One morning in Los Angeles, Nate Overbay—a divorced former solider suffering from PTSD and slowly dying from ALS — goes to an eleventh-floor bank, climbs out of the bathroom window onto the ledge, and gets ready to end it all. But as he’s steeling himself, a crew of robbers bursts into the bank and begins to viciously shoot employees and customers. With nothing to lose, Nate confronts the robbers, taking them out one-by-one. The last man standing leaves Nate with a cryptic warning.
Nate soon learns what that message meant. He is kidnapped by Pavlo, a savage Russian mobster and mastermind of the failed heist. Unable to break back into the bank to get the critical item inside, Pavlo gives Nate an ultimatum—break in and get what he needs or watch Pavlo slowly kill the one thing Nate loves most—his ex-wife Janie and his teenaged daughter Cielle—both lost when he came back from Iraq broken and confused. Now he’s got one last chance to protect the people he loves, even if it’s the last thing he is able to do.
About Gregg Hurwitz
GREGG HURWITZ is the author of twelve novels, most recently You’re Next. He is a producer and writer for television and has written for both Marvel and DC comics. He lives in Los Angeles.
Editorial Review
Nate Overbay stands on an 11th-story building ledge as gunshots erupt inside. Curiosity overcomes his suicide plan as he looks through the bank window and witnesses a robbery in progress. He climbs back inside, shoots five criminals dead and saves the day. Thus, instead of splattering himself on top of a Dumpster, Nate becomes an unwilling hero. He suffers from ALS and simply wants to spare himself the agonizing end that is only months away. The trouble is, now he has angered Pavlo, the Ukrainian mobster who had directed the heist. Pavlo is an unusually sadistic sort who plans to make Nate pay in the worst possible way—through Nate’s daughter. The book opens as dramatically as a reader could hope for and doesn’t relent. That Nate must die is inevitable, given his fatal illness. The question is whether he dies on his own terms. Nate’s been a hero once before, but he’s also been weak. Now he must protect and re-bond with his estranged family in the face of vengeful monsters. Hurwitz’s writing is crisp and economical, and he steers clear of hackneyed phrases and one-dimensional characters—Nate’s and Pavlo’s back stories are well-crafted, although the ghost of Nate’s dead friend Charles seems inspired by a James Lee Burke novel. – Kirkus Reviews
Gregg Hurwitz’s new thriller, ‘The Survivor’
The Washington Post Book Review – August 27, 2012 (Excerpt)
W. Somerset Maugham, that master of the backhanded compliment, famously quipped that nobody could write a bestseller by accident. The cliches? The hackneyed characters? The commonplace story? Sure, they might make us laugh, but the bestseller writer is in deadly earnest. “You cannot write anything that will convince,” Maugham said, “unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.”
L.A.-based writer and TV producer Gregg Hurwitz has been courting such condescension his entire career, writing thrillers like “Trust No One” and “You’re Next” and penning the adventures of such comic book tough guys as Wolverine and the Punisher. He studied Shakespeare at Oxford, but so far he’s shown no inclination to leave the popular district of pulp fiction and move to the literary realm of “The Razor’s Edge.” And if his latest novel, a lightning-bolt thriller called “The Survivor,” is what he loves doing most, all the better for his readers. [Read the full article...]
Advertisement
THE BLEEDING HILLS A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss
I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith. - 2 Timothy iv. 7
The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]
We are the only country that makes guns, including military-style assault weapons, available to anyone who wants to buy them. This is not freedom. It is a tyranny of death and destruction — a tyranny of which the National Rifle Association is proud. The Washington Post
THE BLEEDING HILLS
