Already Gone by John Rector
The Blurb On The Back:
Jake Reese is an ordinary guy with an ordinary job, trying to block out the memory of his violent past by planning for the future with his new wife, Diane. But the past has a habit of refusing to stay buried …
When two men attack Jake in a car park and cut off his ring finger, he tries to dismiss it as an unlucky case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when events take a more sinister turn and Diane goes missing, Jake knows he can no longer hide from the truth.
As he embarks on a mission to find Diane, Jake finds himself dragged back into the life he thought he had walked away from forever and the days ahead begin to unfold in terrifying ways …
Jake Reese used to lead a violent life. His dad went to prison when he was 12 and he was raised by Gabby (his dad’s equally criminal best friend). An angry kid, he was in and out of juvenile detention until he found an outlet in creative writing and got a book published to modest success. Now married to Diane (an antiques dealer who he met at one of his readings), he lives a quiet life teaching in a small college.
One night Jake’s attacked by two men who cut off his finger. The police think it’s a mugging gone wrong, but more sinister events follow, culminating in Diane going missing during a business trip. As Jake tries to find Diane, he discovers that what’s happening to him ties back to his dad and the only way out of it is to team up with Gabby and return to the life he thought he’d put behind him …
John Rector’s thriller is a so-so affair about the impossibility of escaping your past and the secrets that can exist in any relationship. At times it reminded me a little of GONE GIRL (although it predates it by two years), notably the way Rector reveals information about Diane. The dialogue is crisp, it skips along at a decent pace and there’s a hard-boiled vibe to it but the plot threatens to fall apart at times with some twists that verge on ludicrous, especially as Jake never behaves like someone who had a criminal past (certainly he’s not ruthless enough given his former violent nature). Ultimately it’s an okay read that would make a good beach novel and there was enough here for me to check out Rector’s other work.
Given Jake’s background, I expected him to be more switched on but here he seems to stumble from event to event and at times there’s a heavy reliance on contrivance to keep events moving forward. I wished that there had been more show of his marriage with Diane, especially as it’s so important for some of the twists. More interesting is the relationship between Jake and Gabby (the closest thing he has to a father) but even that isn’t developed enough to make some of the later plot twists believable. I did enjoy the hard boiled voice and Rector’s dialogue crackles but it’s not enough to make this more than an okay read.
The Verdict:
John Rector’s thriller is a so-so affair about the impossibility of escaping your past and the secrets that can exist in any relationship. At times it reminded me a little of GONE GIRL (although it predates it by two years), notably the way Rector reveals information about Diane. The dialogue is crisp, it skips along at a decent pace and there’s a hard-boiled vibe to it but the plot threatens to fall apart at times with some twists that verge on ludicrous, especially as Jake never behaves like someone who had a criminal past (certainly he’s not ruthless enough given his former violent nature). Ultimately it’s an okay read that would make a good beach novel and there was enough here for me to check out Rector’s other work.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.
Jake Reese is an ordinary guy with an ordinary job, trying to block out the memory of his violent past by planning for the future with his new wife, Diane. But the past has a habit of refusing to stay buried …
When two men attack Jake in a car park and cut off his ring finger, he tries to dismiss it as an unlucky case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when events take a more sinister turn and Diane goes missing, Jake knows he can no longer hide from the truth.
As he embarks on a mission to find Diane, Jake finds himself dragged back into the life he thought he had walked away from forever and the days ahead begin to unfold in terrifying ways …
Jake Reese used to lead a violent life. His dad went to prison when he was 12 and he was raised by Gabby (his dad’s equally criminal best friend). An angry kid, he was in and out of juvenile detention until he found an outlet in creative writing and got a book published to modest success. Now married to Diane (an antiques dealer who he met at one of his readings), he lives a quiet life teaching in a small college.
One night Jake’s attacked by two men who cut off his finger. The police think it’s a mugging gone wrong, but more sinister events follow, culminating in Diane going missing during a business trip. As Jake tries to find Diane, he discovers that what’s happening to him ties back to his dad and the only way out of it is to team up with Gabby and return to the life he thought he’d put behind him …
John Rector’s thriller is a so-so affair about the impossibility of escaping your past and the secrets that can exist in any relationship. At times it reminded me a little of GONE GIRL (although it predates it by two years), notably the way Rector reveals information about Diane. The dialogue is crisp, it skips along at a decent pace and there’s a hard-boiled vibe to it but the plot threatens to fall apart at times with some twists that verge on ludicrous, especially as Jake never behaves like someone who had a criminal past (certainly he’s not ruthless enough given his former violent nature). Ultimately it’s an okay read that would make a good beach novel and there was enough here for me to check out Rector’s other work.
Given Jake’s background, I expected him to be more switched on but here he seems to stumble from event to event and at times there’s a heavy reliance on contrivance to keep events moving forward. I wished that there had been more show of his marriage with Diane, especially as it’s so important for some of the twists. More interesting is the relationship between Jake and Gabby (the closest thing he has to a father) but even that isn’t developed enough to make some of the later plot twists believable. I did enjoy the hard boiled voice and Rector’s dialogue crackles but it’s not enough to make this more than an okay read.
The Verdict:
John Rector’s thriller is a so-so affair about the impossibility of escaping your past and the secrets that can exist in any relationship. At times it reminded me a little of GONE GIRL (although it predates it by two years), notably the way Rector reveals information about Diane. The dialogue is crisp, it skips along at a decent pace and there’s a hard-boiled vibe to it but the plot threatens to fall apart at times with some twists that verge on ludicrous, especially as Jake never behaves like someone who had a criminal past (certainly he’s not ruthless enough given his former violent nature). Ultimately it’s an okay read that would make a good beach novel and there was enough here for me to check out Rector’s other work.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.