Reckless

January 25, 2010
Former police detective Ty Hauck, now a partner in a worldwide security company, displays his usual bulldog tenacity in bestseller Gross’s sketchily plotted third Ty Hauck novel (after Don’t Look Twice
). The murders of Marc Glassman, the chief equities trader at an old Wall Street firm, Glassman’s wife, and one of their children at their Greenwich, Conn., home affect Hauck deeply. Meanwhile, his boss asks him to investigate shadowy financier Dieter Thibault, who’s aroused the interest of a valued customer. Probing the connections among seismic disturbances in the financial markets, Glassman’s death, and Thibault’s actions, Hauck teams with Treasury agent Naomi Blum only to find their every action anticipated and countered. Against international conspiracies and financial institutions in freefall, Hauck and Blum have to go rogue. Thriller fans able to overlook clichés like “wet behind the ears” and “hit them like a truck” will enjoy the fast-flowing action. 6-city author tour.

February 15, 2010
Gross latest thriller starts with a crime that isnt supposed to happenthe murder of a family who live in a storybook town in Connecticut. The murder is almost written off as a burglary gone bad by the local police force, but Ty Hauck, a former lieutenant with the force (and a former NYPD detective), now an investigator for a global-securities firm, is drawn to the case when he learns that the murdered woman is a former lover of his. The male victim, Mark Glassman, was the chief equities trader at a top investment bank. Hauck has the motivation and the expertise to connect the dots on a case whose blood doesnt just collect around the victims but also pools into a global terrorist conspiracy. Gross pace and plotting move nicely from shock to shock. His descriptions, unfortunately, are unfailingly triteevery noun has an adjective, every party is lavish, every place is exotic, every school is prestigious. James Patterson fans (Gross coauthored five thrillers with him), old hands at focusing on plot not style, will find much to enjoy here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)