyed about two-thirds of the... Read more
Published on March 19, 2003 by Andrew R Deschenes

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