Helpful Score: 1
Jack Palms is down on his luck-- after some bad tabloid press, his acting career bottomed out after only one action film. During his time of fame, he developed a heroin addiction and an abusive relationship. These are the two major reasons that his one film remains just one film. Now he is trying to pick up the pieces of his life and pay his piling bills. When his friend Ralph offers him a couple thousand to help him show a few Czech visitors a good time and help them with their Colombian cocaine deal, Jack does not turn him down.
Unfortunately, Ralph ends up dead and Jack wants to know who did it and why. The Czechs know nothing, but someone does and Jack doesn't want to be the next one on that hit list. Pretty soon Jack is dealing with a couple of crazy ex-KGB Czech's, a Colombian drug dealer's crew, a blood thirsty club owner named Tony, and a cop who wants information about the drug dealers in the area or else Jack is going to take a fall for the carnage that is following him everywhere he goes. Not to mention that Jack has also met a woman, a desperately sexy woman named Maxine who nurses the wounds he inevitably incurs during his harrowing adventures through the dangerous San Francisco underworld.
One would think that this would be enough to send anyone in to the nuthouse. But not Jack. No. This is the first time he has felt alive in a long, long time. After such a long period of inaction, it feels good to Jack to be in the midst of things again. Like a movie... but real. So real that you end up with broken ribs, knife wounds, machine guns going off around you, and people really out to kill you.
This book is crazy like an action movie. I can actually imagine the guy from The Transporter running around in this book ducking sprays of bullets (though yes he is a bit too skinny to be Jack, but still, you get what I am saying). Standing up to big time drug lords and doing major drug deals seems to come naturally to Jack, which is a bit strange because if you put most normal people in a situation like that, they would run around like their heads are cut off or cower somewhere. I guess being an action hero comes naturally to some people, because it comes naturally to Jack. Even if it means getting arrested, killed, or maimed, Jack is determined to see things through to the end. It was all very exciting-- action packed, I think the correct phrase would be.
The Czechs are great, too. Coked up, waving guns, speaking broken English, and listening to techno music is their profile. If not for the whole you might get shot and 'they bring danger and Russian terrorists' elements, they would be great to hang around with. They were really a lot of fun to read about. The best scenes are with one of the Czechs, Al, flipping out and wanting to kill someone. Though I will admit that I was surprised none of them turned on Jack. Not knowing how the story would turn out, I figured it was only a matter of time before the Czech's would make their escape and let Jack handle the mess, but they were with him to the end.
This is a man's man kind of book-- the men are masculine and immune to the fears of life threatening danger and the women are unnaturally hot, things men admire and women usually scoff at. Of course women can be in to this kind of stuff, too, but the genre belongs to men. I did enjoy the book, though, girly-girl though I am. Harwood wrote a very riveting and intense book with Jack Wakes Up, so you get caught up in it and can't put it down. I mean, you have to know who the one at the head of the plot is. You have to know if Jack will get the girl in the end. You have to know if Jack is going to end up getting himself blown away. No, no, I won't spoil it by answering all of those questions. You will just have to read the book for yourself.
Unfortunately, Ralph ends up dead and Jack wants to know who did it and why. The Czechs know nothing, but someone does and Jack doesn't want to be the next one on that hit list. Pretty soon Jack is dealing with a couple of crazy ex-KGB Czech's, a Colombian drug dealer's crew, a blood thirsty club owner named Tony, and a cop who wants information about the drug dealers in the area or else Jack is going to take a fall for the carnage that is following him everywhere he goes. Not to mention that Jack has also met a woman, a desperately sexy woman named Maxine who nurses the wounds he inevitably incurs during his harrowing adventures through the dangerous San Francisco underworld.
One would think that this would be enough to send anyone in to the nuthouse. But not Jack. No. This is the first time he has felt alive in a long, long time. After such a long period of inaction, it feels good to Jack to be in the midst of things again. Like a movie... but real. So real that you end up with broken ribs, knife wounds, machine guns going off around you, and people really out to kill you.
This book is crazy like an action movie. I can actually imagine the guy from The Transporter running around in this book ducking sprays of bullets (though yes he is a bit too skinny to be Jack, but still, you get what I am saying). Standing up to big time drug lords and doing major drug deals seems to come naturally to Jack, which is a bit strange because if you put most normal people in a situation like that, they would run around like their heads are cut off or cower somewhere. I guess being an action hero comes naturally to some people, because it comes naturally to Jack. Even if it means getting arrested, killed, or maimed, Jack is determined to see things through to the end. It was all very exciting-- action packed, I think the correct phrase would be.
The Czechs are great, too. Coked up, waving guns, speaking broken English, and listening to techno music is their profile. If not for the whole you might get shot and 'they bring danger and Russian terrorists' elements, they would be great to hang around with. They were really a lot of fun to read about. The best scenes are with one of the Czechs, Al, flipping out and wanting to kill someone. Though I will admit that I was surprised none of them turned on Jack. Not knowing how the story would turn out, I figured it was only a matter of time before the Czech's would make their escape and let Jack handle the mess, but they were with him to the end.
This is a man's man kind of book-- the men are masculine and immune to the fears of life threatening danger and the women are unnaturally hot, things men admire and women usually scoff at. Of course women can be in to this kind of stuff, too, but the genre belongs to men. I did enjoy the book, though, girly-girl though I am. Harwood wrote a very riveting and intense book with Jack Wakes Up, so you get caught up in it and can't put it down. I mean, you have to know who the one at the head of the plot is. You have to know if Jack will get the girl in the end. You have to know if Jack is going to end up getting himself blown away. No, no, I won't spoil it by answering all of those questions. You will just have to read the book for yourself.
